Paper short abstract:

In 1911, the famous missionary-ethnographer Junod published a novel called Zidji: a Study of Southern African Custom. He claims it is fully valid empirically as a document, but he decided tow rite it in fictional format because "it deals with the present". What are the implications of this choice?

Paper long abstract:

The Swiss missionary ethnographer Henri-Alexandre Junod is universally considered one of the principal inspirations of twentieth century anthropology. The first versions of his main work, The Life of a South African Tribe, appeared in French in 1898 and later in 1912-14. The definitive English version, however, only came out at the end of his life in 1927. To judge of this work's impact, we must consider that Radcliffe-Brown depended on Junod's ethnographic material to write Structure and Function in Primitive Society, and that Gluckman and Turner explicitly declare to have been inspired by it for their processual approach. In this long tradition of fascination with Junod's work, however, few have been aware that he also published in French a number of works of missionary fiction: two short plays and, in 1911, a novel called Zidji: a study of Southern African Custom. Junod himself declares that the novel bears as much empirical validity as his remaining work. However, according to him, because it deals with the "present", it could only have been written in fictional format. This paper explores, on the one hand, the relation between modernity and ethnographic description and, on the other hand, Junod's profoundly ambivalent relation to Africans and Africanness.

Paper Download (57 KB)