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This anthology presents the work of twenty-four young Spoken Word poets from South Africa, with a sprinkling of guests from the United States, Britain and Australia. The experience of black youth in societies polarized by racism, inequality and gender violence whilst, at the same time, struggling to come to terms with love, sex and all the other basic needs of young people makes for fascinating reading. The inventive graphic layout is a fine addition to a stand out volume. Home is Where the Mic Is was conceived as a collaboration with ‘Word n Sound’, a popular Johannesburg Spoken Word platform. The intention was to give hitherto only ‘stage’ poets an opportunity to test their work on the ‘page’ and confound the Eurocentric critics of the new wave of performance poetry who decry its energy and breaking down of artificial definitions of poetry. This is South African poetry standing on it's own two feet!
The History of English: An Introduction provides a chronological analysis of the linguistic, social, and cultural development of the English language from before its establishment in Britain around the year 450 to the present. Each chapter represents a new stage in the evolution of the language, all illustrated with a rich and diverse selection of primary texts. The book also explores the wider global course of the language, including a historical review of English in its pidgin and creole varieties and as a native and/or second language in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Australasia. The third edition, carefully revised and updated throughout, includes: ● chapter introductions and conclu...
Guerrillas and Combative Mothers is a narrative of women participating in the armed struggle against apartheid from 1961 to 1994 and their lives in a democratic South Africa. Focusing on their agency, commitment, beliefs and actions, it describes how women got politicised and the decisions and circumstances that led them to join the armed struggle in South Africa and exile. Siphokazi Magadla discusses the forms of military training they received, the combat activities and their transformation as women and soldiers. Magadla also talks about their participation in the South African National Defence Force-led demobilisation process and their contributions to the democratic revolution of the SANDF. By illuminating the different eras and arenas of their participation, this book shows the broadness of the armed struggle against apartheid as a historical truth and as a matter of gender equality and justice for an inclusive and more democratic future.
This groundbreaking, multi-genre anthology answers the question: what did the literary landscape look like in South Africa at the start of the twenty-first century? It documents a slice of this landscape by bringing together the writings of over twenty contributors through literary critique, personal essays and interviews. The book tells the story of the seismic shift that transformed national culture through poetry and is the first of its kind to explore the history and impact of poetry by Black women, in their own voices. It straddles disciplines: literary theory, feminism, history of the book and politics - thus decolonising literary culture. Our Words, Our Worlds covers expansive reflect...
The collection of poems is an intriguing reflection of the sometimes torturous evolution of inner self which so many South Africans face as they struggle to find who they are in a multicultural society that espouses the values of traditional culture while reaching for the promise of a global community. Thus the blend of Xhosa and English as Ntsiki strives to merge her modern views with cultural roots. She feels strongly the need to reclaim her culture and language and blend them within the context of a cosmopolitan society. She captures the vibe and energy of young South Africa and its blossoming as well as its quandaries. Ntsiki does not hesitate to deal with controversial and painful issue...
In the late 1970s, Lindiwe Mabuza, a.k.a. Sono Molefe, sent out a call for poems written by women in anc camps and offices throughout Africa and the world. The book that resulted, published and distributed in Europe in the early 1980s, was banned by the apartheid regime. Half-forgotten, it has never appeared in a South African edition - until now. Authorised by the editor, this re-issue of Malibongwe re-establishes a place for women artists in the history of South Africa's liberation. These are the struggles within the Struggle: a book that records the hopes and fears, the drives and disappointments, and the motivation and resilience of women at the front lines of the battle against apartheid. Here we see the evidence, too often airbrushed out of the narratives of national liberation, of a deep and unrelenting radicalism within women; of a dream of a South Africa in which not only freedom reigned, but justice too.
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dear reader, are you still there? take a second, now. breathe // with me. In one of the most anticipated debut collections of recent years, Maneo Mohale reckons boldly with the experience of – and the reconstruction of a life after – a sexual assault. Mohale’s unapologetic and disarming voice carries through a budding and blooming garden of poetics, rooted in a contemporary southern African tradition, but springing forth in queer and radical new directions. Indeed, this is a work encompassing the full, often contradictory, and seldom complete process of healing: where relations must be chosen as well as made; where time becomes non-linear and language insufficient; where nothing is what it seems, yet everything is what it is.
Uncuthu Rhabula, published by Inkcubeko Nezobugcisa NPO, is a collection of modern Xhosa short stories spanning time, gender, and generation, and an archive of life in rural South Africa.