Ghosts of Books: Rereading Thomas Pringle’s African Sketches, with Matthew Shum’s Improvisations of Empire and Zoë Wicomb’s Still Life

Abstract

Focusing on the figures of Makanna, the ‘Bushman’, Vytjé Vaal, Hinza Marossi, Arend Plessis, and Johannes van der Kemp in Thomas Pringle’s African Sketches, the paper traces their refiguration in Matthew Shum’s Improvisations of Empire: Thomas Pringle in Scotland, the Cape Colony and London, 1789–1834 and Zoë Wicomb’s Still Life. The figures make interesting company. While Makanna and the ‘Bushman’ resist colonial rule and denounce the hypocrisy of the Christian faith by which this rule was justified, Vytjé Vaal and Hinza Marossi are assimilated into the colonial order as Khoikhoi servant and adopted Motswana boy, respectively. The young renegade Boer, Arend Plessis, elopes with a Khoikhoi servant girl, and Van der Kemp’s missionary work offers an instructive perspective on Pringle’s colonial positioning.