Monica Wilson
Monica Wilson in Palestine in 1948
Born
Monica Hunter

(1908-01-03)3 January 1908
Lovedale, Cape Colony
Died28 September 1982(1982-09-28) (aged 74)
Hogsback, Cape Province, South Africa[1]
NationalitySouth African
CitizenshipSouth African citizenship
Alma materGirton College, Cambridge
PartnerGodfrey Wilson
ChildrenFrancis Wilson[2]
Scientific career
FieldsSocial Anthropology
InstitutionsUniversity of Cape Town
Thesis'Reaction to Conquest'
Notable studentsArchie Mafeje

Monica Wilson, née Hunter (3 January 1908 – 26 October 1982) was a South African anthropologist, who was professor of social anthropology at the University of Cape Town.[3][4]

Life

Monica Hunter was born to missionary parents in Lovedale in the Cape Colony, speaking Xhosa from childhood. She studied history at Girton College, Cambridge, before gaining a Cambridge doctorate in anthropology in 1934. Her thesis, the fieldwork for which was undertaken with the Pondo in the Eastern Cape between 1931 and 1933, was presented in the monograph Reaction to Conquest.[5]

Marrying Godfrey Wilson in 1935, the pair undertook fieldwork with the Nyakyusa in Tanzania between 1935 and 1938. Their fieldwork was sponsored by the International African Institute,[3] Godfrey Wilson died in 1944. Monica taught at the University College of Fort Hare from 1944 to 1946 and at Rhodes University from 1947 to 1951. She was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town from 1952 until retirement in 1973.[3]

She died in Hogsback, Cape Province at her home, which is now a research centre for the University of Fort Hare.[1]

Works

  • Reaction to Conquest: Effects of Contact with European on the Pondo of South Africa. With an Introd. by General the Right Hon, J. C. Smuts. 2d Ed. Oxford University Press. 1964.
  • The Analysis of Social Change. CUP Archive. 1945. GGKEY:PQXPX24Z7XY. with Godfrey Wilson
  • Good Company. A Study of Nyakyusa Age-villages. London. 1951.
  • The Oxford history of South Africa. Clarendon press. 1971. ISBN 978-0-19-821641-4.(ed. with Leonard Thompson)
  • For men and elders : change in the relations of generations and of men and women among the Nyakyusa – Ngonde people 1875 – 1971. Holmes & Meier. 1977. ISBN 9780841903135.

References

  1. 1 2 'Obituary: Professor of anthropology', The Guardian, 27 October 1982
  2. ↑ "Economics :: Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town". Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Brokensha, David (2011). "Monica Wilson 1908–82". Africa. 53 (3): 83–87. doi:10.1017/S0001972000027595. ISSN 0001-9720.
  4. ↑ "Monica Hunter Wilson". South African History Online. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  5. ↑ 'Professor Monica Wilson', The Times, 1 November 1982.

Further reading

  • Morrow, Sean (2016). The Fires Beneath: The Life of Monica Wilson, South African Anthropologist. Penguin. ISBN 9781776090396.
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