CLASS, IMPERIALISM AND LITERARY-CRITICISM - NGIDI,WILLIAM, COLENSO,JOHN AND ARNOLD,MATTHEW

This paper examines the relationship which developed between Natal's f irst Anglican bishop, John William Colenso, and William Ngidi, his ass istant in translation and the study of the Zulu language in the 1850s and early 1860s. It shows how both men gained greater insight into the nature of religious belief through this experience, and how it led Co lenso to enter the current debates on belief by means of a radical cri tique on the shallowness of the contemporary attitudes and teaching of his church. Amongst Colenso's most effective critics was Matthew Arno ld whose scathing attack on Colenso's work did much to ruin the bishop 's reputation as a serious thinker on religions matters. But these att acks also reveal in Arnold a profound fear of the consequences of the democratization of knowledge which is significant given his formative role in the development of English literary studies. The historical pr ocesses which link William Ngidi's questioning of Colenso with the lat ter's interventions in the debates on religious belief and their impac t on the development of Arnold's writing on literary criticism, all su ggest how important it is to include the imperial context in any study of cultural developments at the metropole.