LITERATURE - The African Mirror

Sep

2021

Book Review | Black and feminist in SA

SINDI-LEIGH MCBRIDE SURFACING: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa is a radiant presentation of the diversity of being a Black woman in South Africa. The book is aglow with the radical possibilities of art, activism and critical theory – easily illuminating diverse intellectual spaces, from divinity and dance to photography and philosophy. Ainhehi Edoro accurately described Surfacing as an “immersive experience” and “feminist utopia”, but it is also so much more than that – offering groundbreaking work. The editors – feminist theorist Desiree Lewis of the University of the Western Cape and poet and feminist scholar Gabeba Baderoon, who is based at Penn State University…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Healing through the written word

LITERATURE

TIYESE JERANJI, BIRD PICKING up the phone, Haroldene Tshienda greets with an infectious laugh. She is excited. Recently nominated for a continental award, she's about to collect an outfit she'll be wearing to an award ceremony in Johannesburg. This is a big deal for Tshienda and not just because of the recognition of her work. “I’m so excited because I will be flying out to Jo’burg to fetch 30 awards for me and the other authors that I have published. I will also perform there and announce the children’s awards,” she said of the event. Tshienda is not only a…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

In its portrayal of women, the classic South African novel Mhudi was ahead of its time

LITERATURE

SOLOMON T. Plaatje was born in 1876 and was one of the founding members of South Africa’s current ruling party, the African National Congress. JENNY BOZENA DU PREEZ, Nelson Mandela University He was a politician, intellectual, journalist and author of the seminal Native Life in South Africa. He was also a writer of fiction. His first and only novel, Mhudi, was written in 1920 and published a decade later. Despite being the first novel by a Black South African in English, it had little impact on the literary landscape of the country at the time. However, over the past century,…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

The joy of Steve McQueen’s ‘Small Axe’

LITERATURE

FRANTZ Fanon observed that in white-dominated societies, reason has a nasty habit of taking flight whenever Blacks enter the room. He joined WEB Du Bois in an additional observation: in societies saturated with the malediction of white supremacy, a form of double consciousness is imposed on the people once referred to as “negroes” and then “blacks”. That perspective involved Blacks seeing themselves from the negative gaze and rationalisations of anti-Black hatred. From that point of view, what were Blacks but, in Du Bois’ words, “problems”? Yet, Du Bois later learned that the resilience of a people in whose shoes most whites wouldn’t last a…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

How Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiurai has reinvented the idea of a library

LITERATURE

ZIMBABWE born artist Kudzanai Chiurai is a phenomenon. He is one of the most challenging and inventive figures in contemporary African art. From large scale photos of fictional African dictators to experimental films and protest posters, rich oil paintings and minimal sculptures, his work is housed in the world’s top galleries and collections. TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand Chiurai, though, frequently shrugs off gallery spaces to show in warehouses, on the street or in urban locations. His latest project, The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember, is housed in a boutique shopping complex, 44 Stanley, in…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

The library club: taking African storytelling mainstream

LITERATURE

LERATO MOGOATLHE, BIRD NUMBER 4 Portuphy Street in West Legon, Accra, Ghana may look like an ordinary house in the suburb - until you step inside. Crossing the threshold, the one-storey building morphs into a living, breathing vault of stories alive with the potential to transcend the very boundaries of history, geography, and time. This is the embodiment of one woman's passion and a dream so big, it spans the whole world. Welcome to Syliva Arthur's Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD), where even the walls offer a history lesson. Pictures of authors like Kwame Nkrumah, Toni Morrison,…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Book predicts ANC’s last decade of political dominance in South Africa

LITERATURE

THE declining political dominance of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has increasingly attracted scholarly attention since 2009. Political analyst Ralph Mathekga’s new book, The ANC’s Last Decade: how the decline of the party will transform South Africa, is a welcome addition. CHRISTOPHER ISIKE, Professor of African Politics and International Relations , University of Pretoria The ANC’s electoral fortunes have steadily declined in the last three national elections; 2009 (65%), 2014 (62%) and 2019 (57.50%). But, since the 2016 local government elections saw the party lose some of its former strongholds, including four major metropolitan municipalities, the question has…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Adichie and Emezi: ignore the noise, pay attention to the conversation

LITERATURE

THE recent media furore surrounding the “feud” between the celebrated Nigeria-born African diaspora writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Akwaeke Emezi conflates issues too easily. ARETHA PHIRI, Associate Professor, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University The very public disagreement began when Adichie presented her views on transgender women – or transwomen – in an interview in 2017. Rather than affirm their status as women, Adichie stated that “transwomen are transwomen”. Emezi, once mentored by Adichie, responded with hurt and anger amid accusations that Adichie is transphobic – prejudiced against transgender people. The latest public disagreement between them on the…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

The story of an African children’s book that explains the science of skin colour

LITERATURE

SKIN We Are In is a landmark South African book for children (and grown-ups) on the subject of skin colour. Published in 2018, it was co-authored by an artist and a scientist, both South African luminaries – the author Sindiwe Magona and the anthropologist and palaeobiologist Nina Jablonski. Here they talk about how – and why – the book came about. NINA G. JABLONSKI, Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology, Penn State I had found, in the course of my work, that people knew its social significance, but they didn’t understand it. Many were convinced that there was a genetic…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Aliens in Lagos: sci-fi novel Lagoon offers a bold new future

LITERATURE

IN his satirical essay How to Write About Africa, the late Kenyan writer and journalist Binyavanga Wainaina advocated for a rethinking of clichéd and stereotypical representations of the continent. Wainaina was in favour of looking beyond the despair that has plagued and continues to plague Africa. GIBSON NCUBE, Associate Professor, University of Zimbabwe African science fiction is a literary genre which tries to imagine utopic futures of the continent. Nigerian-American novelist Nnedi Okorafor calls her brand of sci-fi “Africanfuturism”. She explains in her blog that Africanfuturism is “concerned with visions of the future” and that “it’s less concerned with ‘what…