Brenda Atkinson The Prophetic Nun by Guy Butler (Random) It’s not an easy task to review a book which, although evidently written as a work of great personal interest and passion, has (or so I imagine) limited appeal for most people. The Prophetic Nun is such a book.
A well-researched document of the artistic and cultural contributions to South Africa of three Anglican nuns one of whom, Sister Pauline, is credited with teaching and inspiring the brilliant sculptor Ernest Mancoba the book reads as a low-key non-fiction piece of detective work by a man determined to give these unknown women their due. This is a worthy enough aim: all three either through artistic production or social activism in a racially divided South Africa were religious women who made a significant impact on the secular world.
Within their respective “fields”, Sisters Margaret, Pauline and Dorothy Rapahel achieved what might be considered remarkable things for women and nuns at that in the first half of the 20th century, and on foreign ground. Butler found that Sister Margaret was responsible for two large religious frescoes and at least 28 oil paintings.
Where Margaret painted in the solitary pursuit of meditation and prayer, Sister Pauline, who worked for 14 years at Grace Dieu near Pietersberg, found her calling in teaching wood carving and sculpture to young black men and boys at the school. One of these, Mancoba, produced his famous Black Madonna while under her tutelage. Finally, Dorothy Raphael’s achievements in Sophiatown, where she worked energetically before forced removals destroyed the area, are described by Butler with tremendous admiration for her “holiness and humour”, as well as her considerable practical energy.
What the book sets out to do is to chart the lives and works of three white women prior to and during some of the most turbulent years in South African history. Butler marks them as unusual for both their talents and their use of these talents for the advance of non-racism. And, since Butler himself has an evidently deep and powerful connection to the Anglican faith, The Prophetic Nun has undoubtedly been, for him, a compelling project.
For all its worthiness, I doubt that too many people would find The Prophetic Nun a scintillating read. Butler’s writing style is not as energetic as his commitment, and his topic to this reader at least is rather too obscure to carry over 100 pages of small type. As an art critic with an interest in the history of religion in this country, I found this book a bit of a trial to complete.