Identificatie
referentie code
Titel
Datum(s)
- 1913 - 1975 (Vervaardig)
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Extent3046 items
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Biografie
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.
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The Dzivhani Papers were given to the Department by Dr Schutte and are in English and Venda.
Inhoud en structuur
Bereik en inhoud
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.
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Aantekening
Alternate title: Dzivhani, Stephen Mukhesi Maimela
Aantekening
Preferred citation: Copyright Historical Papers Research Archive, The Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Compiled by Joan Knoesen, 1984