In the meantime, I thought I would make this post a little more interactive - I'm looking for book suggestions. A few months ago I was on a South African literature/African literature binge (I wonder why?!), trying to read as much as I could to gain a deeper insight into the culture of South Africa (or other African cultures). I read:
- Achebe "Things Fall Apart"
- Coetzee "Disgrace"
- Coetzee "The Life and Times of Michael K"
- Coetzee "Waiting for the Barbarians"
- Conrad "Heart of Darkness"
- Courtenay "The Power of One"
- Kingsolver "The Poisonwood Bible"
- Mandela "Long Walk to Freedom"
- Paton "Cry, the Beloved Country"
What other book recommendations do you have?
Scott, although I have not read them all, they come highly recommended:
ReplyDeleteA Dry White Season
By Andre Brink
This novel by one of South Africa's most prolific authors, set in the 1970s, brought the issue of deaths in detention to the notice of many who would rather have not known about it. When a white South African investigates the death of a black friend in police custody, he uncovers the brutal truth about apartheid South Africa. An interesting companion volume would be Cry Freedom, Donald Woods' non-fiction account of his friendship with Bantu Steve Biko, the Black Consciousness leader murdered in custody by police.
Tomorrow Is Another Country
By Allister Sparks
Sparks is a veteran South African journalist and author of The Mind of South Africa. His account of the transition from apartheid to democracy is one of several, but undoubtedly the best. It describes, from behind the scenes, the process that began with tentative contact between the sworn enemies, moving through the unbanning of the liberation movements and the complex negotiations that led to SA's first fully democratic election in 1994.
Selected Stories
By Nadine Gordimer
Winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature, Gordimer was for decades SA's literary conscience. Her stories are perhaps the best introduction to her work: they span the 1950s to the 1990s in this volume (British edition), moving from the city to the countryside and from the highest ranks of society to the lowest. With delicacy and power, they cast a bright light on the extraordinary lives led by South Africans of all races, and the nature of their interactions across colour lines and within them.
A Place Called Vatmaar
By AHM Scholtz
The author came to literature late in life, but was hailed as the "Steinbeck of the coloured South African platteland" - and produced a bestseller that has now been translated all over the world. His novel, which is very close to actual history, tells the story of a village inhabited mostly by "coloureds", the mixed-race people of the Cape, from its earliest beginnings. The various characters of the village's history speak, telling their stories from their own perspectives to create a portrait of a whole community.