THE LIFE OF A SOUTH AFRICAN TRIBE. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, Macmillan, 1927, hardcover, illustrated,index, condition: very good, two volumes, 557 & 660 pages, illustrated throughout with photographs and sketches, title page vignette, pictorial green cloth titled gilt on the upper covers and spines, complete with maps & illustrations, condition: very good..
Henri-Alexandre Junod was a Swiss-born South African missionary, ethnographer, anthropologist, linguist and naturalist, stationed for much of his career at Shiluvane mission station outside Tzaneen in Limpopo Province. He was one of the founding members of the Lemana Training College at Njhakanjhaka village near the Township of Waterval at Elim in 1906. Together with Reverend Creux of Valdezia mission station, he codified the language of the Tsonga people, which they called 'Thonga', but later renamed Xitsonga.
'The Life of a South African Tribe', which is about the life of Tsonga people, was published in two volumes in 1912, an enlarged version being printed in 1927 and has been translated into several languages and is highly regarded.
Junod was an exceptional scholar, a member of many societies and with wide interests in the world of natural history, amassing extensive collections of beetles and butterflies. His ethnographer son, Henri-Philippe Junod (18971987), wrote a biography 'Henri-A. Junod, Missionaire et Savant, 18631934'.
, 'Deservedly ranked as one of the greatest monographs on the ethnography of Africa. Under the headings 'life of the individual; family and village life; national life; agricultural and industrial life; literary and artistic life; religious life and superstitions,' it gives well nigh exhaustive account of Tonga culture, distinguished especially by its many concrete illustrations of individual variation and of the changes due to the impact of Western civilization. The book is not altogether beyond criticism, and the section on political life is by no means as full as could have been wished, but as a whole it is a magnificent piece of work. (Schapera (I.) Select Bibliography of South African Native Life and Problems, Ethnology).
