Área de identidad
Código de referencia
Título
Fecha(s)
- 1913 - 1975 (Creación)
Nivel de descripción
Fondo
Volumen y soporte
Extent3046 items
Área de contexto
Nombre del productor
Historia biográfica
Stephanus Mukhesi Maimela Dzivhani was born c. 1888 at Sibasa in Chief Makwarela's area of the Northern Transvaal, of the Ngoma tribe. His mother was a princess of a royal family, his father was a headman. As a youth he was interested in musical instruments and soon picked up music and songs. His father bought him a xylophone to play at festivals.
He came into contact with Berlin missionaries through his brother and between 1907-1913 he trained at Botshabelo Training Institution in the violin, lessons on the organ and joined the college brass band. As a teacher he taught at the Lutheran Mission School, the first school in Sibasa. Classes were held under a tree, until Lali or Chief Mphaphuli agreed that a school building should be erected. It was here his songs markedly impressed the Superintendent and some were compiled in the Venda hymn books. Keenly interested in church matters, he translated most of the Lutheran hymn book into Venda, besides adding and composing numerous other hymns. As he started life as a teacher in the early years of this century, later becoming headmaster, he was used by chiefs in the area mainly Chief Mphaphuli, to mediate between the traditional authorities and the White government. He also had to keep records of court cases at the Chief's kraal.
In 1918 he went to King Williams Town to marry a teacher there - Selina Manyakan Yaka, a Xhosa. They had two boys and three girls. Ulrica, the eldest, took her B. A. degree at Fort Hare and became a teacher in Bulawayo. She had a son, Steven, who studied and want to Switzerland intending to take up medical science. Dzivhani's son, Herbert, who became blind, matriculated at Eerste River Blind School. He was killed in a car accident in Natal. The other surviving child, Bennett, matriculated and became a teacher.
Stephen Dzivhani himself became a lay preacher at the Lutheran Beuster Mission and opened up other schools in the Sibasa area, He worked for seven years without pay and became an agent for a commercial miller for the Otenda Mills at Sibasa under the Mealie Control Board.
Institución archivística
Historia archivística
Origen del ingreso o transferencia
The Dzivhani Papers were given to the Department by Dr Schutte and are in English and Venda.
Área de contenido y estructura
Alcance y contenido
The Papers deal with Dzivhani's love of music and his training in the Lutheran Mission as a teacher and lay preacher in Sibasa. He translated the Lutheran hymn book into Venda, adding his own compositions in words and music. He was also an agent for the Mealie Control Board. There is much music, history of both education and the church in Venda as well as local tribal histories, court proceedings and tribal matters, his relationship with the White government, also his personal letters to and from his daughter, Ulrica, and the education of her son abroad.
Valorización, destrucción y programación
Acumulaciones
Sistema de arreglo
Área de condiciones de acceso y uso
Condiciones de acceso
Condiciones
Idioma del material
Escritura del material
Notas sobre las lenguas y escrituras
Características físicas y requisitos técnicos
Instrumentos de descripción
Área de materiales relacionados
Existencia y localización de originales
Existencia y localización de copias
Unidades de descripción relacionadas
Área de notas
Notas
Alternate title: Dzivhani, Stephen Mukhesi Maimela
Notas
Preferred citation: Copyright Historical Papers Research Archive, The Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Identificador/es alternativo(os)
Puntos de acceso
Puntos de acceso por materia
Puntos de acceso por lugar
Puntos de acceso por autoridad
Tipo de puntos de acceso
Área de control de la descripción
Identificador de la descripción
Identificador de la institución
Reglas y/o convenciones usadas
Estado de elaboración
Nivel de detalle
Fechas de creación revisión eliminación
Idioma(s)
Escritura(s)
Fuentes
Nota del archivista
Compiled by Joan Knoesen, 1984