The hardships of a mother to keep her children alive, to give them the best and create a better life for them, are hardly recognised or applauded. This is worse in poor societies where women labour and break their backs to ensure that their children are fed and are able to get an education.
Conveyed with a very infectious patriotism and a passionate drive to persevere which gives chills of pride, this book inspires one (especially young Africans) to bring forth their best for the betterment of self and relevant others.
The Riddle of Violence, as the name implies, is supposed to be an account of his metamorphosis from an advocate of non-violence in the Gandhian mold to the realization that in the southern African context, the earlier non-violent commitment had become a chimera because the oppressor did not share it.
Two students, from different social backgrounds, in their final year at school come together to work on a science project. This story explores their home backgrounds, their feelings about each other and their changing relationship.
The Sack by Namwali Serpell is an engrossing and interesting short story fitted with a melancholic feel. I believe the judges also felt the same when they awarded it the Caine prize for African Writing 2015.
Xolela Mangcu’s recent biography of Steve Biko takes up its place in the contested field
of “Biko Studies”. It remains an open question as to why, given the explosion of
scholarly interest in Biko, and his ever-increasing popularity as an icon of the liberation
struggle, it has taken this long for a self-declared biography of Biko to appear.
Dr Mamphela Ramphele’s book begins with an angry young man, and a Sepedi phrase: “Mabu a u tswitswe” – “The soil has been stolen.” The young man who spoke these words, Ramphele informs her readers, had no need to explain them or elaborate on his meaning; his idiomatic call to arms in defence of the land spoke for itself
Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) is a humane period piece but not at all a permanent narrative fiction. I first (and, until now, last) read it when it was published and I was eighteen. More than sixty years later, I have gotten through it again but only just. Its humane sentiments remain admirable but
The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape is one of the profound treasures of southern Africa's social and archaeological history, appropriately declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 2003.