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Classified list with author and title index.
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A Xhosa prince reluctantly leaves the University College of Fort Hate and goes back to the land of his ancestors to take his place as king of the Mpondomise. The clash of his modem ideas and the traditional beliefs of his people mirrors the dash of the western way of life with African custom and tradition -- church-people versus traditionalists, school people versus 'red-ochre people', boarding school activities versus the inkundla or assembly at the royal place. The conclusion, that disaster can be averted only by the willingness of opposing forces to work together for mutual comprehension of the legitimate claims of tradition and modernity, gives a foretaste of the spirit that governed modern South Africa's political transformation. Ingqumbo Yeminyanya -- The Wrath of the Ancestors -- is a classic of Xhosa literature. A C Jordan has a keen eye for detail, a delightful sense of humour and a dramatic style. Literal translations of Xhosa images, idioms and proverbs transport readers to the Tsolo district and conjure up the memorable speeches of the Mpondomise counsellors.
Senkatana is a tragic play adapted from Sotho folk narrative. The play is regarded as a classic of Sesotho literature. Seen as one of the greatest essayists and dramatists writing in Southern Sotho, Senkatana was Mofokeng’s first book, published in 1952 in the African (then Bantu) Treasury Series, an imprint of Witwatersrand University Press.
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Amal’ezulu (Zulu Horizons), first published in 1945 in the Bantu (later, African) Treasury Series by the University of the Witwatersrand Press, was the second volume of poetry produced by the renowned Zulu author B.W. Vilakazi. It was written during the ten years he spent living in Johannesburg, in ‘exile’ from his birthplace, KwaZulu-Natal. The poems in this collection represent a turning point in Vilakazi’s life; they express yearnings for the beloved land, animals and ancestral spirits of his rural home, as well as expressions of deep disillusionment with the urban life he encountered in the ‘City of Gold’, and in particular the suffering of the black miners who brought this g...
This novel set in apartheid-era rural South Africa follows an urban swindler as he attempts to take advantage of well-meaning but naive villagers, claiming to be on a mission of salvation-but in truth looking for instant riches. Both hilarious and tender, it explores the fateful confrontation between pastoral benevolence and urban slyness in a peasant countryside that is being destroyed by the rapid loss of land and liberties.