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Storytelling and resilience: Remembering the life and times of Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa

21 March 2020 | Story Dr Stephanie Cawood | Photo Charl Devenish

Cawood news_read more — Dr Stephanie Cawood.

Credo Mutwa, renowned African spiritual leader, diviner-seer, healer, mystic, author, poet, and artist, died on 25 March 2020 at the ripe old age of 98. He died on the eve of South Africa’s entry into unchartered lockdown territory due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. His death will forever be intertwined with the seismic shift in South African society. Credo Mutwa was born on 21 July 1921 in Zululand (as KwaZulu-Natal was known at the time), just after the life-altering ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic ravaged the world and South Africa (c. 1918 to 1919) at the end of the First World War. His birth and death book-ends a storied life filled with equal parts reverence, controversy, and hardship. Africa Day, this year, takes place during a time of great uncertainty and it seems fitting to remember the life work of one of Africa’s greatest storytellers, Credo Mutwa, and how important storytelling is for resilience during times of great upheaval.

Storytelling is integral to human life. It is more than a mere frivolous or meaningless pastime. Storytelling connects us with our human world, helps us to make sense of it, and leads to understanding and reaffirming our common humanity. Indeed, Frederick Turner argued that aesthetic pleasure is crucial to maintain our complex human lifeworld. In this way, storytelling and the pleasure created by its ritualised performances are vital for our survival. Credo Mutwa understood the importance of storytelling in how it connects the past with the present and future, and people with the land of their birth. This is how the wisdom of the ages is transmitted to the next generation. He used storytelling – oral and written – as a means to “lay the foundation for better understanding between … human beings”.

It was a gift and responsibility he inherited from his maternal grandfather and took seriously. In his epic tome, Indaba, My Children, Mutwa proudly affirmed himself as storyteller, planting his work firmly in the roots of the oral tradition of which he became a custodian. Through his work as author, Mutwa acted as interlocutor between the oral and written word. Throughout his life, he adopted the persona of metaphysical and material traveller. In his own words, “I was not travelling for enjoyment; however, I was travelling for knowledge, in search of clarity of mind and in search of the truth about my people”. As traveller, Mutwa was on a lifelong journey to other worlds and ideas. In African literature, journey is an important trope and marks a path towards wisdom and enlightenment; but a journey also represents a mixing of traditions, and, as traveller, Credo Mutwa bravely inhabited the intersection between African orature and literature – a position fraught with controversy at times.

In a time where we bear the burden of separation, storytelling has the power to reconnect us. The human need for this ancient ritual is as strong as ever, although the “spark-wreathed fires in the centres of the villages in the dark forests and on the aloe-scented plains of Africa” may have become virtual in the form of social media and web-based platforms. Storytelling remains a powerful means for human connection and, during this time of physical immobility, has the power to let us roam free, to transform us into virtual co-travellers on this shared journey. Indeed, we need storytelling to thrive as fully formed ‘humane’ beings. Celebrate Africa this 25 May by sharing her and your stories. Answer the clarion call of Credo Mutwa to come together, in spirit if not in body, and make meaning in alternative ways to re-forge our human bonds, to “Indaba, My Children”.

This article was written by Dr Stephanie Cawood, Director of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State.

News Archive

SASOL TRAC laboratory launched at UFS Qwaqwa Campus

2006-05-08

Some of the guests attending the launch of the Sasol TRAC Laboratory at the University of the Free State's (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus were from the left Prof Peter Mbati (Principal of the Qwaqwa Campus), Mrs Zimbini Zwane ( Communications Manager of Sasol Infrachem), Prof Gerhardt de Klerk (Dean : UFS Faculty of the Humanities), Prof Fred Hugo
Director of TRAC SA) and Prof Jack van der Linde (Director of RIEP at the UFS).

SASOL TRAC laboratory launched at UFS Qwaqwa Campus

The Research Institute for Education Planning (RIEP) of the University of the Free State (UFS) today unveiled the Sasol TRAC Laboratory at its Qwaqwa campus.

The laboratory will be used to help grade 10, 11 and 12 learners and educators from the Qwaqwa region to conduct the experiments from the physical sciences outcome-based curriculum.

“The Sasol TRAC Laboratory introduces learners not only to the latest technology used by engineers and other scientists in practice but also to stimulate the learner’s interest in the field of science in such a way that more of them will enter into science related careers,” says Mr Cobus van Breda, Co-ordinator of the TRAC Free State Regional Centre.

According to Mr van Breda the newly established Sasol TRAC Laboratory will enable RIEP to train learners and their educators in Physical Sciences. The laboratory will consist of six work stations equipped with computers and electronic sensors.

“Learners from the Qwaqwa region will visit the Sasol TRAC Laboratory on regular basis to conduct experiments based on the curriculum. Data will be collected with electronic apparatus and presented as graphs on the computer so that results can be analysed and interpreted,” says Mr van Breda.

“There is a serious shortage of suitable qualified teachers in maths and science in the Qwaqwa region. Many schools in the region are not yet part of the RIEP project and are in dire need of assistance. A large number of these schools are in remote areas not reached regularly by intervention programmes,” says Prof Peter Mbati, Principal of the UFS Qwaqwa Campus.

“The establishment of the Sasol TRAC Laboratory at the Qwaqwa Campus provides us the opportunity to engage with our community and assist in the development and training of these vital education subjects. We are pleased that Sasol agreed to fund the project,” says Prof Mbati.

Students from the Qwaqwa Campus will also benefit from the TRAC programme. “Some promising students will also undergo further training and become assistants for the TRAC programme,” says Prof Mbati.

“Nurturing science and mathematical skills is of great importance in growing our national economy. Annually, Sasol invests more than R50 million in supporting mathematical and science education in South Africa. Our primary aim is to increase the number of learners gaining access to tertiary education in the science fields. Therefore, our Corporate Social Investment (CSI) education interventions at secondary school level focus on educator development and direct learner interventions such as the Sasol TRAC Laboratory,” explains Ms Pamilla Mudhray, CSI and SHARP manager at Sasol.

According to Ms Mudhray the implementation of the National Curriculum Statement for physical sciences in the further education and training (FET) phase from 2006, under resourced schools will need greater access to the tools and equipment necessary to teach the syllabus and fulfil the ideals of the curriculum.

TRAC South Africa is a national non-profit programme focused on supporting and expanding science, mathematics and technology education in secondary schools. The programme was first introduced to South Africa in 1994. In 2005, RIEP established the TRAC Free State regional centre on the UFS Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
5 May 2006

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