scholarly journals ‘Art is different from life’: Doctrine and agency in Thokozile Philda Majozi’s insights and imagery

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippa Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Artistic Experience ◽  
Political Milieu ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Church Art ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran

Established in apartheid South Africa, the tapestry-weaving venture at the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre, Rorke’s Drift, was situated in a complex mission environment, on the junction between evangelised and unevangelised isiZulu-speaking communities. Although local women who worked at this centre in the 1960s and early 1970s were trained in creative strategies by Swedish artists, their lives were constrained by missionary strictures, inherited customs and apartheid laws. Little has been written on the tapestries made by these marginalised women, whose experiences were discounted in the socio-political milieu. Yet even as they were subordinated by political and social hierarchies, some found ways to assert their individualities. One of the most prolific was Thokozile Philda Majozi. As this study demonstrates, her woven iconographies, as well as her personal insights on those of others, provide a lens through which local Lutheran agendas and prejudicial social practices may be read. Some works anticipate the mission’s eventual change of heart on inherited customs and African-initiated churches. Majozi’s discussion also reveals how weavers often ignored Lutheran restrictions in the interests of artistic experience, despite the systems of control that defined their lives. Yet Christian weavers such as Majozi also complicated their representations of mission life, deploying images of un-evangelised women that articulated their own ambivalence towards them.

scholarly journals The blood-sucker bird: A woven narrative of exploitation and dependency

Image & Text ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippa Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Symbolic Language ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Creative Agency ◽  
Economic Dependency ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Church Art ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
Insight Into

One of the most renowned tapestry ventures in South Africa is the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre, Rorke's Drift, initiated in 1963. Less well-known is the subsequent centre started by its Swedish founders, Ulla and Peder Gowenius, in neighbouring Lesotho. Thabana li Mele, as this initiative was called, opened in 1968, and within two years, 200 villagers wove a range of textiles, including pictorial tapestries. However, this thriving operation would be short-lived, forced to close in 1970, by an ally of white South Africa, Lesotho's Leabua Jonathan regime. Apartheid-era writings have offered limiting representations of these events, and Thabana li Mele's weavers and their works are now all but forgotten. As the author shows, The blood-sucker bird (1969), a tapestry from this centre on which some material has survived, suggests that Thabana li Mele was destined to be more than just a poverty-alleviation initiative. Woven by an unknown woman, this bold artwork articulates Lesotho's subaltern status as a land-locked labour reserve for South Africa's mines. Reminiscent of oral art forms, its symbolic language interrogates the hegemonies that engineered the lives of Basotho communities forced into migrancy and economic dependency on South Africa. The tapestry also yields insight into the creative agency of a marginalised

scholarly journals The value of traditional African religious music into liturgy: Lobethal Congregation

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morakeng E.K. Lebaka
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
Religious Music ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran

The purpose of this study was to discover whether the integration of traditional African religious music into Evangelical Lutheran liturgical church services, could effect a change in member attendance and/or participation. To achieve this, the study employed direct observation, video recordings and informal interviews. In addition, church records of attendance during Holy Communion once a month between 2008 and 2013 were accessed. The study was done at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Lobethal Congregation (Arkona Parish, Northern Diocese, Sekhukhune District, Limpopo Province, South Africa). It was demonstrated that church attendance increased dramatically after traditional African religious music was introduced into the Evangelical Lutheran liturgical services in 2011. Observations and video recordings showed that drums, rattles, horns and whistles were used. Handclapping was seen to act almost as a metronome, which steadily maintained the tempo. It was concluded that introducing traditional African religious music into Evangelical Lutheran liturgical church services has increased attendance and participation of church members. Therefore, the introduction of African religious music could be considered for other Evangelical Lutheran congregations in Africa.

scholarly journals The Scramble for Land between the Barokologadi Community and Hermannsburg Missionaries

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor MS Molobi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Land Claim ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Mission Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran

This article investigates the land claim of the Barokologadi of Melorane, with their long history of disadvantages in the land of their forefathers. The sources of such disadvantages are traceable way back to tribal wars (known as “difaqane”) in South Africa. At first, people were forced to retreat temporarily to a safer site when the wars were in progress. On their return, the Hermannsburg missionaries came to serve in Melorane, benefiting from the land provided by the Kgosi. Later the government of the time expropriated that land. What was the significance of this land? The experience of Melorane was not necessarily unique; it was actually a common practice aimed at acquiring land from rural communities. This article is an attempt to present the facts of that event. There were, however, later interruptions, such as when the Hermannsburg Mission Church became part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Africa (ELCSA).  

scholarly journals A JOURNEY OF THE PEOPLE OF BETHANY MARKED BY DISPOSSESSION, STRUGGLE FOR RETURN OF LAND AND CONTINUED IMPOVERISHMENT: A CASE STUDY OF LAND REFORM THAT HAS NOT YET REDUCED POVERTY

2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-144
Author(s):  
O Buffel
Keyword(s):  
Land Reform ◽  
Property Management ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran

This article investigates the history of the farm Bethany in the Free State (a province of South Africa), which was the first mission station of the Berlin Mission Society. It traces its history from the time when Adam Kok II allocated the farm to the Mission Society for the purpose of spreading the gospel to the indigenous people, and to its dispossession through the forced removals of 1939 and later in the 1960s. It argues that the history of the community is a journey from a community that was economically sustainable before the forced removal, to a journey of impoverishment caused by dispossession. After successful restitution of the farm in 1998, the community continues to be impoverished. The article argues for a restitution process that reduces and eliminates poverty and it challenges the Department of Land Affairs to partner with communities that have returned to their ancestral lands. In this partnership the weak and inadequate post-settlement support must be reviewed and improved in view of ensuring that livelihoods are enhanced and poverty reduced, if not eliminated. The article also challenges the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which still owns part of the farm through its Property Management Committee, to equally partner with the community members of whom the majority are members of the Lutheran Church.

What Happens in a Youth Community of Learning When Mobile Technology Is Implemented? The Case of a Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church Confirmation Training

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eveliina Ojala
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Research Area ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Community Of Learning ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Youth Community ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran

AbstractThe aim of this article is to discuss confirmation training from the perspective of mobile technology and social media. Previous research has focused on comparing confirmation training practices implemented in different Lutheran Churches. This article contributes to this research area by providing a new viewpoint to the discussion. Results indicate that (1) workers, in particular, received new ways of working with enthusiasm, (2) but the actual use of mobile devices and social media like Facebook proved to be low and not innovative, and (3) mobile technology cannot be integrated into confirmation training until new content and methods that are meaningful to young people have been developed.

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