Xhosa Poets and Poetry

Xhosa Poets and Poetry PDF Author: Jeff Opland
Publisher: New Africa Books
ISBN: 9780864864208
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Xhosa oral poetry has defied the threats to its integrity over two centuries, to take its place in a free South Africa. This volume establishes the background to this poetic re-emergence, preserving and transmitting the voice of the Xhosa poet.

Xhosa Poets and Poetry

Xhosa Poets and Poetry PDF Author: Jeff Opland
Publisher: New Africa Books
ISBN: 9780864864208
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Get Book Here

Book Description
Xhosa oral poetry has defied the threats to its integrity over two centuries, to take its place in a free South Africa. This volume establishes the background to this poetic re-emergence, preserving and transmitting the voice of the Xhosa poet.

Xhosa Literature

Xhosa Literature PDF Author: Jeff Opland
Publisher: University of Kwazulu Natal Press
ISBN: 9781869143862
Category : Xhosa literature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Xhosa Literature consists of fourteen essays addressing Xhosa literature in three media-the spoken word, newspapers, and books. Literary critics tend to focus on Xhosa literature published in books with some attention paid to Xhosa oral poetry and tales, but by and large the contribution of newspapers to the development of Xhosa literature has been overlooked. This book explores aspects of Xhosa literature in all three media, and their interconnections. Six of the essays treat historical narratives (amabali) and praise poetry (izibongo), setting out the social and ritual function of poetry and the poet (imbongi), mapping changes in the izibongo of three poets as South Africa moved towards democracy in the 1990s, and analyzing recordings of two poems recited by S.E.K. Mqhayi. Three essays are devoted to the first Xhosa novel, Mqhayi's U-Samson (1907), to the publication of the greatest novel in Xhosa, A.C. Jordan's Ingqumbo yeminyanya (1940), and to the first published poem in praise of Nelson Mandela, D.L.P. Yali-Manisi's 'UNkosi Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela' (1954). There follow accounts of Xhosa literature in the nineteenth century and the appropriation of the press by Xhosa editors towards the end of that century, of Nontsizi Mgqwetho's fiery poetry published in Umteteli wa Bantu, and of poems by Mgqwetho and Mqhayi published in Abantu-Batho, two Johannesburg newspapers. The volume concludes with an exposition of an imaginative response to David Yali-Manisi and his poetry. (Series: Publications of the Opland Collection of Xhosa Literature, Vol. 6) [Subject: African Studies, Politics, Sociology, Xhosa Literature]

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ken Saro-Wiwa PDF Author: Craig W. McLuckie
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9780894108839
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
"The authors examine Saro-Wiwa's literary output both in terms of literary criticism and within a political framework. They give equal attention to his more public roles, including public reaction within Nigeria to his work."--BOOK JACKET.

Xhosa Oral Poetry

Xhosa Oral Poetry PDF Author: Jeff Opland
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521241137
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
This book, first published in 1983, was the first detailed study of the Xhosa oral poetry tradition.

Of Land, Bones, and Money

Of Land, Bones, and Money PDF Author: Emily McGiffin
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813942772
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The South African literature of iimbongi, the oral poets of the amaXhosa people, has long shaped understandings of landscape and history and offered a forum for grappling with change. Of Land, Bones, and Money examines the shifting role of these poets in South African society and the ways in which they have helped inform responses to segregation, apartheid, the injustices of extractive capitalism, and contemporary politics in South Africa. Emily McGiffin first discusses the history of the amaXhosa people and the environment of their homelands before moving on to the arrival of the British, who began a relentless campaign annexing land and resources in the region. Drawing on scholarship in the fields of human geography, political ecology, and postcolonial ecocriticism, she considers isiXhosa poetry in translation within its cultural, historical, and environmental contexts, investigating how these poems struggle with the arrival and expansion of the exploitation of natural resources in South Africa and the entrenchment of profoundly racist politics that the process entailed. In contemporary South Africa, iimbongi remain a respected source of knowledge and cultural identity. Their ongoing practice of producing complex, spiritually rich literature continues to have a profound social effect, contributing directly to the healing and well-being of their audiences, to political transformation, and to environmental justice.

Collective Amnesia

Collective Amnesia PDF Author: Koleka Putuma
Publisher: Koleka Putuma
ISBN:
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
Since its publication in April 2017, Collective Amnesia has taken the South African literary scene by storm. The book is in its twelfth print run and is prescribed for study at tertiary level in South African Universities and abroad. The collection is the recipient of the 2018 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, named 2017 book of the year by the City Press and one of the best books of 2017 by The Sunday Times and Quartz Africa. It is translated into Spanish (Flores Rara, 2019), German (Wunderhorn Publishing House, 2019), Danish (Rebel with a Cause, 2019), Dutch (Poeziecentrum, 2020), Swedish (Rámus förlag). Forthcoming translations: Portuguese (Editora Trinta Zero Nove), Italian (Arcipelago itaca) and French (éditions Lanskine). Collective Amnesia examines the intersection of politics, race, religion, relationships, sexuality, feminism, memory and more. The poems provoke institutions and systems of learning and interrogates what must be unlearned in society, academia, relationships, religion, and spaces of memory and forgetting.

Skinned

Skinned PDF Author: Antjie Krog
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1609804635
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
One of South Africa’s greatest living poets selects from her most recent poems and also from the poems and the themes that best represent her from across her long career. Part One of Skinned contains poems about writing, family and love poems. The poems in second part were chosen from a volume featuring a long epic poem based on the life of Lady Anne Barnard from Scotland, who accompanied her husband to Cape Town and lived in the castle there from 1797 until 1802. This volume was written during the height of apartheid and the poet chose Lady Anne as representative of the colonial vision. Part Three contains extracts from several speakers who lived in the land before the likes of lady Anne arrived. Krog includes here interviews with inhabitants of the stone desert, three re-workings of Bushmen or Xam narratives, as well as a translation of an oral Xhosa praise poem. Part Four represents the political turmoil of South Africa and the divisions within Africa. The poems come from volumes that explored how blacks and whites identifying with the oppressed were removed from official history. The present volume as a whole explores the necessity of "a change of tongue" in order to be.

Our Words, Our Worlds

Our Words, Our Worlds PDF Author: Makhosazana Xaba
Publisher: Ukzn Press Women's Imprint
ISBN: 9781869144128
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This groundbreaking, multi-genre anthology answers the question: what did the literary landscape look like in South Africa at the start of the twenty-first century? It documents a slice of this landscape by bringing together the writings of over twenty contributors through literary critique, personal essays and interviews. The book tells the story of the seismic shift that transformed national culture through poetry and is the first of its kind to explore the history and impact of poetry by Black women, in their own voices. It straddles disciplines: literary theory, feminism, history of the book and politics - thus decolonising literary culture. Our Words, Our Worlds covers expansive reflections: from the international diplomacy-transforming poem, 'I Have Come to Take You Home' by Diana Ferrus, to the pioneering publisher duduzile zamantungwa mabaso; from the self-confessed closeted poet Sedica Davids, to the fiery unapologetic feminist Bandile Gumbi; from the world-renowned Malika Ndlovu, to the engineer and award-winning Nosipho Gumede; from the formidable foursome Feela Sistah, to feminist literary scholars V.M. Sisi Maqagi and Barbara Boswell. The collective contributions are a testimony to the power of creativity and centrality of poetry in a changing society. This book is an assertion of Black women's intellectual prowess and - as Gabeba Baderoon puts it - black women's visions of 'a world made whole by their presence'. Contributors: Gabeba Baderoon, Barbara Boswell, Sedica Davids, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Diana Ferrus, Vangi Gantsho, Bandile Gumbi, Nosipho Gumede, Myesha Jenkins, Ronelda Sonnet Kamfer, duduzile zamantungwa mabaso, Makgano Mamabolo, Napo Masheane, Lebogang Mashile, V.M. Sisi Maqagi, Mthunzikazi Mbungwana, Natalia Molebatsi, Qhakazambalikayise Thato Mthembu, Tereska Muishond, Malika Ndlovu, Maganthrie Pillay, Toni Stuart, Makhosazana Xaba.

D.L.P. Yali-Manisi, Imbongi Entsha

D.L.P. Yali-Manisi, Imbongi Entsha PDF Author: D. L. P. Yali-Manisi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781869143442
Category : Laudatory poetry, Xhosa
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
David Livingstone Phakamile Yali-Manisi (1926-99) was a Thembu imbongi, the most powerful exponent of the art of praise poetry in the Xhosa language, in the second half of the twentieth century. His literary career, however, was blighted by circumstances beyond his control, and he died in total obscurity. A supporter of the African National Congress, he was the author of the earliest poem in praise of Nelson Mandela (1954).

Iziganeko zesizwe

Iziganeko zesizwe PDF Author: S. E. K. Mqhayi
Publisher: University of Kwazulu Natal Press
ISBN: 9781869143343
Category : Black people
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi (1875-1945) was the most prominent South African imbongi of his day, a Xhosa oral poet who declaimed his impromptu poetry on occasions of significance to his people. The author of numerous works of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, biography, autobiography, and translation, Mqhayi's contributions to Xhosa-language newspapers remains unparalleled in scope and volume. This book reclaims and assembles a chronological sequence of Mqhayi's occasional poems, for the most part now unknown. Sixty poems celebrate significant events in the calendar, on occasions of national or international importance. They constitute Iziganeko zesizwe, a chronicle of the nation, between 1900 and 1943: poetic responses to events from the perspective of the greatest figure in Xhosa literature. Wars feature prominently in these occasional poems-the Boer War, the First World War, the invasion of Abyssinia, and the Second World War-as do political deputations to England, visits from British princes and the death of British kings, the appearance of Halley's Comet, and meetings with Ministers of State. Running through the collection is Mqhayi's proud and fierce determination to maintain an identity rooted in custom and history in the face of territorial dispossession, the loss of title deeds and the vote, and the steady erosion of human rights. Throughout these years, Mqhayi remained constant in offering praise and encouragement to his people, in celebrating their achievements, and in expressing Christian consolation and an unflinching faith in the future liberation of South Africa's black population from foreign control. (Series: Publications of the Opland Collection of Xhosa Literature, Vol. 4) [Subject: African Studies, Poetry]