Southern African Literatures (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Southern African Literatures Daniel P. Kunene Southern African Literatures By Michael ChapmanPietermaritzburg: U of Natal P, 2003. ISBN 1-86914-028-1 paper. 533 pp. This book contains s a 15-page preface (x–xxiv), a map of southern Africa (xxv), countries comprising the southern African region, namely, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (xxvi–xxvii), accompanied by the languages spoken there, as well as population figures, "A note on translated works" (xxx–xxxi), and Abbreviations and Acronyms (xxxii). These are followed by a "General Introduction" (1–13). Pages 14–480 comprise the main body of the work, which is divided into parts one to six, which are titled as follows: Part One: Oral Tradition: A Usable Past (ch. 1 and 2, pp. 14–67); Part Two: Writing of European Settlement: South Africa 1652–1910 (ch. 1–4, pp. 69–144); Part Three: African or Colonial Literature: 1880 to 1960s (ch.1–4, pp. 145–259); Part Four: Commissioned by the Nation, Commissioned by the Society. Independence, Post-Independence (ch. 1–4, pp. 261–323); Part Five: Writing in the Interregnum: South Africa, 1970–1995 (ch. 1–5, pp. 325–435; Part Six: Further References (Chronology, pp. 437–80, and Individual Authors—notes on biography, works and criticism, pp. 481–515). There is also an index covering pages 516–33. Each of the first five sections, namely, parts one to five, has an introduction of its own, intended to ease the reader into the argument that follows. Except for part five, which consists of a little over four pages, the introductions average about one-and-half to one-and-three-quarter pages. A general introduction (1–13) gives what amounts to brief listings of experiences of colonization and consequent liberation movements based on "a social theory in which forms of literature are tied firmly to the event." (4). In other words, literatures are informed by the sociopolitical environments in which they are conceived and executed. This is an ambitious work that will reward many readers interested in the topic of the development of literature in southern Africa. While many researchers who undertake this enormous task find it practical and convenient to look at African literatures by blacks separately from those composed in English and Afrikaans by whites, Chapman has decided to take the plunge and see whether the impossible could be made possible and credible. This is not an easy task, if it is indeed possible. The net is cast so wide, and the catch so varied, that it is difficult to haul it on deck. First of all, Chapman views "the possibility of writing literary history in the heterogeneous societies of the southern African region"(x) as problematic. This is reinforced by the assertion that [End Page 135] [t]he study begins [. . .] from the proposition that literatures in the individual countries have tended to be defined and described according to separate linguistic-ethnic units rather than to the entity of the nation-state. In South Africa, for example, we have South African literature in English, Afrikaans literature, Zulu literature, Xhosa literature, Sotho literature, and so on, each having its hermetic sets of assumptions, myths and conventions while there is little consensus on how we might constitute a single South African literature. (xvii) The ensuing tome makes the reader realize that there are implied rhetorical "questions" embedded in the above statements, which Professor Chapman proceeds to answer in his own way by his bold attempt to "constitute a single South African literature." In coming to grips with this question, however, we have to take some historical realities into account. Among the black peoples of southern Africa, the art of writing in its current form, namely, via the roman alphabet, did not evolve naturally, but was introduced by the missionaries as an instrument for capturing the minds and souls of the people whom they were trying to convert. It came as part of a package. You could only receive it in a missionary school that used it to directly and indirectly undermine your culture, especially your religious beliefs. You came out alienated from your own people, your parents included. In your writing, you...