Lister Hunter - Eastern Cape Tribes African Ceremony Xhosa

Lister Haig Hunter

1919 - 1981

Trader - Photographer - Ethnologist

Lister Haig Hunter - Circa 1950 - Umtata Agencies

Lister Haig Hunter was born in South Africa in 1919. In 1941 he married Madeline Shirley Thomson. He served in the Royal Air Force during WW 2. After the war he opened a trading store at Umtata which dealt in traditional herbal medicines known locally as Muthi or Muti.

Umtata - by Caesar Car Hans Henkel - circa 1913

Umtata was a military post for colonial forces from 1882. Between 1976 and 1994 it served as the capital of the Republic of Transkei. The city was subsequently renamed Mthatha. In 1994 the former Transkei, Ciskei and the eastern portion of the Cape Province were incorporated to become the Eastern Cape.

Umtata Agencies - Tourists Paradise - Indlu · Ya Mayeza

The Muthi shop (pronounced mooty) provided the service of an African Pharmacy or Chemist. Muti Shops were found in most all South African settlements and this remains so today. The majority of the population relies on these medicines for primary health care. The word Muti stems from Umuthi - which is Zulu for medicine or tree. The word is the same because the majority of medicines come from trees (plants).

Indlu - Ya Mayeza - Tourists Paradise Muti Counter - Umtata Agencies

In house Sangoma or Healer Storerooms

Herbal Medicine Storage Containers Completed Curios - Beadwork

Lister Hunter's trading store simultaneously catered for European tourists. Beads were provided to locals who made up curios on order. Finished product included beaded necklaces, beaded sticks, etc. Some traditional beaded artefacts were bought in and dealt with, such as tobacco bags and beaded aprons. Postcards were sold.

Umtata Agencies - Tourists Paradise - L. H. Hunter Propritor

The Lister Hunter Postcards

Lister Hunter spent years learning about the most interesting aspects of the various tribal peoples living in the region. He would journey to events such as birth, ceremony, circumcisions, initiations, weddings, scarification and death. At the same time, he was a keen photographer. The overlap between these two interests was spontaneous. As though to confirm this, information attached to one picture reads; It took years to obtain this picture, what with false alarms, wrong information, un co-operative mothers and their fantastic superstition.

Post Card - Grinding mealies near Umtata

Many postcards were Lister Hunters own work. He sent his most interesting photographs to Art Publishers (PTY) Ltd., located at 265 Umbilo Road in Durban, Natal. There they were commercially reproduced and marketed around the country. We are unawares of a complete set of these historically visual documents, but share with the viewer what we can. Note that the postcards were numbered.

Post Card - Young Pondo Girl

Post Card - Platting Hair

The Lister Hunter Slides

Historical - Textual - Visual Records

Lister Hunter - Illuminated Slide Display - Umtata Agencies

Lister Hunter made and sold slides. Slides were specially mounted transparencies that could be projected onto a screen so that a picture might be viewed by a large audience. Travelers the world over would purchase color slides as they would postcards, to share with family and friends on their return home. The height of popularity of color slides predates that of color photographs. Photographers who could afford slide film and projection equipment used slides extensively until about 1970, when color print film began to displace them.

Data attached to the original slide holding container.

Lister Hunter's slide sale collections were compiled into seven sets totaling 163 ethnic studies of isiXhosa speakers. The majority of these are said to have been taken between Umtata and Elliotdale in the Eastern Cape. Tribal peoples captured in the slides are Gcaleka, Fingo, Mfengu, Thembu, Pondo and Xhosa clans. Slide Sets were named A to G and described on the container list, as well as sale sheets, as follows:

Set A 1/50 - Initiation into Manhood - The Ceremony of Circumcision - Presenting in colour slides the story of the Abakwetha

Set B 51/66 - Scarify Body for Health (Pondo Girls) Caza Umzimba

Set C 67/82 - Initiation into Womanhood - Ntonjaan

Set D 83/93 - Scarify Body for Beauty - Scarification of the Body for Beauty (Tembu Girls) Vamba Umzimba

Set E 94/122 - Wedding - Xhosa Wedding - Umtshato

Set F 123/131 - After Birth of a Baby - The Strange Ceremony of "Sifudu"

Set G 132/163 - General Studies - General Studies of Transkei People - All Tribes

One notation made on an early document describing the slide collection mentioned the firm "Wonk'Umutu Handcraft Centre (Pty) Ltd." Prices were set in South African rand for full sets, or South African cents when sold individually. The last recorded priced follow. As of 2009 exchange rates, all seven sets inclusive helpful documentation, would have cost you €4.00 (euro) or $5.00 (US)!

Slide Prices - Circa 1960

Gallery Ezakwantu digitalized Lister Hunters slide collection. It is the Hunter families wish to share with you the fantastic imagery and information he assembled. The photographs and accompanied data are Copyright Protected - © - by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Each Slide Set (A-G) has a dedicated page. Click a thumb to enter the section or category.

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