#south African literature

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

#short story collections #short story collection #nelson mandela's favorite african folktales #nelson mandela #south african literature #african literature #black literature #book polls #completed polls #have you read this short fiction?

[potato-head-kids]

Currently reading: July’s People by Nadine Gordimer

It’s not our usual thing, and we don’t really “get” all of it tbh. But it’s not bad!

—DG and Jax

#July’s people #south African literature #books #reading #idk what to tag this as #nadine gordimer

[zoethewriter]

This collection asks the question, if the apricot trees of Soweto could talk, what stories would they tell? And I've come away from this book thinking, I guess they would tell depressing stories. Bleak vignettes with very little hope or silver linings.

The writing has its merits of course, it's descriptive and chatty. But the stories themselves feel very Sunday night television on a local broadcasting channel and maybe that's why people are drawn to them. Definitely not my cup of tea though, perhaps I'll try another offering from this author and see if it sticks. For now, I'm really just bummed out.

P.S This cover is bloody gorgeous.

#soweto under the apricot tree #niq mhlongo #african literature #south african literature #book review #zoesreviews #literature

[note-boom]

Say what you will about Bungo Stray Dogs but the fact is that it has inspired a good number of an entire generation to pick up 1800s to 1900s great literature from Japan, North America, and Europe and i think that's very cool of it really

#and if not to actually read to books then to make them aware of their existence #and if you're like me to spiral on a tangent to see what other cool books not as well-teached countries have #honestly you guys the little ive managed to read among the bsd authors has been fascinating #the postwar mentality and the struggles of those who didnt have religion to fall back on as a center of morality and meaning #thats some GOOD stuff to dig into #of course you'll find that anywhere but each literary period has its own vibe #usually that vibe is oversimplified tbh...esp considering each period even questioned their own themes and moods and the liie #*like #im hoping asagiri also delves into south american and African literature as well as other parts of asia/middle east... #as they have pretty cool things as well...and also a really different postwar perspective to look at it from #mainly we're sort of seeing lit from what we could consider winners? of war (oversimplification i know) #which is amazing and all because of the schools of thought that pop up... #but it would be neat to see the schools of thought that pop up from the literary greats of the countries that were victimized in the war #esp because the victim/victor distinction is never as clear cut as it looks #but im rambling again oops.... #this is actually a literature appreciation post disguised as a bsd appreciation post heh... #bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd musings #i havent mentioned australian lit....forgive me...i actually dont know if ive read any classic authors from there #though the modern authors from australia ive read are very good #spitting nonsense #rambling in the tags sorry #edit: or maybe dont go into other country lits cause....well it depends on how its handled really... #it would be cool but at the same time.....

[homervstheworld]

a pseudo-tie-in to the new book, Politics & Violence is a grounded short story about addiction, treason and the power to shape the future of the entire world.

#requiem #science fiction #black literature #lgbtq literature #south african #politics #dystopia

[tigger8900]

Scatterlings, by Rešoketšwe Manenzhe

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Abram van Zijl had been English once, or perhaps Dutch, but now considers himself to be African. Alisa is a Jamaican-English woman who'd come to Africa seeking the origin of her enslaved ancestors. Living together in South Africa, they've enjoyed a long marriage, albeit one troubled as of late, and have two children together. But it's 1927 and the Immorality Act has just been passed, criminalizing mixed-race relationships such as their own. Blinded by privilege he doesn't even realize he possesses, by the time Abram sees the danger to his family it's too late; desperate to save her children, Alisa commits an unforgivable act, one which will haunt her entire family as they seek refuge from those who would enforce the law.

This was a beautiful book about oppression, belonging, and what it means to find your home. Both Abram and Alisa are written as deeply flawed characters, Abram in his colonizer's naivete and Alisa in her all-consuming depression, but ones that ultimately evoke empathy. The inclusion of their daughter Dido's perspective provided a much-needed relief from what would likely have been too heavy and melancholy, if the only narrators had been adults. Her curious exploration of African folklore and tradition, first through Gloria and then through Josephina, brought the novel's themes home in a way neither of her parents had quite managed to accomplish.

Something that didn't entirely work for me was the character of Johannes, not so much what he represented as the reveal of his personal secret. It didn't seem to fit with the rest of what the story was about. Perhaps I misunderstood what was being implied, but it seemed like he was jealous of Alisa? It just seemed odd and a bit out of place.

Be warned: the ending of the story is an ambiguous one. You're not going to get a clear answer to the question of whether they get away or not. I was happy with the ending, but calibrate your expectations accordingly. This story is heavy on themes and emotions, but not so much on plot resolution.

#books #book review #scatterlings #Rešoketšwe Manenzhe #historical fiction #south africa #african literature

[kaleidoscopeprhyme]

I know it’s hard to tell the difference between yearning to die and just craving to be away from people for a while.

— Kaleidoscope Prhyme (via kaleidoscopeprhyme)

#kaleidoscope prhyme #poetry #tumblr poetry #tumblr quotes #daily quotes #depression #sad quotes #literature #south african poet #depression quotes

[beljar]

I am not in so great a hurry to put my neck beneath any man's foot; and I do not so greatly admire the crying of babies.

Olive Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm, 1883

#olive schreiner #the story of an african farm #south afran literature #hegemony #literary text #quotes #dark acadamia aesthetic #classic literature #translated literature

[thrydes]

only a moment, breathe me in and release me gently, only now I am changed.

[francoisgroenewaldpoetry]

#prose #literature #books #writers and poets #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #creative writing #south african

[zoethewriter]

There is something very specific about this novel, about how its written and its rhythm and feel. It's very specifically South African, it's very specifically coloured and its very specific about its message. It's both familiar and alien to me, I can relate to a lot of the themes but I've found new things to experience and think about as well. Mostly it's such a strong exploration of violence and womanhood and identity. It is like the emotional equivalent of running with scissors and playing with fire, two things at different ends. Running and playing, fun, cathartic, youthful. Scissors and fire, serious, painful, dangerous. So good.

#mermaid fillet #mia ardene #south african literature #african literature #literature #book review #zoesreviews

[patfurstenberg]

9 Books Illustrating South Africa’s Landscapes and People

This Heritage Day I’m bringing you 9 books illustrating South Africa’s landscapes and people to celebrate the diverse cultural well that is South Africa. It wasn’t easy to choose only nine books depicting the breathtaking South African landscapes, its people, and their everyday life as reflected by in the local literature. 1. The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner (set in 1883) The…

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#9 Books Illustrating South Africa’s Landscapes and People #books about South Africa #books about South African landscpes #South African people in literature

[vague-humanoid]

she's been supporting Palestine and decrying the apartheid, even and especially last October where she published a book on it

anyway, her statement as mentioned here

https://www.writingafrica.com/zukiswa-wanner-surrenders-germanys-goethe-medal-over-gaza-genocide/

My name is Zukiswa Wanner.

I am a writer, editor, publisher and curator who considers the African continent my home. In 2020, I became the first woman on my continent to receive the Goethe Medaille alongside Bolivian artist and Museum Director Elvira Espejo Ayca and writer Ian McEwan from the United Kingdom. While the Goethe Medal is conferred by the Goethe-Institut to ‘non-Germans who have performed outstanding service for international cultural relations’, it is important to note that the award is an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany.

I note and appreciate Goethe-Institut President Carola Lentz’ statement from an article of 14 January, 2024 in Der Spiegel where she says, and I quote, Longstanding partners in the international cultural world are losing trust in the liberality of Germany’s democracy and poses the question, should the Aaswartige Kultur und Bildungspolitik (AKPB) support only persons or groups who accommodate the political/moral agenda of the respective German government? She concludes otherwise and notes that organisations like Goethe-Institut must not become the extended arm of the government, particularly in difficult political times. In the same vein, Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, which is the regional headquarters for Sub Saharan Africa stated in a statement on 7th February, 2024 ‘As to the current war in Gaza – we are convinced that in view of the catastrophic situation, a new ceasefire is urgently needed. The rising number of civilian victims is unacceptable. It’s important to state this so I highlight that this is NOT a statement surrendering the medal because of the Goethe-Institut and its position even where we may not always agree. I mention the Goethe-Institut’ statement by way of explaining that my actions are not a critique of the cultural institution but rather of the government.

In May 2023, while attending Palestine Festival of Literature and months before October 7, I was in the Occupied Palestine Territories and travelled to Ramallah, Nabi Saleh, East Jerusalem, Hebron and Lydd. As a writer coming from a country with a history of apartheid, what I experienced shook me and resulted in my writing a long essay Vignettes of a People in an Apartheid State. One did not need to be from a country with a history of apartheid to see the daily injustices and indignities visited on Palestinians. Palestinians have separate roads, different number plates and are constantly under threat from strangers from the United States or white South Africans with apartheid nostalgia who come with guns and the protection of Israeli Defence Forces to settle into their homes. Indeed, unlike most literature festivals, PalFest takes the writers to multiple cities since Palestinians are unable to travel without permission from Israel, much like South Africa during apartheid, just more cruel.

This is why I am giving up the medal.

I understand Germany’s guilt for the Holocaust.

I do.

That guilt is appropriate and has enabled Germany to face its unconscionable past.

But it is this that makes its position on a current genocide in Palestine all the more shameful. As an aside and as an African, I wish the German government exhibited the same regret for their history in Namibia with the Herero-Nama genocide and for the genocide during the Maji Maji Rebellion in Tanzania. Equally important, I wish that the German government, in reflection and saying ‘never again’ would acknowledge that NEVER AGAIN should be for ANYBODY. Instead, what I see is Germany being on the wrong side of a genocide again (as per International Court of Justice provisional ruling to the case brought on by South Africa). Additionally, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Federal Republic of Germany and United States of America are the biggest arms exporters to Israel. With more than 30 thousand killed in Gaza, this should have been a mea culpa moment for the Federal Republic of Germany, instead, they seem to have doubled their support for a very problematic government.

Culturally, since October 7, 2023, I have seen Germany disengaging from artists for their position on the colonial state that is Israel even in light of Israel’s failures to adhere to the Oslo Accord (which was a super mediocre document for Palestinians). I am reading that of the cultural events cancelled by Germany, 30 percent are by Jewish artists who are anti-Zionist. This has failed to make sense to me that Jews can be considered antisemitic (obviously ignoring that Palestinians are a semitic people as those in support of the Israeli government seem intent on forgetting). More recently, during the Berlin Film Festival, Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham won best documentary prize for their film No Other Lands which shows the eradication of Palestinian villages in the West Bank. The German Cultural Minister is reported to have stated her applause was only for the Israeli half of the filmmaking duo. South African history has a phrase for this. Petty Apartheid.

I thus find myself unable to stay silent or keep an official decoration from a government that is this callous to human suffering.

Ends.

#Palestine #genocide #apartheid #South Africa

[gothhabiba]

Literary Africa—outside, notably, of the work of some white South African writers—was an inexhaustible playground for tourists and foreigners. In the novels and stories of Joseph Conrad, Isak Dinesen, Saul Bellow, Ernest Hemingway, whether imbued with or struggling against conventional Western views of benighted Africa, their protagonists found the continent to be as empty as the collection plate—a vessel waiting for whatever copper and silver imagination was pleased to place there. Accommodatingly mute, conveniently blank, Africa could be made to serve a wide variety of literary and/or ideological requirements: it could stand back as scenery for any exploit, or leap forward and obsess itself with the woes of any foreigner; it could contort itself into frightening malignant shapes in which Westerners could contemplate evil, or it could kneel and accept elementary lessons from its betters.

For those who made either the literal or the imaginative voyage, contact with Africa, its penetration, offered thrilling opportunities to experience life in its inchoate, formative state, the consequence of which experience was knowledge—a wisdom that confirmed the benefits of European proprietorship and, more importantly, enabled a self-revelation free of the responsibility of gathering overly much actual intelligence about African cultures. So big-hearted was this literary Africa, its invitation to explore the inner life was never burdened by an impolite demand for reciprocal generosity. A little geography, lots of climate, a few customs and anecdotes became the canvas upon which a portrait of a wiser or sadder or fully reconciled self could be painted.

[...] Thus the literature resounded with the clash of metaphors. As the original locus of the human race, Africa was ancient; yet, being under colonial control, it was also infantile. Thus it became a kind of old fetus always waiting to be born but confounding all midwives. In novel after novel, short story after short story, Africa was simultaneously innocent and corrupting, savage and pure, irrational and wise. It was raw matter out of which the writer was free to forge a template to examine desire and improve character. But what Africa never was was its own subject, as America has been for European writers, or England, France, or Spain for their American counterparts.

—Toni Morrison, "On 'The Radiance of the King.'" The New York Review, 2001.

#h/t sivavakiyyar and metamatar #Toni Morrison #quote #readings #literature

[prismatic-bell]

So I’m helping to do research for a Fallout 4 mod, and I’ve found yet another fun new way Africa has been fucked over by colonialism.

Said mod is a book-finding mod, and I’m researching literary fiction (so: no biographies, no histories, no memoirs, no textbooks, religious texts must be in the form of a story or allegory rather than praise hymns). I started with Western literature as requested and then went “hm, you know what could be interesting from an immersion/lore perspective? Including some Chinese texts” and from there to “you know, the divergence didn’t occur until the mid-to-late sixties and the whole learning-Buddhism-and-Hinduism-to-‘find-yourself’ thing was already underway by then, I should really put the Bhagavad-Gita on this list” and from there to “why should I leave anyone out? Let the main author pick from a bunch of texts, I’m just giving him resources.”

So to abide by US copyright laws because they’re stupid, I have to find texts where the author died before 1953. And in America, Western Europe, China, and Japan, this has proved to be no problem. You can’t throw a rock at a shelf of literature from these countries without hitting a long-dead author. The literary traditions are long and robust.

I’m currently working my way through African literature before swinging back around to Latin America. I’m using Goodreads as my starting point.

I have gone through over two hundred titles.

I. Have. Found. THREE.

Three African authors of fiction who died before 1953. Two of them are white South Africans. One of those two was a missionary during the Boer War.

If I expanded my criteria to include memoirs, I could add two more. Also both white.

There are almost no Black African authors at all before the 1980s. Not “Black African fiction authors,” mind you. Just Black African authors. Nonfiction too. Almost none. I think I’ve counted five.

And I can’t find a single collection of African folktales that was put together before the 1970s. Like I understand much of the story tradition across the African continent was oral until the 20th century, but you’d think surely someone at some point wrote down SOMETHING just to have it documented. That does not appear to be the case. It’s all either stuff like “History of Ethiopia” (ask me if I’m willing to bet a plug nickel anything in a book written by a white dude in the 1890s and titled “History of Ethiopia” is correct) or “hey, we’re missionaries, listen to our harrowing tale of trying to bring Jesus to the savages!” (WHY. I mean we know why. But WHY.)

I was hoping to find 100 books, fifty from the northern part of Africa not including the MENA region (which is its own section in this research) and fifty from the southern. If this sounds extremely sparse, yes, I know it is, but I came into this already expecting to have trouble finding African works due to colonialism and the prioritization of white texts. I figured 100 would be doable and if I found more I could be pleasantly surprised and divide the continent into further subsections. (I also chose not to do it by country because the borders within Africa have changed so much. It seemed more relevant to sort them by mother language and rough geographic location because so many places and kingdoms no longer exist under the names and borders they once held.)

I didn’t expect to find NOTHING.

I expected something to at least EXIST.

The continent that brought us the entire human race has had its stories basically stripped away by white people.

I am grieving for a history that isn’t even mine, destroyed by people who assumed the second-largest land mass on earth had nothing to offer except what they could rip out of the ground.

The stories are gone. That’s fucking horrifying.