FEATURING - Nursery tales, traditions, and histories of the Zulus in their own words. Vol. 1, Izinganekwane (Nursery tales) by Henry Callaway.

The Special Collections Book of the Week this week is:

Nursery tales, traditions, and histories of the Zulus in their own words. Vol. 1, Izinganekwane (Nursery tales) by Henry Callaway.

This compilation of Zulu literature was gathered by the Reverend Henry Callaway (1817–1890) in the Natal region of South Africa in the late 1850s and 1860s. Callaway was a Church of England missionary, who settled near the Umkomanzi River in Natal in 1858 and began to study the Zulu language, religious beliefs, and oral traditions. He recorded tales dictated to him by native storytellers and the English translations of the stories appear in parallel sections next to the original Zulu text. Callaway was committed to accurately recording the particularities of Zulu language and literature, and he was struck by the “unexpected relationships” between Zulu tales and corresponding legends among other peoples. As he wrote in the preface to this book: “…[these relationships] will more and more force upon us the great truth, that man has every where thought alike, because every where, in every country and clime, under every tint of skin, under every varying social and intellectual condition, he is still man […] one in his mental qualities, tendencies, emotions, passions.”

UPSpace Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/12520

This book is available at Special Collections, housed on level 5 of the Merensky 2 Library, and is part of our Africana (ZA) Collection.

The Special Collections unit of the Department of Library Services plays a stewardship role in the acquisition and preservation of the Library's rare and valuable information resources, making them accessible to students, staff and researchers, as well as safeguarding them for future generations.