George McCall Theal (11 April 1837,
Saint John, New Brunswick
Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...
– 17 April 1919,
Wynberg, Cape Town
Wynberg () is a southern suburb of the City of Cape Town in Western Cape, South Africa. It is situated between Plumstead, Cape Town, Plumstead and Kenilworth, Cape Town, Kenilworth, and is a main transport hub for the Southern Suburbs, Cape Town, ...
), was the most prolific and influential South African historian, archivist and genealogist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Life history
The son of Canadian physician, William Young Theal, who wanted him to become an
Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
minister, Theal left home early, sailing with his uncle, Captain Francis Peabody Leavitt, and lived briefly in the United States and Sierra Leone before emigrating to South Africa. There he became a teacher but soon moved to journalism, publishing, and an unsuccessful stint as an amateur diamond miner, all in South African frontier communities. His career as a historian began with the publication of his ''Compendium of South African History and Geography'' in 1873 following his return to teaching.
Theal spent five years at the
Lovedale Seminary outside
Alice in the
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
, working amongst missionaries and Africans. Lovedale was an important institution in the early 1870s, being a non-sectarian and non-denominational theological seminary and Christian school, founded by Presbyterian missionaries in 1841. Lovedale's principal, Dr. James Stewart, attached great importance to the teaching of printing and bookbinding. In 1872 Stewart needed someone who could teach and manage the printing works – Theal was the man. He had taught first at an elementary school in
Knysna
Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 47. ...
and from 1867 at a public school in
King William's Town
Qonce, formerly known as King William's Town, is a city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River. The city is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London. Qonce, with a population of around ...
, later to become
Dale College Boys' High School. He had also been editor of three minor British Kaffrarian newspapers between 1862 and 1865, and later worked for the ''Kaffrarian Watchman'' in King William's Town, where he printed his first contribution ''South Africa As It Is'' in 1871. From King William's Town he had travelled to
Du Toit's Pan
Du Toit's Pan, now usually Dutoitspan, is one of the earliest diamond mining camps at what is now Kimberley, South Africa. It was renamed Beaconsfield, which existed as a separate borough from Kimberley itself until Kimberley and Beaconsfield wer ...
, then seen as the richest diamond mine in the world, and was present when Britain raised the Union Jack over the area. Theal wrote some articles for the ''Diamond News'' and called the takeover "a most disastrous change". Having failed to make his fortune on the diamond fields, he returned to the Eastern Cape. Theal was a religious man, and thus believed that it was the civilised white man's duty to rescue the black man from ignorance and barbarism (in common with others of that period, he saw it in racial terms as well) This made him ready to accept the Lovedale post.
While living in King William's Town, he had read everything available on the history of South Africa and had started on an outline of his own rendition which was a synthesis of all he had read.
By 1875 at Lovedale he was teaching history, geography, English grammar and history of the Bible, and also being in charge of the printing department. He was responsible for the monthly publication of the ''
Kaffir Express'' (later the ''Christian Express'') and for the Xhosa version. The press published mainly religious and educational works. Between 1879 and 1882 Theal wrote a large number of articles for various periodicals on South African history. His knowledge of the Bantu was so extensive that in 1877 he was requested by Sir
Bartle Frere
Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet, (29 March 1815 – 29 May 1884) was a Welsh British colonial administrator. He had a successful career in India, rising to become Governor of Bombay (1862–1867). However, as High Commissioner for ...
to persuade some belligerent Bantu chiefs to moderate their attitude. Theal's success in this role led to his being offered a post in the Treasury. He accepted this position, aware that he would then have access to the State archives which were housed in the Surveyor-General's office.
Publications
*''South Africa As It Is'' (pamphlet, 1871 King William's Town)
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*''Basutoland Records'' (3 vols. 1883 Cape Town)
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*''The Republic of Natal'' (1886)
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*''History of South Africa'' (5 vols. 1889–1900)
* with
C.C. de Villiers
*''The Portuguese in South Africa'' (1896)
*''Belangrijke Historische Documenten'' (3 vols. 1896–1911, Cape Town)
*Large number of documentary publications (1897–1905, London)
* (36 vols.)
*''Records of South-Eastern Africa'' (9 vols. 1898–1903)
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*''Catalogue of Books and Pamphlets relating to Africa south of the Zambesi in the Collection of George McCall Theal'' (1912)
*''South Africa –
Story of the Nations'' Series (1917, first edition in 1894)
*''Ethnography and Condition of South Africa before AD 1505'' (1st of 11 vols. 1919)
*
See also
*
Historiography of the British Empire# South Africa
Notes
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Further reading
* Christopher Saunders, ''The Making of the South African Past: Major Historians on Race and Class'' (1988)
External links
''Kaffir Folk-Lore'' by George McCall Theal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Theal, George Mccall
1837 births
1919 deaths
Historians of South Africa
People from Qonce
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
20th-century South African historians
Writers from Saint John, New Brunswick
19th-century South African historians