Writing against colonialism in South African memoir

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent years have seen calls for a reorientation towards anticolonial perspectives and for further decolonization in many formerly colonized countries. Meanwhile, postcolonial studies have been criticized for being too western-oriented and too focused on diasporic subjects. This article addresses these critiques through an examination of anticolonial engagement in three South African memoirs: Reclaiming Home by Lesego Malepe, Memoirs of a Born Free by Malaika Wa Azania, and Born in Chains by Clinton Chauke. The texts exemplify an anticolonial approach in several contexts with regard to South Africa’s apartheid past and the nation’s still unequal present. The country has struggled to provide its citizens with educational and economic freedoms and equal prospects. Through their anticolonial positioning, the memoirs attest to the need for more nuanced views of the past and its effects in present-day South Africa. The rhetoric employed is eventually more geared towards contemporary challenges than struggles of the past.