I. SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE

South Africa has 3 mayor literacy traditions developed in English, Aafrikaans and Bantu. South African literature in English begins with the publication in 1883 of The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner.

Olive Schreiner (1855-1920)

South African novelist, whose most famous novel is The Story of an African Farm (1883). Olive Schreiner was a central figure in the development of modern Anglophone literature in Southern Africa. She was a radical liberal and pacifist, she opposed racism, and struggled for women's rights.

Plot introduction: The Story of an African Farm

The novel details the lives of three characters, first as children and then as adults - Waldo, Em and Lyndall - who live on a farm in the Karoo region of South Africa. The story is set in the middle- to late Nineteenth century - The book is semi-autobiographical: in particular, the two principal protagonists (Waldo and Lyndall) display strong similarities to Schreiner's life and philosophy.

The book was first published in 1883 in London, under the pseudonym Ralph Iron. It quickly became a best-seller, despite causing some controversy over its frank portrayal of freethought, feminism, premarital sex and pregnancy out of wedlock and transvestitism.

Fragment: The Story of an African Farm

"I have no conscience, none," she added; "but I would not like to bring a soul into this world. When it sinned and when it suffered something like a dead hand would fall on me--'You did it, you, for your own pleasure you created this thing! See your work!' If it lived to be eighty it would always hang like a millstone round my neck, have the right to demand good from me, and curse me for its sorrow. A parent is only like to God - if his work turns out bad, so much the worse for him; he dare not wash his hands of it. Time and years can never bring the day when you can say to your child: 'Soul, what have I to do with you?'" (From The Story of an African Farm).

“The text continuously turns back upon its events and images, contrasting and diversifying them, prohibiting definitive form.  Its narrative web is undercut by chronological and scenic disruptions and juxtapositions that deliberately frustrate any attempt to fix a unilinear sequence of events, a rigid structure that encloses the story like a frame around a landscape painting.  Schreiner's sense is that the "story" of her African farm is simply a fragment of a larger context of incident, one story behind another like the layers of a lily bulb.” (91)

The Idea of "Story" in Olive Schreiner's Story of an African FarmGerald MonsmanTexas Studies in Literature and LanguageVol. 27, No. 3, Literature of the Late Nineteenth and Early

TwentiethCenturies (1985)

Accordingly, for all her feminist sympathy with Schreiner,

Elaine Showalter states flatly that the author:

“Had no idea how to construct a novel, and only in the allegory form, which allowed her to draw upon the religious tracts that had formed her chief childhood reading did she achieve complete artistic control…Schreiner committed herself to recording the South African life she knew, to finding words to raise it out of silence and implausibility; but she could never bring that experience completely to art”

Elaine ShowalterTexas Studies in Literature and LanguageVol. 27, No. 3, Literature of the Late Nineteenth andEarly Twentieth Centuries (1985)

Among later writers whose themes were the problems of South african land and people, and particular the political problem, we have Ens Van Der Post, Alan Paton, novelist and short story writer, Nadine Gordimer and John Michael Coetzee, Nobel Price for Literature in 1991 and 2003, respectively.

Alan Paton (1903 –1988)

South African author and anti-apartheid activist, his most famous work in support of racial tolerance and sensitivity “Cry, the Beloved Country”,  published in 1948, just as supporters of apartheid took over South Africa and turned their belief in segregation and discrimination into law.

Quotes: “Cry, the Beloved Country”

"Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal."- Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country, Ch. 10

"We do what is in us, and why it is in us, that is also a secret. It is Christ in us, crying that men may be succoured and forgiven, even when He Himself is forsaken."- Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country, Ch. 15

“The Beloved Country is the importance of always acting with a sense of kindness. There is a specifically Christian connotation to this value, as demonstrated by the dominant Christian influence of the characters. Paton promotes the idea that adhering to this simple sense of kindness is at least a partial solution to the problems in South Africa…”

Analysis from: Mayor Themes Cry, the beloved

Country (for “n.d.”).

"One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored."- Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country, Ch. 6

"One thing is about to be finished, but here is something that is only begun."- Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country, Ch. 36

“Numerous actions are significant not in themselves but in what they represent. Paton uses this in order to show that public declarations of support are an important step in gaining justice in South Africa by demonstrating allegiances and loyalty.”

Analysis from: Mayor Themes Cry, the beloved

Country (for “n.d.”).

"But when the dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret."- Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country, Ch. 35

“Though the face of the country would be forever changed by five decades of racial segregation, Paton’s novel ended with the main character in prayer—a prayer that Paton had for his conflicted homeland. “

- “Alan Paton” (for “n.d.”)

Black South Africans have a long and rich oral tradition. With the arrival of Europeans, the traditional themes found a way of writing, in recent years, a significant number of black writers have contributed significantly to the development of South African literature in major languages such as Sotho, Xhosa the and Zulu, Afrikaans and in addition to English. One of the non-white writers have an important place in twentieth century literature are B. W. Vilakazi, Thomas Molofo, J. R. Jolobe, Bloke Modisane, Alex La Guma and Ezekiel Mphahlele.

Benedict Wallet Vilakazi (1906 - 1947)

South African Zulu poet, novelist, and educator. In 1946, he became the first black South African to receive a Ph.D. His most important work is “Amal´ Ezulu”, book of poetry, published in Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, 1945.

Amal´ Ezulu

“Perhaps one of the best ways to congratulate Dr. B.W. Vilakazi for his academic achievement is to review his recently published book of poems, Amal´Ezulu (Zulu Horizons). Both the book and the Doctorate show us new horizons of the genius and progress of our Race. Academic achievement itself – especially in this country where there is rank prejudice against the Black man – is something great.”

“His Amal´ Ezulu reveals a revolutionary change or development in the poet´s soul, mind or, at least, attitude towards art and life… we shall conclude by saying that the greatest artist is neither extreme traditionist nor extreme revolutionist.”

Dr. B.W. Vilakazi: PoetH.I.E. Dhlomo Literary Theory and Criticism of H.I.E Dhlomo (1977)

In 1935 Benedict Wallet Vilakazi accepted a post as “Language Assistant”, in the Department of African Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. This move from natal to Johannesburg marked a turning point in his life, and he accepted the post with much misgiving, captured in his poem Wo, Ngitshele Mntanomlungu! (Wo, tell me son of the white man) (Amal´eZulu, page 8), where he details his feelings on arriving in the strange environs of the university in central Johannesburg.

 

In the first stanza we find the lines: 

Wo, Ngitshele Mntanomlungu! (Wo, tell me son of the white man)

Tell me ,white man 's sonTell me, O tell me, white man´s son,The reason you have brought me here!I come, but O my knees are heavyAnd when I think, my head is dizzy:I feel confused, unhappy, lost,And day is no less dark than night. 

The poem ends with the lines: 

Thus, as I gaze around in wonder,I realize beyond all doubtThat I am lost! Yet well I know I cameTo serve my own beloved people—Aware of them always, I hear the cry:“take up your burden and be our voice!” ( Vilakazi 84-5) “The reference to vilakazi´s own situation in leaving the

province of hisbirth to take a new post in a new city in a new province is

obvious, andshows his disillusionment”  Benedict Wallet Vilakazi: Poet in exile / Adrian Koopman pp. 63 – 74(for Natalia 35, 2005). 

Biobliography http://kirjasto.sci.fi/schrein.htm

http://orangeswan.blogspot.com/2007/02/story-of-african-farm-and-of-life.html

 http://www.jstor.org/pss/40755257

http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/schrein/farm/ch02l.htm

http://www.enotes.com/authors/alan-paton

http://classiclit.about.com/od/crythebelovedcountry/a/aa_crythebelov.htm

http://www.gradesaver.com/cry-the-beloved-country/study-guide/major-themes/

http://natalia.org.za/Files/35/Natalia%2035%20pp63-74%20C.pdf