Ethnography from the Mission Field : The Hoffmann Collection of Cultural Knowledge

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.

Contributors are: Annekie Joubert, Gerrie Grobler, Inge Kosch and Lize Kriel.

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).