Abstract
This paper functions as part review, part ethnographic account of the collection’s publication and the conditions in the society that facilitated its success. I seek to articulate the intervention that Collective Amnesia has made into the South African mainstream literary consciousness, a collection which reflects the complex experience of being in, and of, post- transitional South Africa, and reaches back into the long histories in the country’s complicated racial and gender politics. I will explore questions of decolonial justice in relation to Collective Amnesia, particularly with regard to South Africa’s canon and the collection’s position as a cultural text or object in South African popular culture. In 2017 I worked at uHlanga Press as one of only two employees who produced, publicised, and marketed Collective Amnesia. I watched its meteoric rise from a privileged vantage point, and will draw on some of my experiences and observations in my discussion of this collection as a cultural phenomenon. I hope that the duality of my approach, from both cultural and publishing perspectives, speaks to the concerns of the production, study and teaching of “literatures in English” in the post-transitional milieu of South Africa which concerns so many of my colleagues in both industries.
Highlights
The publication of Koleka Putuma’s debut collection Collective Amnesia (2017) by uHlanga Press in April 2017 was one of the biggest events in the South African publishing industry in that year and was unmatched in the poetry scene
Poetry collections published in South Africa seldom make two print runs, let alone six
In 2017 I worked at uHlanga Press as one of only two employees who produced, publicised, and marketed Collective Amnesia
Summary
The publication of Koleka Putuma’s debut collection Collective Amnesia (2017) by uHlanga Press in April 2017 was one of the biggest events in the South African publishing industry in that year and was unmatched in the poetry scene. Collective Amnesia, an experimental collection, published by the small uHlanga Press, with a very small budget, climbed to the top of the bestseller lists across South Africa, surpassing both Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Rupi Kaur’s The Sun and Her Flowers for a week respectively. Putuma’s reputation as a performer, playwright, artist and poet, coupled with uHlanga Press’ founder Nick Mulgrew’s astute sales strategy, contributed to the success of a collection that resonated with the political and social zeitgeist of disillusionment and frustration in post-transitional South Africa. I hope that the duality of my approach, from both cultural and publishing perspectives, speaks to the concerns of the production, study and teaching of “literatures in English” in the post-transitional milieu of South Africa which concerns so many of my colleagues in both industries
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