Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume 1: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa

by Jean Comaroff, John L. Comaroff

"Defining their enterprise as more in the direction of poetics than of prosaics, the Comaroffs free themselves to analyze a vivid series of images and events as objects of analysis. These they mine for clues to the 19th-century contents of the British imagination and of Tswana minds. They are themselves imagining the imagination of others, and they do the job with characteristic aplomb....The first volume creates an appetite for the second."—Sally Falk Moore, American Anthropologist

Genres: Anthropology, Africa, History, Nonfiction, Religion

434 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 1991

Reviews

[Simon]

The depth and breath of knowledge the Comaroffs bring to bear on their subject (colonialism and consciousness) is incredible. Their mastery of historical sources, interpretive tools, theoretical approaches, and ethnographic methods is beyond impressive, and the style of writing is lively, witty, and passionate. The benchmark for the kind of anthropology I would like to be able to write.

[AskHistorians]

Seeks to understand the colonial encounter as being a fundamental question of violence at the epistemic level. Deftly welding the twin domains of history and anthropology, the two volumes chart a terrifying account of the dislocation effected by the missionaries within Tswana culture.

[Stephen Hayes]

Anthropological study of missionaries and their converts.