In the second of a proposed three-volume study, John and Jean Comaroff
continue their exploration of colonial evangelism and modernity in South
Africa. Moving beyond the opening moments of the encounter between the
British Nonconformist missions and the Southern Tswana peoples, Of
Revelation and Revolution, Volume II, explores the complex
transactions--both epic and ordinary--among the various dramatis
personae along this colonial frontier.
The Comaroffs trace many of the major themes of twentieth-century South
African history back to these formative encounters. The relationship
between the British evangelists and the Southern Tswana engendered
complex exchanges of goods, signs, and cultural markers that shaped not
only African existence but also bourgeois modernity "back home" in
England. We see, in this volume, how the colonial attempt to "civilize"
Africa set in motion a dialectical process that refashioned the everyday
lives of all those drawn into its purview, creating hybrid cultural
forms and potent global forces which persist in the postcolonial age.
This fascinating study shows how the initiatives of the colonial
missions collided with local traditions, giving rise to new cultural
practices, new patterns of production and consumption, new senses of
style and beauty, and new forms of class distinction and ethnicity. As
noted by reviewers of the first volume, the Comaroffs have succeeded in
providing a model for the study of colonial encounters. By insisting on
its dialectical nature, they demonstrate that colonialism can no longer
be seen as a one-sided relationship between the conquering and the
conquered. It is, rather, a complex system of reciprocal determinations,
one whose legacy is very much with us today.
