The politics of mythology: the genealogy of the Philip myth

Political myths have played a crucial role in legitimising apartheid and wh ite domination in South Africa. This article explores the history of one su ch political myth: the mythology surrounding the nineteenth century mission ary leader John Philip. I foreground the links between the Philip myth and the changing political and ideological contexts within which it was mobilis ed over the course of 150 pears, While the roots of the Philip myth lie in the racial polemics of conservative settler ideologues in the Cape Colony d uring the 1830s and 1840s, Philip had slipped into historical obscurity by the middle of the nineteenth century. it,ras only during the 1880s and 1890 s that he was resurrected bq the massively influential settler historian G. M. Theal. The reasons for Theal's construction of a full blown Philip myth are related to his political project of colonial nationalism and his growin g interest in the ideologies of Social Darwinism and scientific racism. Alt hough Philip evoked scant interest among Afrikaner nationalist historians d uring the early 1900s, he was yoked into the service of segregationist ideo logy during the 1930s and 1940s as the symbol of the meddling outsider at a time when Afrikaner nationalist historiography was becoming increasingly o vert in its racism. During the apartheid em the myth of John Philip was pop ularised as it was transported from the relatively narrow domain of profess ional historians into the wider domain of public politics. Against the back drop of intense apartheid zenophobia and heightened tensions between the ap artheid state and left-wing churches, prime ministers and school teachers i nvoked, John Philip reinvoked the spectre of this historic enemy of white S outh Africa.