The Original Scene of Anthropology: Levaillant’s Illustrations of Visiting the Gonaqua

Abstract

François Levaillant (also Le Vaillant, born Vaillant) was the most influential early traveler to South Africa. His narrative illustrations of his travels, however, have not been widely studied, in part because many were not published in his travel books. Levaillant’s role as a founding figure of African anthropology has received increased attention, but illustrations of his first visit to the Gonaqua deserve greater scrutiny, in part because they differ so markedly from his written account. This article argues, following Matthys Bokhorst, that Levaillant conceptualized and produced most of the illustrations himself and concludes that he gave the illustrations an allegorical force as a way of re-viewing, re-considering and theorizing the significance of his visit and his role as observer and anthropologist.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to François-Xavier Fauvelle, Jean Jamin, Sakkie Niehaus and Stephen Nichols for helpful information and comments and to Paul Hockings and an anonymous reviewer for queries and comments.

Notes

1 A portrait of Levaillant may be found in the French version of Wikipedia.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Glenn

IAN GLENN is Emeritus Professor of Media Studies at the University of Cape Town and a Research Fellow in Communication Sciences at the University of the Free State. He did a PhD in English and American literature at the University of Pennsylvania, after studies at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and University of York, UK. He has chaired the English Department and the Center for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, and has been a visiting professor at French and American universities. He has published on South African literature, political communication and 18th-century natural history, and his book, The First Safari: Searching for Francois Levaillant, came out in 2018. E-mail: [email protected]