Authors: Sheila Meintjes, Dorothy Driver (Editor), Sheila Meintjes (Editor), Margie Orford (Editor), Chiedza Musengezi
ISBN-13: 9781558614062, ISBN-10: 1558614060
Format: Library Binding
Publisher: Feminist Press at CUNY, The
Date Published: December 2002
Edition: First Edition
An essential text for librariesthe definitive collection of women's literatures from southern Africa.
This rich resource for scholars and general readers alike is the product of a decade of research by the Women Writing Africa Project. The project, funded by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, seeks to bring African women's literary voices to the public through four volumes of texts arranged by region. The first volume in this distinctive series presents 120 southern African texts that are rich, evocative, and shaped by endless complexities. The settler colonies, such as Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, offer the largest body of research materials to be mined. Botswana's lack of colonialism meant that literacy came at a later date than in other countries, so texts are available only from the mid-1920s. Lesotho has older texts, however, owing to the presence of a Christian mission. Spanning two centuries (the 19th and the 20th) and featuring such writers as Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nadine Gordimer, Lauretta Ngcobo, Doris Lessing, and Winnie Mandela, the anthology includes texts that range from songs, poems, fiction, praise poems, and folktales to letters, journals, historical documents, journalism pieces, and oral testimonies. The volume's editors, all South African scholars, have also included a journal by a Boer woman written during the Anglo-Boer War, a testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and songs of female initiation into adulthood. These selections, most of which have never before been assembled or published, often call into question such important matters as borders, language, vocabulary, translation, and colonialism. The lengthy introduction adequately explicates the historical as well as textual meaning, and each text's headnote provides context and useful details about the date of its origin, location, and language. Essential for all academic libraries and highly recommended for larger public libraries.-Neal Wyatt, Chesterfield Cty. P.L., VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
A Note on the Women Writing Africa Project | ||
Preface | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
Nineteenth Century | ||
Song of the Afflicted | 85 | |
Testimony | 86 | |
Letters and Land Submission | 91 | |
God's Peace and Blessing | 96 | |
Account of Cape Town | 98 | |
A Mother Praises Her Baby | 105 | |
Unanana-bosele | 106 | |
Affidavit | 109 | |
What the Maidens Do with Rooi Klip | 111 | |
Letter to Miss Mackenzie | 113 | |
The Story of Ngangezwe and Mnyamana | 115 | |
The War in Zululand | 120 | |
Two Lions Who Changed Themselves into People and Married Two Herero Girls | 124 | |
Leaving the Farm | 125 | |
Portrait of Louisa | 128 | |
Penelopa Lienguane | 131 | |
Testimony of a School Girl | 134 | |
1900 to 1919 | ||
Journal of the War | 139 | |
Moliege's Vengeance | 144 | |
Ominous Weather | 147 | |
Court Record | 152 | |
Women's Petition: Domestic Unhappiness | 155 | |
Letter from Karibib | 157 | |
Petition of the Native and Coloured Women of the Province of the Orange Free State | 158 | |
Africa: My Native Land | 161 | |
A "Little Woman's" Advice to the Public | 162 | |
Baster Affidavit | 165 | |
1920s to 1950s | ||
Address to the Resident Commissioner | 171 | |
Going to School | 173 | |
Listen, Compatriots! | 176 | |
Letter to the High Commissioner | 180 | |
Inheritance: Two Letters | 182 | |
Speech to the Bangwaketse | 187 | |
Bantu Home Life | 189 | |
Social Conditions Among Bantu Women and Girls | 195 | |
The Story of Nosente | 200 | |
UMandisa | 205 | |
Nation Is Going to Ruination | 209 | |
Flight of the Royal Household | 212 | |
Letter from Keetmanshoop | 219 | |
Meeting of Herero Women | 221 | |
The Case of the Foolish Minister | 225 | |
Though I Am Black, I Am Comely | 229 | |
Song of King Iipumbu | 231 | |
Women's Charter | 236 | |
Presidential Address to the African National Congress Women's League, Transvaal | 240 | |
Two Songs | 245 | |
African Women Do Not Want Passes | 246 | |
The Widows of the Reserves | 248 | |
It's Gotta Be Cash for a Cookie | 252 | |
Aunt, Stretch out the Blanket | 254 | |
1960s and 1970s | ||
The Girl Aga-abes | 259 | |
Diary of a Detainee | 263 | |
Past and Present | 268 | |
Bus Journey to Tsolo | 271 | |
Three Court Statements | 283 | |
The Widow and the Baboons | 285 | |
Ballad of Nomagundwane | 287 | |
For "Napoleon Bonaparte," Jenny, and Kate | 290 | |
What of the Future? | 303 | |
I Drift in the Wind | 306 | |
I am a Wailing Fool | 308 | |
Murmurs in the Kutum | 309 | |
Tobacco, Sugar Alcohol, and Coffee: These Things Have Turned Us into Slaves | 315 | |
A Man Hides Food from His Family | 316 | |
Fall Tomorrow | 333 | |
The Old People Give You Life | 335 | |
Emergency Call from the Women of Namibia | 337 | |
Women Are Wealth | 339 | |
Poem for My Mother | 343 | |
Detention Alone Is a Trial in Itself | 344 | |
The Basking Lizard | 346 | |
Working on the Mail | 348 | |
1980s | ||
The Rending of the Veil | 357 | |
The Haunting Melancholy of Klipvoordam | 363 | |
Return Journey | 372 | |
Arrested for Being Women | 375 | |
Crossroads | 377 | |
Kandishiwo - I Don't Know | 380 | |
The Woman | 385 | |
Citizenship: An Open Letter to the Attorney-General | 386 | |
I, the Unemployed | 390 | |
The Letter | 392 | |
Our Sharpeville | 397 | |
Our Government Is a Glowing Ember | 398 | |
For Willy Nyathele | 400 | |
Jesus Is Indian | 402 | |
Children of Namibia | 411 | |
Praise to Our Mothers | 413 | |
T.M.T. [actual symbol not reproducible] T.B.M.G. | 415 | |
1990s and 2000s | ||
Another Story | 419 | |
War from Within | 430 | |
Krotoa's Story | 433 | |
Stella | 438 | |
Giraffe Song | 442 | |
Nhamiwa's Magic Stick | 444 | |
"Lend Me a Dress": Testimonies on Education | 446 | |
A Broken Family | 448 | |
Two Dream-Miracle Stories | 453 | |
Praise to Mbuya Nehanda | 455 | |
A Noble Woman of Africa | 457 | |
Swazi Wedding Songs | 461 | |
Izisho Zokusebenza - Work Songs | 463 | |
April 27: The First Time | 467 | |
Before the Beginning | 470 | |
The Price of Freedom | 471 | |
Ngonya's Bride-Price | 476 | |
Testimony: Truth and Reconciliation Commission | 479 | |
We Will Be Leasing for Ourselves | 484 | |
Writing near the Bone | 488 | |
African Wisdom | 491 | |
War Memoir | 494 | |
The Birth of This Country's Language | 500 | |
Bojale - Setswana Initiation Songs | 506 | |
Intonjane - Xhosa Initiation Songs | 507 | |
Mutondo - Nyemba Initiation Songs | 510 | |
Setswana Wedding Songs | 513 | |
Good as Dead | 515 | |
Caring for the Dying | 520 | |
Generations | 522 | |
Contributors | 525 | |
Permissions Acknowledgments and Sources | 537 | |
Authors Listed by Country | 549 | |
Index | 551 |