Thursday, June 30, 2022

HOW AUTHENTIC WAS CREDO MUTWA?

I've just read a fascinating journal article on Credo Mutwa.

The title is, Credo Mutwa, Zulu Shaman: The Invention and Appropriation of Indigenous
Authenticity in African Folk Religion, by David Chidester and published in Journal for the Study of Religion , 2002, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2002), pp. 65-85

The article traces Mutwa's journey from authenticating African artifacts in a small Johannesburg shop for tourists by telling tall tales to prove the authenticity, to writing articles praising South African Apartheid, to claiming alien abduction for 3 days and having forced sex with extraterrestrials.

Having read this I would not be surprised if Mutwa was at some point an asset of South African Intelligence. He appears to have written quite a lot praising apartheid, and some of his work also coincided with a push by the South African government to create lots of smaller states based along tribal lines. 

The author claims that Credo Mutwa had the skill of constantly reinventing himself, or requiring recognition from outside of Africa..

But if Mutwa's writings praised apartheid and his work promoted tribalism when that was exactly what the government of South Africa wanted at that time, then the question needs to asked: how authentic was Credo Mutwa.

But the same question could and should also be asked about the author, David Chidester.

 

 

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