Overview

In Ethnography from the Mission Field: The Hoffmann Collection of Cultural Knowledge Joubert et al. offer a translated and annotated edition of the 24 ethnographic articles by missionary Carl Hoffmann and his local interlocutors published between the years 1913 and 1958. The edition is introduced by a historic contextualisation using a cultural historical approach to analyse the contexts in which Hoffmann’s ethnographic texts were produced. Making use of historical material and Hoffmann’s own words from personal diaries and letters, the authors convincingly draw the attention to the discursive context in which the texts annotated in this book had been compiled. In a concluding chapter the book traces the captivating developments of the orthography of Northern Sotho through Hoffmann’s texts over almost half a century. Brill has made the documentary film “A Journey into the Life of a Mission-Ethnographer” which is interlinked with this book available online via its online channels. To access it please click here. The digital database of the “Hoffmann Collection of Cultural Knowledge” (HC-CK) can be accessed by clicking here. It is an amalgamation of digital scans, images and video footage relating to missionary Carl Hoffmann’s work and life on various mission stations, made available by the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

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Reviews

The ambitious publication project under review here has the potential of creating a novel genre of presenting transcultural perspectives in mission studies, documenting fragmented archive resources and optimizing interdisciplinary research perspectives. (...) this project represent an exemplary elaboration of a multi-faceted concept to access, explore, and distribute archive sources. The project establishes links between oral and published history, and interests of present day users of the archive sources. Andreas Heuser, in Interkulturell Theologie 4/2016. Occasionally, missionary writers have transcended the limitations of their focused calling and written deeply sympathetic, evocative treatises that permit people to speak for themselves, thus valorizing perspectives that may differ from those of the expatriates, however well intentioned most missionaries were and are. As editor Joubert (Humboldt Univ. of Berlin) and her collaborators make clear, Carl Hoffmann (1868-1962) was one such missionary. In over 1,000 pages and an accompanying film, Sotho people of the Transvaal, South Africa, present nuances of their intellect and daily lives in great detail. This trove offers introductory essays and matches Sotho texts with English translations. It will attract a few scholars but, more important, it should serve Sotho interests as the wisdom of elders contributes to contemporary heritage politics.(...) Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, specialists. - A. F. Roberts, University of California, Los Angeles, in Choice 2016. Taken as a whole, the project is a remarkable effort to preserve and make accessible important archival materials from an understudied place and time. Thoughtfully contextualized and assembled, the book and database will no doubt serve as a valuable scholarly resource for years to come. - Oliver Charbonneau, Western University, in Itinerario 39.3 (2015). For its part, the Hoffman book does not just present a body of inert texts waiting to be plundered for facts by the researcher; it is a book which requires the researcher to work with it, to engage with it intellectually. It opens up numbers of different avenues for active scholarly discussion. - Professor John Wright, University of Cape Town, published on the web site of Archive & Public Culture Research Initiative 2015.

Occasionally, missionary writers have transcended the limitations of their focused calling and written deeply sympathetic, evocative treatises that permit people to speak for themselves, thus valorizing perspectives that may differ from those of the expatriates, however well intentioned most missionaries were and are. As editor Joubert (Humboldt Univ. of Berlin) and her collaborators make clear, Carl Hoffmann (1868-1962) was one such missionary. In over 1,000 pages and an accompanying film, Sotho people of the Transvaal, South Africa, present nuances of their intellect and daily lives in great detail. This trove offers introductory essays and matches Sotho texts with English translations. It will attract a few scholars but, more important, it should serve Sotho interests as the wisdom of elders contributes to contemporary heritage politics.(...) Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, specialists. - A. F. Roberts, University of California, Los Angeles, in Choice 2016.

Occasionally, missionary writers have transcended the limitations of their focused calling and written deeply sympathetic, evocative treatises that permit people to speak for themselves, thus valorizing perspectives that may differ from those of the expatriates, however well intentioned most missionaries were and are. As editor Joubert (Humboldt Univ. of Berlin) and her collaborators make clear, Carl Hoffmann (1868-1962) was one such missionary. In over 1,000 pages and an accompanying film, Sotho people of the Transvaal, South Africa, present nuances of their intellect and daily lives in great detail. This trove offers introductory essays and matches Sotho texts with English translations. It will attract a few scholars but, more important, it should serve Sotho interests as the wisdom of elders contributes to contemporary heritage politics.(...) Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, specialists. - A. F. Roberts, University of California, Los Angeles, in Choice 2016. For its part, the Hoffman book does not just present a body of inert texts waiting to be plundered for facts by the researcher; it is a book which requires the researcher to work with it, to engage with it intellectually. It opens up numbers of different avenues for active scholarly discussion. - Professor John Wright, University of Cape Town, published on the web site of Archive & Public Culture Research Initiative 2015.

Author Information

Annekie Joubert, DLitt et Phil (2002), University of South Africa, is Lecturer for African Languages at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany) and Research Affiliate in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). She has published numerous scholarly articles on South Africa and is the author of The Power of Performance: Linking Past and Present in Hananwa and Lobedu Oral Literature (Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2004). Gerrie Grobler, DLitt et Phil (1990) University of South Africa, is a retired professor of African Languages from the same university. He has published numerous scholarly articles on Northern Sotho literature and folklore, and contributed to various dictionaries of the language. Inge Kosch, DLitt et Phil (1991), University of South Africa, is Professor of African Languages at the same university. She published book chapters and articles on Northern Sotho linguistics and is the author of Topics in Morphology in the African Language Context (Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2006). Lize Kriel, D. Phil. (2002), University of Pretoria, is Associate Professor for Visual Culture Studies in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Pretoria. She studies written, print and reading cultures in the context of colonial southern Africa and transcontinental missionary networks. She is the author of The Malaboch Books. Kgalusi in the civilization of the written word (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009). Contributors are: Annekie Joubert, Gerrie Grobler, Inge Kosch and Lize Kriel.

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