Thomas Pringle: “the beginning of a future that has not arrived”

In his recent (2020) book, Matthew Shum offers an important rereading of the life, work and contemporary significance of Thomas Pringle, the Scottish South African poet and activist. The book’s challenge stems from three interrelated lines of energy. First is the author’s tracking of Pringle through the three locations of his activity: Scotland, the Cape, London. Second is the argument that Pringle was not from birth or early conviction the liberal champion he is remembered as in South Africa. Third, Shum warns against seeking in Pringle a model for the settler presence in post-colonial South Africa today. A comparison with two near-contemporary Scottish poets, fellow “Borderers”, who both also had colonial experience, leads this essay to a conclusion that acknowledges Shum’s account of the challenge our reading of Pringle offers to South Africa today.