Open secrets
Curator Andrew Lamprecht picks four remarkable finds from the exhibition Treasure House of Knowledge.
Mighty Man and Tiger Ingwe
Mighty Man and Tiger Ingwe were two black superhero comic series from the early 1970s, both edited by black people. Very few copies are known to exist but the National Library of South Africa has a full set. When South African comics expert Moray Rhoda saw the collection, he nearly cried. He had seen photos of both comic books but had never come across a copy of either.
Dear Mahatma ...
Researcher Simon Spender discovered a letter from Olive Schreiner to her friend Mahatma Gandhi, criticising him for supporting the British cause in World War I. Schreiner expresses her surprise that Gandhi “and other Indian friends had offered to serve this the English government in this evil war in any way they might demand of you … Surely you, who would not take up arms even in the cause of your own oppressed people, cannot be willing to shed blood in this wicked cause.”
The Baartman File
This week, artist Laura Windvogel, aka Lady $kollie, had a look at a portfolio of cartoons of Sarah Baartman, which hasn’t been catalogued by the library. They were collected at about the time Baartman was being exhibited in Europe, possibly by the London Anti-Slavery Society (the initials LSS appear on the binding), which fought to have her freed. We took the decision to exhibit the portfolio closed — because the cartoons are offensive — but with an explanation of its contents. Lady $kollie will make an artistic intervention in response to them.
Afrikarabic
Cape Town’s Muslim community in the mid-19th century was fiercely debating Muslim religious practice and dietary laws. The community leaders wrote to Queen Victoria asking for help, who in turn asked her ambassador to the Ottoman Empire to send a serious scholar to help to resolve the issues. They sent Abu Bakr Effendi, who wrote Die Uiteenstelling van die Godsdiens, a religious guide that was translated into Afrikaans but printed in Arabic script.