Archibald Campbell Jordan

Archibald Campbell Mzolisa "A.C." Jordan (30 October 1906 – 20 October 1968) was a

In 1961 Jordan was offered a Carnegie bursary to do research in the United States, but was refused a passport by the South African government. As a result of political pressure, Jordan was forced to leave South Africa on an exit permit. He settled in America where he was appointed professor in African Languages and Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, and later moved, in similar capacity, to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1968, Jordan died in Madison, after a long illness.

One eminent South African scholar who studied Xhosa under Jordan's guidance was the writer and academic,

Jordan's other important publications include a book of short stories entitled Kwezo Mpindo zeTsitsa, published in 1973 as Tales from Southern Africa, and an important pioneering critical study, entitled Towards an African Literature: The Emergence of Literary Form in Xhosa (1972).

Legacy

For his creative works, his pioneering research and his sustained efforts at preserving and recording in his writing the culture and history of the Xhosa people of the Eastern Cape, the University of Port Elizabeth currently known as Nelson Mandela University (NMU) posthumously bestowed^[2] on Jordan an honorary doctorate in literature, on 24 April 2004.

He was awarded posthumously the Order of Ikhamanga in Gold in 2005.^[3]

In 2015 the University of Cape Town renamed the Arts Block after Jordan in recognition of his work.^[4]

References

• ISBN 978-0-520-08172-7
  .