The People’s Paper: A centenary history and anthology of Abantu-Batho

Grant Christison; Paul Landau; Peter Limb; Christopher Lowe; Sarah Mkhonza; Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu; Jeff Opland; Chris Saunders; Robert Trent Vinson

This much-awaited volume uncovers the long-lost pages of the major African multilingual newspaper, Abantu-Batho. Founded in 1912 by African National Congress (ANC) convenor Pixley Seme, with assistance from the Swazi Queen, it was published up until 1931, attracting the cream of African politicians, journalists and poets Mqhayi, Nontsisi Mgqweth, and Grendon. In its pages burning issues of the day were articulated alongside cultural by-ways. The People’s Paper – comprising both essays and an anthology – explores the complex movements and individuals that emerged in the almost twenty years of its publication. The essays contribute rich, new material to provide clearer insights into South African politics and intellectual life. The anthology unveils a judicious selection of never-before published columns from the paper spanning every year of its life and drawn from repositories on three continents. Abantu-Batho had a regional and international focus, and by examining all these dynamics across boundaries and disciplines, The People’s Paper transcends established historiographical frontiers to fill a lacuna that scholars have long lamented.

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv
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Contents
pp v-vi
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Contributors
pp vii-viii
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Acknowledgements
pp ix-ix
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Preface
pp x-xiii
- By Les Switzer, Houston, Texas
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List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
pp xiv-xv
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List of Illustrations
pp xvi-xvi
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PART I - Essays
pp 1-1
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Overview
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Introduction: A Centenary History of Abantu-Batho, the People's Paper
pp 2-48
- By Peter Limb, an adjunct associate professor and Africana bibliographer at Michigan State University.
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Chapter 1 - ‘Only the Bolder Spirits’: Politics, Racism, Solidarity and War in Abantu-Batho
pp 49-80
- By Peter Limb, an adjunct associate professor and Africana bibliographer at Michigan State University.
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Chapter 2 - ‘They Must Go to the Bantu Batho’: Economics and Education, Religion and Gender, Love and Leisure in the People's Paper
pp 81-115
- By Peter Limb, an adjunct associate professor and Africana bibliographer at Michigan State University.
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FOUNDERS AND EDITORS
pp 116-116
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Chapter 3 - Pixley Seme and Abantu-Batho
pp 117-127
- By Chris Saunders, an emeritus professor in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town.
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Chapter 4 - Queen Labotsibeni and Abantu-Batho
pp 128-150
- By Sarah Mkhonza, African writer-in-residence at Cornell University.
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Chapter 5 - ‘We of Abantu Batho’: Robert Grendon's Brief and Controversial Editorship
pp 151-172
- By Grant Christison, University of KwaZulu-Natal PhD was on Robert Grendon, an Abantu-Batho editor, on whom he has also published a chapter in Grappling with the Beast: Indigenous Southern African Responses to Colonialism 1840–1930 (Brill, 2010).
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THEMES AND CONNECTIONS
pp 173-173
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Chapter 6 - The Swazi Royalty and the Founding of Abantu-Batho in a Regional Context
pp 174-200
- By Chris Lowe, the only scholar to have written a PhD (Yale University, 1998) dealing substantially with the history of Abantu-Batho.
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Chapter 7 - Abantu-Batho and the Xhosa Poets
pp 201-225
- By Jeff Opland, visiting professor of African Language Literatures in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
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Chapter 8 - African Royalty, Popular History and Abantu-Batho
pp 226-254
- By Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu, executive director of SADET. He has a PhD in History from the University of the Witwatersrand and is author of The Soweto Uprisings: Counter-memories of June 1976 (Ravan Press, 1998), and several chapters in the SADET series, as well as school history textbooks., Peter Limb, an adjunct associate professor and Africana bibliographer at Michigan State University.
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Chapter 9 - ‘Johannesburg in Flames’: The 1918 Shilling Campaign, Abantu-Batho and Early African Nationalism in South Africa
pp 255-281
- By Paul Landau, an associate professor of History at the University of Maryland and a research fellow at the University of Johannesburg.
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Chapter 10 - Garveyism, Abantu-Batho and the Radicalisation of the African National Congress during the 1920s
pp 282-297
- By Robert Vinson, university associate professor for Teaching Excellence in History at the College of William and Mary.
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Chapter 11 - An African Newspaper in Central Johannesburg: The Journalistic and Associational Context of Abantu-Batho
pp 298-317
- By Peter Limb, an adjunct associate professor and Africana bibliographer at Michigan State University.
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Conclusion: Assessing the Decline and Legacy of Abantu-Batho
pp 318-330
- By Peter Limb, an adjunct associate professor and Africana bibliographer at Michigan State University.
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PART II - Anthology
pp 331-490
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Bibliography
pp 491-509
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Newspapers (selected)
pp 510-510
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Appendix - Abantu-Batho Editors and Editorial Staff
pp 511-512
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Index
pp 513-543
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Miscellaneous Endmatter
pp 544-559
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The People’s Paper

A centenary history and anthology of Abantu-Batho

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