The pain of unemployment has become a malicious and inescapable part of our national culture. It is a silent presence in every conversation every day – even if you are employed. Jobseekers carry the bulk of the burden as they try to cope with the financial, psychological, and social impact to their daily lives.
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.
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
Es'kia Mphahlele is one of the doyens of African literature. Throughout Africa, Europe and the United States of America he has played a major role in the development, teaching and promotion of African literature. He has written autobiographies, criticism, works of fiction, poetry, plays and essays.
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