Gqoba, William Wellington

▪ Bantu writer

born 1840, near Gaga, Cape Colony [now in South Africa]

died April 26, 1888

      poet, philologist, and journalist, a dominant literary figure among 19th-century Bantu writers, whose poetry reflects the effects of missionaries and education on the Bantu people.

      During his short career Gqoba pursued a number of trades: wagonmaker, clerk, teacher, translator of Xhosa and English, and pastor. During 1884–88 he was editor of Isigidimi samaXhosa (The Xhosa Messenger), to which he contributed articles on the history of the Xhosa people.

      Fame came to Gqoba after the composition of his two long didactic poems, “The Discussion Between the Christian and the Pagan” and “The Great Discussion on Education,” both influenced in style by his fellow South African Tiyo Soga's translation of Pilgrim's Progress into Xhosa. In the first poem the traditional conflict is set up between the pleasures and riches of life supported by the pagan and the ascetic life advocated by the Christian. Although the Christian's argument is much less convincing, he wins in the end. The second poem depicts a group of young intellectuals who are critical of the educational practices of their day; but, again, the moderate Christian position, which wins out, seems to many less convincing than the radical one.

* * *