EARLY BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN WRITING IN ENGLISH

256pp., paperback, Trenton, 2011

“There really is not another scholar in African literary studies like Bernth Lindfors. For decades he has worked tirelessly to enhance our knowledge of African literature, writing with authority, insight and wit, constantly filling gaps in our critical awareness, forever unearthing material we should have known about but did not. In this rewarding collection of essays and interviews he pays tribute to those pioneering black South African writers—among them Dennis Brutus and Peter Abrahams, Oswald Mtshali and Alex La Guma—who created a new literature and put it to the service of the anti-apartheid struggle. Never one to miss a good story, he investigates with the eye of a detective and the expertise of a seasoned archivist, the mystery behind the publication of Mofolo’s Chaka and the tumultuous rise and fall of dramatist Mbongeni Ngema. In the memorable set of interviews which rounds off the volume, Brutus lucidly reviews his poetic career, Richard Rive speaks movingly on his reasons for remaining in apartheid South Africa when so many others went into exile and Njabulo Ndebele incisively examines the gaps in South African literary history. This volume is vintage Lindfors—perceptive, committed, and as always eminently readable.” Geoffrey V. Davis, Emeritus Professor of Postcolonial Anglophone Literatures, R.W.T.H., Aachen, Germany

Bernth Lindfors is Professor Emeritus of English and African Literatures at The University of Texas at Austin. His books include Early Soyinka, Early Achebe, Early West African Writers and Early East African Writers and Publishers.