INTRODUCTION 1. Though the Policies of Apartheid and Separate Development Sought to Preserve African Languages and Traditions, T

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

INTRODUCTION 1. Though the Policies of Apartheid and Separate Development Sought to Preserve African Languages and Traditions, T Notes INTRODUCTION 1. Though the policies of apartheid and separate development sought to preserve African languages and traditions, this was part of a wider programme to confine the 'Bantu' to their tribal cultures; it took no account of the degree of tribal integration that had taken place, and very little account of the natural linguistic developments within the black communities- developments which were never towards greater purity. The major liberation movements therefore view this official tampering with African cultures as part of the machinery of repression. 2. Recent work by Couzens and others demonstrates much more fully than has hitherto been shown, the operations of African tradition within the work of those early writers. See Daniel Kunene's new translation of Mofolo's Chaka and Tim Couzens' editions ofDhlomo. 3. A shebeen is a drinking place run, illegally, by African women, usually in their own homes. Thus while it serves the function of a bar, and is often the scene of wild drinking bouts, it has the character of a family living room. 4. See R. Kavanagh, Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa (London: Zed Books, 1985) p. 33. CHAPTER 1 1. Mafika Gwala, No More Lullabies (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1982) p. 10. 2. Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (Oxford: Basil Black­ well, 1983) p. 21. 3. Athol Fugard, John Kani & Winston Ntshona, 'The Island', Statements (London & Capetown: Oxford U.P., 1974) p. 62. 4. Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory (London: Verso, 1978) p. 49. 5. Donald Woods, Biko (New York & London: Paddington Press, 1978) p. 130. 6. See Denis Duerden & Cosmo Pieterse (eds), African Writers Talking (London: Heinemann, 1972) p. 158. 7. Nadine Gordimer, 'English-Language Literature and Politics in South 257 258 Black Writers from South Africa Africa' in Christopher Heywood (ed.), Aspects of South African Literature (London: Heinemann, 1976) p. 118. 8. Nadine Gordimer, 'The Novel and the Nation in South Africa', in G. D. Killam (ed.), African Writers on African Writing (London: Heinemann, 1973)p. 52. 9. Lewis Nkosi, 'Fiction by Black South Africans', Home and Exile and Other Selections, 2nd edition (London & New York: Longman, 1983) p. 137. 10. Ibid., p. 5. 11. Essop Patel (ed.), The World of Nat Nakasa: Selected Writings of the Late Nat Nakasa(Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1975) p. 82. 12. Nkosi, Home and Exile II, p. 25. 13. Aelred Stubbs (ed.), Steve Biko: I Write What I Like (The Bowerdean Press,l978)p.164. 14. Gordimer in Christopher Heywood (ed.), Aspects of South African Literature, p. 118. 15. Alex La Guma in Duerden and Pieterse (eds), African Writers Talking, p. 93. 16. Gordimer in Christopher Heywood (ed.), Aspects of South 4/rican Literature, p. 119. 17. Ezekiel Mphahlele, The African Image, 1st edition (London: Faber & Faber, 1962) p. 108. 18. Ibid., p. 38. 19. Olive Schreiner, Story of an African Farm (London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd, 1924) p. 106. 20. Nadine Gordimer and Lionel Abrahams (eds), South African Writing Today (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967). 21. Dennis Brutus, 'Protest Against Apartheid', in C. Pieterse & D. Munro (eds), Protest and Conflict in African Literature (London: Heinemann, 1974)pp. 93-4. 22. See Publications and Entertainment Act 1963 Section 6, Statutes of the Republic ofSouth Africa, Classified & Annotatedfrom 1910. 23. House of Assembly Debates, Republic of South 4frica,18 Jan.-15 March, 1963, vol. 5, columns 532-3. 24. Publications Act No. 42 of1974, Statutes R.S.A. 25. Publications Act No. 42 of1974, Statutes ofR.S.A., Section 52. 26. Ibid., Section 8. 27. Alfred Hutchinson, Road to Ghana (London: Gollancz, 1960) p. 15. 28. Jonathon Paton, 'Censorship & the University', in J. S. Paton (ed.), The Grey Ones: Essays on Censorship (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1974) p. 8. Quoted from a memorandum on banned books of literary merit by Professor Colin Gardner, no reference given. 29. Nadine Gordimer, 'Apartheid and Censorship', in J. S. Paton (ed.), The Grey Ones, p. 5. 30. Lewis Nkosi, Home and Exile, 1st edition (London: Longmans, 1965) p. 119. 31. Ibid., p. 121. 32. Nadine Gordimer, The Black Interpreters (Johannesburg: Spro­ CasjRavan, 1973) p. 51. 33. Nkosi, Home and Exile I, p. 121. Notes 259 34. Ibid., p. 46. 35. G. D. Killam (ed.), African Writers on African Writing, p. 10. 36. Nkosi, Home and Exile I, p. 50. 37. G. D. Killam (ed.), African Writers on African Writing, p. 33. 38. SeeNkosi,HomeandExilel,p. 17. 39. Marx & Engels, The German Ideology, 1865--6, quoted in Terry Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism (London: Methuen, 1976, reprinted 1983)p. 4. 40. From A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859), quoted ibid.,p. 4. 41. 'Notebook' December 1968, quoted in Christopher Heywood (ed.), Aspects ofSouth African Literature, p. 169. 42. Woods, Bilco, p. 124. 43. Hazel Barnes, Sartre (London: Quartet Books, 1974) p. 120. 44. Ibid. 45. Ezekiel Mphahlele, 'Renewal Time', preface to The Unbroken Song (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1981) p. x. 46. Barnes, Sartre, p. Ill. 47. Iris Murdoch, Sartre (London: Fontana, Collins, 1967) p. 71. 48. David Lodge (ed.), Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (London: Longmans, 1972) pp. 276-90. 49. Ibid., p. 289. 50. Robert Kavanagh, South African People's Plays (London: Heinemann, 1981) pp. xxiii-xxiv. 51. Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, p. 22. 52. Ibid., p. 24. 53. Ibid., p. 26. 54. Jacques Alvarez Peryre, The Poetry of Commitment in South Africa (London: Heinemann, 1984) p. 215. 55. Mothabi Mutloatse, Forced Landing Africa South, Contemporary Writ- ings (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1980) p. 5. 56. Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, p. 62. 57. Mutloatse, Forced Landing, p. 5. 58. Quoted in Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, p. 24. 59. Ibid., pp. 24-5. 60. Allistair Sparks, 'A poet's anger revives ideals of Steve Biko', Observer, 18 September 1983, p. 13. 61. Eagleton, Literary Theory, p. 90. 62. Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory (London: Verso Editions, 1978) p. 56. 63. Eagleton, Literary Theory, pp. 208-9. 64. Ibid., p. 209. 65. Ibid., p. 196. 66. Ibid., p. 141. 67. Ibid., pp. 108-9. 68. Ibid., p. 109. 69. Ibid., p. 112. 70. David Lodge (ed.), Twentieth Century Criticism, p. 371. 71. Ibid., p. 376. 72. Ibid., p. 377. 260 Black Writers from South Africa 73. Ibid. 74. Ibid. 75. Ibid., p. 379. 76. Ibid., p. 380. 77: Ibid., p. 383. 78. Ibid. 79. Ibid. 80. Ibid., p. 384. 81. Ibid., p. 338. 82. Northrop Frye, Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology (New York: Harcourt Brace& World, 1963) pp. 12-13. 83. Lodge (ed.), Twentieth Century Criticism, p. 187. 84. Ibid. 85. See Barnes, Sartre, p. 71. 86. N. Chabani Manganyi, Mashangu's Reverie and other essays (Johannes- burg: Ravan Press, 1977) pp. 55-6. 87. Ibid., p. 60. 88. Ibid., p. 66. 89. Ibid., p. 67. 90. Eagleton, Literary Theory, p. 214. 91. Cliff Slaughter, Marxism, Ideology and Literature (London: Macmillan, 1980)p. 179. 92. Ibid., p. 182. 93. See ibid., pp. 90-100. 94. Eagleton, Literary Theory, p. 215. 95. Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology, p. 55. 96. Slaughter, Marxism, Ideology and Literature, p. 57. 97. Ibid. 98. Eagleton, Literary Theory, p. 203. 99. Ibid. 100. Slaughter, Marxism, Ideology and Literature, p. 145. 101. Ibid., p. 174. 102. See summary of Benjamin's 'The Author as Producer', ibid., p. 181. 103. Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology, p. 84. 104. Eagleton, Literary Theory, p. 74. 105. Ibid., p. 89. 106. Ibid., p. 125. 107. Seeibid.,p. 191. 108. Slaughter, Marxism, Ideology and Literature, p. 47. 109. Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology, p. 135. CHAPTER TWO 1. Ezekiel Mphahlele, preface to The African Image, 1st edition (London: Faber & Faber, 1962) p. 16. 2. Ezekiel Mphahlele, preface to The African Image, 2nd edition (London: Faber & Faber, 1974) p. 10. 3. N. Chabani Manganyi, Exiles and Homecomings:A Biography of Es'kia Mphah/ele (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1983) p. 2. Notes 261 4. Ezekiel Mphahlele, Voices in the Whirlwind and Other Essays (London: Macmillan, 1972) p. 160. 5. Voices in the Whirlwind, p. 127. 6. Ibid., p. 157. 1. Ibid., p. 127. 8. Ibid., p. 128. 9. The African Image II, p. 21. 10. Voices in the Whirlwind, p. 198. He goes on to argue that with development and the inequalities that follow in its train, culture now requires an economic base. This is one of the points at which his train of thought is not immediately apparent-an idea in germination rather than fruition, perhaps. 11. Ibid., p. 121. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid., p. 127. 14. Ibid., p. 198. 15. Mphahlele, The African Image II, p. 15. 16. Ibid., p. 29. 17. Ibid. 18. Ibid., pp. 48-9. 19. Ibid., p. 30. 20. Mphahlele, Voices in the Whirlwind, p. 169. 21. The African Image I, p. 93. 22. The African Image II, p. 41. 23. Voices in the Whirlwind, p. 15. 24. Ibid., p. 198. 25. Ibid., pp. 76-7. 26. The African Image II, p. 27. 27. Ibid., p. 28. 28. Ibid. 29. Ibid., p. 30. 30. Ibid., p. 248. 31. Ibid., pp. 247-8. 32. The African Image I, p. 93. 33. The African Image II, p. 35. 34. Ibid., pp. 246-7. 35. Andre Brink, A Dry White Season (London: W. H. Allen, 1979). 36. Nadine Gordimer, July's People (London: Jonathan Cape, 1981) p. 8. 37. Ibid., p. 152. 38. Mphahlele, preface to The African Image II, p. 9. 39. The African Image I, p. 19. 40. Ibid. 41. Ibid., p. 20. 42. Voices in the Whirlwind, pp. 15-16. 43. Ibid., p. 16. 44. Ibid., p. 196. 45. The African Image II, p. 89.
Recommended publications
  • Echoes of an African Drum: the Lost Literary Journalism of 1950S South Africa
    DRUM 7 Writer/philosopher Can Themba, 1952. Photo by Jürgen Schadeberg, www.jurgenshadeberg.com. Themba studied at Fort Hare University and then moved to the Johannesburg suburb of Sophiatown. He joined the staff of Drum magazine after winning a short-story competition and quickly became the most admired of all Drum writers. 8 Literary Journalism Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 2016 The Drum office, 1954. Photo by Jürgen Schadeberg, www.jurgenshadeberg.com. The overcrowded Johannesburg office housed most of Drum’s journalists and photographers. Schadeberg took the picture while Anthony Sampson directed it, showing (from left to right) Henry Nxumalo, Casey Motsitsi, Ezekiel Mphalele, Can Themba, Jerry Ntsipe, Arthur Maimane (wearing hat, drooping cigerette), Kenneth Mtetwa (on floor), Victor Xashimba, Dan Chocho (with hat), Benson Dyanti (with stick) and Robert Gosani (right with camera). Todd Matshikiza was away. 9 Echoes of an African Drum: The Lost Literary Journalism of 1950s South Africa Lesley Cowling University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (or Johannesburg) Abstract: In post-apartheid South Africa, the 1950s era has been romanti- cized through posters, photographs, a feature film, and television commer- cials. Much of the visual iconography and the stories come from the pages of Drum, a black readership magazine that became the largest circulation publication in South Africa, and reached readers in many other parts of the continent. Despite the visibility of the magazine as a cultural icon and an extensive scholarly literature on Drum of the 1950s, the lively journalism of the magazine’s writers is unfamiliar to most South Africans. Writers rather than journalists, the early Drum generation employed writing strategies and literary tactics that drew from popular fiction rather than from reporterly or literary essay styles.
    [Show full text]
  • Between Colour Lines: Interrogating the Category 'Coloured' in Depictions Of
    Between colour lines: Interrogating the category ‘coloured’ in depictions of District Six in the work of five South African artists Cameron Amelia Cupido Dissertation in fulfilment of Master’s in Visual Studies Visual Arts Department Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof. Lize Van Robbroeck March 2018 1 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. March 2018 Copyright © 2018 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract The Group Areas Act of 1950 radically affected coloured artists of the time, since it resulted in forced removals and the demolition of traditionally ‘coloured’ suburbs, and forced coloured people into mono-cultural suburbs with imposed identities not of their own choosing. This thesis seeks to uncover the complexities and heterogeneity of coloured identity and the effects apartheid ideologies and practices had on the personal narratives and cultural praxis of Lionel Davis, Albert Adams, George Hallett, Gavin Jantjes and Peter Clarke, who all emphasized the significance of District Six in their own articulations of colouredness. I propose that this problematic ascribed identity was at the root of most artworks produced by these artists and that their art helped them deal with their experiences within (and about) the space of District Six during apartheid.
    [Show full text]
  • Johaar Mosaval from District Six to the Royal Ballet
    Johaar Mosaval From District Six to the Royal Ballet District Six like Harlem in New York also had its own “Harlem Renaissance” or cultural boom. Writers, composers, photographers, filmmakers, dramatists, poets, musicians, dancers, artists, socio-political activists flourished and exploded onto the world stage but were denied the opportunity for career advancement in their own homeland. Few other places can boast of such an explosion of talent and impact. It was nothing short of miraculous, given the adversity faced by the people. The District’s Hyman Lieberman and Marion Institutes were cultural centres of excellence. Down the road the Eoan Group was the launch-pad of many stars such as Johaar Mosaval who began his ballet career there. It was the start of a journey that led to the Royal Ballet Opera School in London and to him becoming a principle dancer with the Royal Ballet. Indeed, shamefully for the Apartheid government and the City authorities, and tragically for the people of the district, District Six, home of more than 60,000 people was demolished and its people forcibly removed under Apartheid’s ethnic cleansing programme for the City. The District’s names and achievements roll off the tongue: Abdullah Ibrahim, Basil Coetzee, Lennie Lee, Bea Benjamin, Zane Adams, Hotep Galeta, Alex la Guma, Richard Rive, Rozena Maart, Adam Small, Taliep Petersen, George Hallett, Gregoire Boonzaier, Sandra McGregor, James Matthews and Trevor Jones are just a few of those names. Johaar Mosaval was born in District Six in Cape Town on 8 January 1928 and was one of nine children in his family.
    [Show full text]
  • The Blue Notes: South African Jazz and the Limits of Avant-Garde Solidarities in Late 1960S London
    The Blue Notes: South African Jazz and the Limits of Avant-Garde Solidarities in Late 1960s London Lindelwa Dalamba University of the Witwatersrand, Wits School of Arts, Department of Music, Johannesburg, South Africa [email protected] Notes on contributor Lindelwa Dalamba teaches music history, specializing in South African jazz and other musical modernisms, in the Music Department of the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Arts. ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3601-6955 1 The Blue Notes: South African Jazz and the Limits of Avant-Garde Solidarities in Late 1960s London For the Blue Notes, an ensemble comprised of South African jazz musicians living in Britain, 1968 was pivotal. After three years on the margins of the London jazz scene, their debut album Very Urgent was released in May that year to positive acclaim. Very Urgent was understood as an important statement of the British jazz avant-garde movement that captured the spirit of 1968, infused with the Blue Notes’ musical South Africanisms. In this article, I explore how shifting understandings of jazz in the 1960s aided and undermined the Blue Notes’ musical identities: as mbaqanga, hard bop and free jazz musicians. I argue that Very Urgent and, to an extent, the Blue Notes, cannot be understood solely in the terms favored by their early reception in Britain. Rather, both represent a complex matrix of personal, musical and political relations that constituted British and South African jazz art worlds in the 1960s. Keywords: South African jazz, London, the Blue Notes, exile, Very Urgent For me this conscious kind of South Africanism came in exile.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes and References
    Notes and References 1 The Invisible Migrants There have, however, been several short articles on exiled and other South Africans in Britain which have appeared in journals and news­ papers such as Race Today, New Society, Third World, the Guardian and the Independent on Sunday (Kozonguizi, 1969; Lapping, 1969; de Gier, 1987; Cunningham, 1988). 2 Apart from the plethora of autobiographies and two Hollywood films (Cry Freedom and A World Apart), a series of interviews with South African exiles appeared in the British press: with Hugh Masekela (Johnson, 1990), Peter Hain (Keating, 1991) and articles on South Africans in Britain by Freedberg (1990), Sher (1991) and Fathers (1992) . In addition, Anthony Sher appeared in a film written by Alan Cubitt for 'Screen Play' on BBC2, The Land of Dreams (transmitted 8 August 1990), and Christopher Hope (1990) presented a Kaleido­ scope programme on exile for Radio Four (transmitted 16 February 1990). 3 There have, of course, been exceptions. In a book published in 1994, Robin Cohen traced the relationship between Britain and Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Rhodesia (Cohen, 1994). 4 None of these archives have been fully catalogued. Indeed, the mate­ rial in the IDAF and AAM collections will not be easily accessible for several more years. 5 The choice of 75 interviews seemed a reasonable compromise between my desire to obtain detailed accounts and a series of resource and time constraints. The sample size was chosen to give me enough information to study exiles as individuals as well as enough people to be able to consider what was going on among other exile groupings.
    [Show full text]
  • Add to Entry on ALEX LA GUMA: REFERENCES: Anthony Chennels
    Add to entry on ALEX LA GUMA: REFERENCES: Anthony Chennels, "Pastoral and Anti-pastoral Elements in Alex La Guma's Later Novels," in Literature, Language and the Nation, ed. Emmanuel Ngara and Andrew Morrison (Harare: Atoll & Baobab Books, 1989): 39-49; Felix Mnthali, "Common Grounds in the Literatures of Black America and Southern Africa," in American Studies in Africa, ed. Andrew Horn and George E. Carter (Roma: University Press of lesotho and the Ford Foundation, 1984): 37-54; Richard Samin, "La Situation n'est pas eternelle," Europe, 708 (1988): 35-39; Add to entry on ALEX LA GUMA: BOOKS Memories of Home: The Writings of Alex La Guma, ed. Cecil Abrahams (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1991). REFERENCES S.O. Asein, Alex La Guma: The Man and His Work (Ibadan: New Horn Press and Heinemann Educational Books, 1987). Alex La Guma (20 February 1925-11 October 1985) Cecil A. Abrahams Bishop's University c-A?.lli-. ..----- --···-----. ······---- - .. ··--------- ------·--- BOOKS I I i A Walk in the Night (Ibadan: Mbari Publications, 1962); reprinted as A Walk in the Night and Other Stories (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, f Au.c."--l-ionJ Boo'-<S r~r,-co.-v., wr, +e rs s-e ('/es.) 3 fL 1967; London; Heinemann 1967)j 11 <Y l I , lrl ll+OwV\ ~c,YS (q~~)) And a Threefold Cord (Berlin: Seven Seas, 1964)1 l,oVl.d.Dn. V\ 1-r 1 V · Ci( Cd ,,,.,J The Stone Country (Berlin: Seven Seas, 1967; reprinted, London: He, nemann / L-- • · 1~ gook S 'A--fn '-~ v) r:ters $'"er; e~ Is 171Qj .
    [Show full text]
  • The Transcription Centre
    The Transcription Centre: An Inventory of Its Records at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: The Transcription Centre, circa 1962-1977 Title: The Transcription Centre Records Dates: 1931-1986 (bulk 1960-1977) Extent: 25 boxes (10.50 linear feet) Abstract: The records of the Transcription Centre comprise scripts and manuscripts, correspondence, legal documents, business records, ephemera, photographs, and clippings spanning the years 1931 to 1986. Languages: English, Hausa, Swahili, German, French, and Italian . Access: Open for research Administrative Information Acquisition: Purchase, 1990 (R12142) Processed by: Bob Taylor, 2008 Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center The Transcription Centre, circa 1962-1977 Organizational History The Transcription Centre began its brief but significant life in February 1962 under the direction of Dennis Duerden (1927-2006), producing and distributing radio programs for and about Africa. Duerden was a graduate of Queen’s College, Oxford and had served as principal of the Government Teachers’ College at Keffi, Nigeria and later as producer of the Hausa Service of the BBC. As an artist and educator with experience in West Africa, as well as a perceptive critic of African art he was a natural in his new post. The Transcription Centre was created with funding provided initially by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to foster non-totalitarian cultural values in sub-Saharan Africa in implicit opposition to Soviet-encouraged committed political attitudes among African writers and artists. Much of the CCF’s funding and goals were subsequently revealed to have come from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The stress between the CCF’s presumed wish to receive value for their investment in the Transcription Centre and Duerden’s likely belief that politically-based programming would alienate the very audience it sought permeated his activities throughout his years with the radio service.
    [Show full text]
  • Pejorism in Alex La Guma's and a Threefold Cord
    European Scientific Journal February 2013 edition vol.9, No.5 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 PEJORISM IN ALEX LA GUMA’S AND A THREEFOLD CORD Victor O. Ogbeide, PhD Department Of English And Literary Studies, Faculty Of Arts, University Of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria Abstract This article examines pejorism in Alex La Guma’s And a Threefold Cord. Employing the factors of characterization, setting and language it demonstrates that La Guma could be pejorative, in deference to his Marxist persuasion and his first hand experience, in his literary objective of letting the world know about the plight of the hapless non-whites in the apartheid enclave of South Africa. The implications of pejorism in the novel notwithstanding, it is the contention of this paper that its use by La Guma is not only a function of his realism as a novelist but also a function of his unflagging commitment to the cause of the oppressed, deprived and dehumanized all over the world be they in the wilds of Ajegunle in Nigeria or in the disease-infested slums of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. Keywords: Pejorism, apartheid, non-whites, deterioration, disintegration Introduction A theory in literature states that socially conscious writers often set for themselves the rather onerous task of recreating the collective experience of a race, clan, sect or even a nation in fictional terms. And as long as it lasted, apartheid, the obnoxious policy of separate development that was formally renounced in the republic of South Africa in 1994, was a veritable nightmare of a sort whose experience was a collective one especially for the non- white population in South Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Black South African Literature from the 'Sophiatown Renaissance' to 'Black
    Untitled Document [Although this essay was presented as a lecture at the Center for Black Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara on April 30, 1990, it was really a product of my West Berlin stay from 1985 to 1989. Henry Nxumalo was the founding member of Drum magazine. He seems to have been intellectually closer to H. I. E. Dhlomo and Peter Abrahams (according to the latter's Return to Egoli [1953]) than to Bloke Modisane and Lewis Nkosi (writers of the literary generation in which he is usually placed). He was a historical figure of historical connections and transitions. The following essay of historical connections exemplifies this particular spirit of Henry Nxumalo.] Black South African literature from the ‘Sophiatown Renaissance' to ‘Black Mamba Rising': Transformations and Variations from the 1950s to the 1980s. by Ntongela Masilela The task of historical hermeneutics is to make alien material comprehensible, i.e. material that is remote in time or in social or ethnic origin. In so doing, we do not deny its extrinsic or intrinsic distance from us, but instead make this distance part of the present as opposed to viewing it from a detached historical standpoint. In other words, an aesthetic presence based on such historical insight embraces rather than bypasses an awareness of this otherness or alienness. -Carl Dahlhaus, "Is history on the decline?," in the Foundations of music history. In its broad outline it is this: up to now our fiction has been a fiction of witness - doing a useful job in bearing witness to the immense suffering of our people and the sacrifices they have been and are continuing to make in resisting this oppression, but the nature of our crisis as black writers is where to go from here.
    [Show full text]
  • Casey Motsisi
    RIOT CASEY MOTSISI ATARIA MBATHA looked at the clock on the kitchen dresser. The clock had stopped. But she knew instinc­ tively that it was very late at night and her eyes were heavy with sleep. She yawned as she continued to rock the young boy she was carrying in her arms to sleep. But the boy kept staring unblinkingly into the dim-lit room with big, sleepless eyes. They both listened to the noisy silence of the room. “Ma,” the young boy said softly. “Yes, my son.” Her mind was still blank. “Ma, I want water.” “Water.” She repeated the word like a child learning a new word at school. “Ma, I want water, water, water,” he rattled. “Shut up, you’re making noise. Why don’t you wait for your mother to come and give you water?” “I want water. I want water. Put me down. I want water.” The palm of her hand came down hard on the young boy’s buttocks. He did not cry. He started kicking his feet up and down. “Next time I will make you feel the sjambok, Boetikie,” she vowed after the young boy’s fist had caught her smartly on the chin. “I want water. Put me down. I want water ...” Maria, still holding the young boy in one hand, stood up and gave him a mug ful of water. “You just wet the blankets tonight and see what happens to you tomorrow,” she said as she watched him gulp the water greedily. “Ma, I’m hungry,” Boetikie said after finishing the water.
    [Show full text]
  • Laligens, Vol.4 (1), January 2015
    LALIGENS, VOL.4 (1), JANUARY 2015 An International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies (LALIGENS), Ethiopia Vol. 4 (1), Serial No 9, January, 2015:119- ISSN: 2225-8604(Print) ISSN 2227-5460 (Online) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/laligens.v4i1.9 The City as Trope: Snapshots of the Urban Experience in Alex La Guma’s A Walk In The Night Igbifa, Ene Eric Department of English Studies University of Port Harcourt Port Harcourt, Nigeria Phone: +234 (0) 803 898 3199 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract In A Walk in the Night, Alex La Guma holds aloft, for his readers, a portrait of slum life in urban South Africa at a particular historical moment. Depicted on La Guma’s novelistic canvas is a life which bears too frightening a resemblance to Thomas Hobbes “state of nature.” This essay attempts to establish a causal connection between the brutishness, nastiness, shortness and solitariness which characterize the lives of La Guma’s characters, and the cheerless, filthy and insalubrious physical surroundings in which these characters find themselves. By highlighting some of the many tropes which La Guma employs in the realization of his grim portrait of urban life, the essay validates the literariness of La Guma’s work. The essay insinuates, in conclusion, that La Guma’s narrative is animated by the consequential link the people and places in it. Key words: Alex La Guma, A Walk in the Night, the Urban Novel, the South African Novel, Apartheid Copyright © IAARR 2014: www.afrrevjo.net/laligens 119 Indexed and Listed by AJOL & EBSCOhost LALIGENS, VOL.4 (1), JANUARY 2015 I It is hardly contestable that of all the genres of literature, prose-fiction—probably because of its considerable magnitude—is the one which allows the writer the most ample room to treat a variety of themes.
    [Show full text]
  • The New African Cape Town and London, 1962-70
    The New African Cape Town and London, 1962-70 Promoting ‘the advance of a united Africa and the liberation of its southern peoples’ Beginnings To many hoping for change in our continent 1960 was ‘Africa Year’, with many colonies becoming independent, as reflected in Harold Macmillan’s ‘wind of change’ speech in Cape Town on 3 February 1960. Africa was on the move towards a democratic future and in South Africa the ‘positive action campaign’ of the Pan Africanist Congress brought the first hope of a ‘wind of change’ that would blow away the country’s legacy of racial oppression. On 21 March 1960 there were police shootings at Sharpeville and Langa. The peaceful march into Cape Town on 29 March led by Philip Kgosana of the PAC was a factor leading to the brief abrogation of the Pass Laws. For a few days change seemed possible. A State of Emergency, with mass detentions, followed on 30 March 1960. The Verwoerd government proscribed the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress and detained hundreds of political activists, including the first Liberal Party members thus to be gaoled, temporarily blighting the process of political change. Green shoots soon appeared on the seemingly moribund body politic outside the whites-only parliament. Among the newest of these was the germination of the radical ideas of a group of young Liberals who saw the events of 1960 as a turning point towards the non-racial democratic South Africa which was our goal. We also saw the need for a magazine aimed at opening up debate and spreading the word about the new Africa.
    [Show full text]