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Abstract
Mirriam Tlali’s produced her most acclaimed literary works during the apartheid era in South Africa. Her literature was defined by, in her own, admission, the desire ‘to strike a blow’ for the freedom of the enslaved black masses. She achieved her aims by exposing the brutality of the apartheid system in her literary portrayals. This article seeks to contextualise her work within the environment within which it was produced. It also seeks to justify Mirriam Tlali’s literature in terms of its relevance for all times. Tlali deliberately chose to write in an ‘unconventional’ manner, much to the chagrin of writers and literary critics such as Njabulo Ndebele and Lewis Nkosi. These critics charged that Tlali’s work was meerly ‘sloganeering’ and that it was concerned about ‘surface symbols’. These critics argue for literature to assume the forms of portrayals simimlar to those of, for instance, the Turkish writer Yasher Kemal. Tlali’s literary were produced with a stated aim of ‘striking a blow’ for freedom’ and yet they retain the requisite literary aesthetics. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p2432
Highlights
What really inspired protest fiction writings in South Africa during the Apartheid days was the writers’ identification with the Black Consciousness ideology and total rejection of the Apartheid regime and its policies
The political void left was filled by white liberals who championed the cause of the black man until so-called black liberals began to distance themselves from white liberals and started embracing the black consciousness ideology
Cooper notes that: This Black Consciousness, as it emerged was no more than one family member ‘black liberals’ unilaterally declaring independence from the other member ‘white liberals’ utilizing the language, rhetoric, strategies and tactics of Afro-American political activism (1992:7)
Summary
What really inspired protest fiction writings in South Africa during the Apartheid days was the writers’ identification with the Black Consciousness ideology and total rejection of the Apartheid regime and its policies. South Africa in the 1960’s to the early 1990’s was glaringly characterized by the ruling white minority’s abhorrent institutionalized policy of Apartheid. This policy ensured that the white minority, through systematic brutal oppression and exploitation, held onto social, economic and political power. In the early part of this period, the effective brutality of the apartheid regime’s repressive machinery had ensured that black South African lived in a state of perpetual fear and subjugation. Cooper notes that: This Black Consciousness, as it emerged was no more than one family member ‘black liberals’ unilaterally declaring independence from the other member ‘white liberals’ utilizing the language, rhetoric, strategies and tactics of Afro-American political activism (1992:7)
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