An ambitious work that makes a bold argument, Divided by the Word is sweeping in both
geographic and chronological scope, relevant to today, and approaches this history in an
almost entirely unique way. While Arndt’s conclusions will be controversial with some, his
mastery of the evidence will be difficult for those most invested in maintaining the border
between Zulu and Xhosa to counter.
– Robert J. Houle, Fairleigh Dickinson University, author of Making African Christianity:
Africans Reimagining Their Faith in Colonial South Africa

Jochen Arndt’s path-breaking study, Divided by the Word, examines how the South African
languages, isiXhosa and isiZulu, have come into being. Meticulously researched and drawing
on a rich array of rarely used primary sources, Arndt shows how the boundaries of these
languages and ethnic identities were constantly shaped and reshaped over the centuries
by a host of actors: European missionaries and mission rivalries, African interpreters and
translators, black and white intellectuals, educators, and apartheid ideologues. Clearly
written, this book is a must-read for historians and analysts of contemporary South African
developments.
– Robert Edgar, Howard University, author of The Finger of God: Enoch Mgijima, the Israelites,
and the Bulhoek Massacre in South Africa

Divided by the Word refutes the assumption that the entrenched ethnic divide between
South Africa’s Zulus and Xhosas, a divide that turned deadly in the late 1980s, is
elemental to both societies. Jochen Arndt reveals how the current distinction between
the two groups emerged from a long and complex interplay of indigenous and foreign born
actors, with often diverging ambitions and relationships to the world they shared
and the languages they spoke.

The earliest roots of the divide lie in the eras of exploration and colonization, when
European officials and naturalists classified South Africa’s indigenous population on
the basis of skin color and language. Later, missionaries collaborated with African
intermediaries to translate the Bible into the region’s vernaculars, artificially creating
distinctions between Zulu and Xhosa speakers. By the twentieth century, these foreign
players, along with African intellectuals, designed language-education programs that
embedded the Zulu-Xhosa divide in South African consciousness.

Using archival sources from three continents written in multiple languages, Divided
by the Word offers a refreshingly new appreciation for the deep historicity of language
and ethnic identity in South Africa, while reconstructing the ways in which colonial
forces generate and impose ethnic divides with long-lasting and lethal consequences for
indigenous populations.

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes on Terminology
Introduction
1. “What Does Stick to People—More Than Their Language—Is Their Isibongo”: Language and Belonging in South Africa’s Deeper Past
2. “Surrounded on All Sides by People That Differ from Them in Every Point, in Color… and in Language”: The Birth of the “Caffre” Language Paradigm
3. “All Speak the Caffre Language”: Missionaries, Migrants, and Defining the Target Language for Bible Translation
4. “Their Language Had an Affinity with That of Both of These Nations”: African Interpreters, Métissage, and the Dynamics of Linguistic Knowledge Production
5. “The Natives. In What Respects, If Any, Do They Differ from the Southern Caffres?”: American Missionaries and the Zulu Question
6. “To Speak Properly and Correctly, viz. Uku-Kuluma-Nje”: Americans, Africans, and Zulu as a Superior Language
7. “Many People… Explain This Identity Primarily in Terms of the Language They Speak” : The Language-Based Zulu-Xhosa Divide in South African Consciousness
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Jochen S. Arndt is Assistant Professor of History at the Virginia Military Institute.

An ambitious work that makes a bold argument, Divided by the Word is sweeping in both
geographic and chronological scope, relevant to today, and approaches this history in an
almost entirely unique way. While Arndt’s conclusions will be controversial with some, his
mastery of the evidence will be difficult for those most invested in maintaining the border
between Zulu and Xhosa to counter.
– Robert J. Houle, Fairleigh Dickinson University, author of Making African Christianity:
Africans Reimagining Their Faith in Colonial South Africa

Jochen Arndt’s path-breaking study, Divided by the Word, examines how the South African
languages, isiXhosa and isiZulu, have come into being. Meticulously researched and drawing
on a rich array of rarely used primary sources, Arndt shows how the boundaries of these
languages and ethnic identities were constantly shaped and reshaped over the centuries
by a host of actors: European missionaries and mission rivalries, African interpreters and
translators, black and white intellectuals, educators, and apartheid ideologues. Clearly
written, this book is a must-read for historians and analysts of contemporary South African
developments.
– Robert Edgar, Howard University, author of The Finger of God: Enoch Mgijima, the Israelites,
and the Bulhoek Massacre in South Africa