#12626. Social construction of the meanings of imfundo by African intellectuals in the Cape Colony at the turn of the twentieth century

October 2026publication date
Proposal available till 07-06-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Journal’s subject area:
History;
Cultural Studies;
Anthropology;
Sociology and Political Science;
Demography;
Development;
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Abstract:
In Africa, the decolonisation of academic work requires that academics write in African languages (or bilingually in English/French/Portuguese and the vernacular) and engage with texts written in these languages. With this in mind, I have been researching the socially constructed meanings of the concept imfundo (education) as they are conveyed in early isiXhosa texts written in the late 1800s and early 1900s by African intellectuals. In this paper I focus on their socio-cultural context and the biographies of two writers, Gqoba and Mqhayi, and illustrate with examples how their experiences of their social world shaped their construction of the meanings of imfundo. The research is part of a larger project that investigates the meanings of key sociological concepts in isiXhosa over the past 150 years and contributes to the making of an African sociology.
Keywords:
African intellectuals; Imfundo (education); isiXhosa; late 1800s; socially constructed meanings

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