Seeing beyond the cover : a critical analysis of the missionary periodical thsupa mabaka a kereke, 1931-1935

Abstract

This study analyses a northern-Sotho publication of the Berlin Mission Church, namely, the Thsupa Mabaka a Kereke. It is particularly concerned with the similarities and differences in the approaches the German missionary producers of the publication have taken in the selection, reproduction and utilization of photographs of South Africans and Germans. The focus is on the 1930s, the decade during which the publication first came into existence; the decade during which National Socialism was implemented in Germany and a period in which black South Africans were negotiating the challenges of both the British colonial world and growing Afrikaner nationalism. The focus of the study is to investigate the history that shaped the perceptions of class and gender where different racial groups were concerned. It studies how inequality was communicated in missionary photography. The aim of this study is to gauge whether the representations of African people in the Thsupa Mabaka a Kereke bear any relation to those of German missionaries. It further explores how the depictions are connected to the context of the time and the perceptions of the people in the separate communities. It investigates the influence of the images in promoting imperialist activity, their influence in encouraging modernity and, essentially, their role and purpose as tool of communication with the congregations of the Berlin Mission Church. Certain stereotypes and inequality in the representation of the different races, classes and genders will be investigated and problematized where necessary.