Book Review
A new book written by a Dominican priest, who has ministered to the Deaf communities of South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho for nearly 20 years, is a thoughtful and rich exploration of the intersection between history philosophy and heroism.
More than that, however, Proud to be Deaf: Ministry, Saintliness and the History of the Catholic Deaf Community in South Africa, 1874-1994 by Fr Mark James, OP, seeks to awaken a new consciousness about the unique contribution of the Deaf community to society.
Published by UJ Press, the 461-page book meets the high standards of a peer-reviewed academic endeavour, providing a well-researched and meticulously-documented history of the Catholic Church’s contribution to the education of deaf children.
It pays particular attention to the pioneering efforts of the Cabra community of Dominican Sisters in Cape Town, who opened the first school for deaf children in 1874 and the Dominican Sisters of King William’s Town, who followed suit a decade-and-a-bit later.
The book highlights the often-saintly contribution of these sisters to deaf children, while also detailing some of the key changes that have taken place across various Catholic schools for the Deaf in South Africa. This, especially as a ‘Proud to be Deaf’ consciousness grew since the 1980s and the eventual embrace of an educational approach that integrated South African Sign Language, which is now one of the country’s twelve official languages.
It does not shy away, however, from criticising some of their methods and blind spots. This critique is gently amplified in the book’s Foreword, written by deafblind priest Fr Cyril Axelrod CSsR, who was himself educated by the sisters.
Axelrod, whose remarkable story is also told later in the book, recounts some of the pain caused by the decision to embrace oralism as the preferred method of education, with its overreliance on lip-reading and vocalisation. Nevertheless, he still praises the sisters’ dedication to working for the “betterment of deaf lives”.
The book does not stop at history, however, with its activist tone immediately evident in its ‘Proud to be Deaf’ title. This activism is reinforced by James’ purposeful capitalisation of the ‘D’ in Deaf to delineate people who are ‘physiologically deaf’ from those who also culturally identify as ‘Deaf’.
Then, there is its exploration of the problems associated with oralism to the exclusion of manual methods that also integrate methodical signs and fingerspelling. James argues that oralism has served to entrench “audism”, or the notion that a person is superior based on their ability to hear, functioning much like racism in how it undermines the Deaf community, their language and their culture.
James delves into this culture and explores such concepts as ‘Deafhood’ and ‘Deaf Gain’, with the latter seeking to reframe deafness away from being a loss or a disability, to a form of sensory and cognitive diversity that benefits society. James, whose grandparents were deaf, does not seek to appropriate blame or scapegoat hearing people for the injustices committed to Deaf people. Rather he focuses on how the hearing community can be transformed by their proximity to their Deaf neighbours.
The issue of the Deaf as neighbour and what it means to be hospitable to the ‘the other’ is elevated philosophically in the book by James’ profound re-reading of Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, who he reinterprets through the lens of the South African Deaf community. Particular attention is paid to Levinas’ approach to holiness and saintliness, where one’s life is given in faithful and loving service to one’s neighbour regardless of the cost to oneself.
“Levinas says true religion, holiness and saintliness is living an answerable life, that is, a life where one accepts responsibility for one’s neighbour,” James writes. He adds: “When hearing people begin to learn sign language and the laws of countries are changed to allow for the education of deaf children in sign language, we get an idea of what Levinas meant by hospitality.”
The book then offers a practical examination of ‘Deaf saintliness and prophetic witness’ by telling the captivating life stories of several colourful personalities, including doctor in neurobiology and Deaf activist Robert Simmons, Catholic priest and artist Fr Cyril Axelrod, Christian artist Ruben Xulu (whose art features on the book’s cover and inside), Black Consciousness and Deaf activist Lindsay Moeletsi Dunn, pastor and teacher Fr John Turner CMM, and the prophetic ministry of the Deaf Community of Cape Town.
Proud to be Deaf takes on an activist quality again in its conclusion, where James challenges the church and society to create spaces for the Deaf to be themselves and to feel at home, including by enabling the celebration of church services in sign language, and by appointing priests who can sign. For James, having more Deaf priests and religious sisters would also represent a major advance and would be made more possible by efforts to create a “post-audist world”, where Deaf people and hearing people become far more bilingual.
Proud to be Deaf: Ministry, Saintliness and the History of the Catholic Deaf Community in South Africa, 1874–1994 is available from UJ Press for R425. For information please contact: Wikus Van Zyl at wikusvz@uj.ac.za
Terence Creamer
