Xhosa Poets and Poetry

Xhosa Poets and Poetry

Author: Jeff Opland

Publisher: New Africa Books

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780864864208

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Xhosa oral poetry has defied the threats to its integrity over two centuries, to take its place in a free South Africa. This volume establishes the background to this poetic re-emergence, preserving and transmitting the voice of the Xhosa poet.


The Nation's Bounty

The Nation's Bounty

Author: Nontsizi Mgqwetho

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 1868144518

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A beautiful study of the incredible life of Nontsizi Mgqwetho For nearly a decade Nontsizi Mgqwetho contributed poetry to a Johannesburg newspaper, Umteteli wa Bantu, the first and only female poet to produce a substantial body of work in Xhosa. Apart from what is revealed in these writings, very little is known about her life. She explodes on the scene with her swaggering, urgent, confrontational woman's poetry on 23 October 1920, sends poems to the newspaper regularly throughout the three years from 1924 to 1926, withdraws for two years until two final poems appear in December 1928 and January 1929, then disappears into the shrouding silence she first burst from. Nothing more is heard from her, but the poetry she left immediately claims for her the status of one of the greatest literary artists ever to write in Xhosa, an anguished voice of an urban woman confronting male dominance, ineffective leadership, black apathy, white malice and indifference, economic exploitation and a tragic history of nineteenth-century territorial and cultural dispossession. The Nation's Bounty contains the original poems alongside English translations by Jeff Opland. It was the first of a number of new titles planned for release in the African Treasury Series, a premier collection of texts by South Africa's pioneers of African literature and written in indigenous languages. First published by Wits University Press in the 1940s, the series provided a voice for the voiceless and celebrated African culture, history and heritage. It continues to make a contribution by supporting current efforts to empower and develop the status of African languages in South Africa.


Nation's Bounty

Nation's Bounty

Author: Jeff Opland

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 526

ISBN-13: 1776143183

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A beautiful study of the incredible life of Nontsizi Mgqwetho For nearly a decade Nontsizi Mgqwetho contributed poetry to a Johannesburg newspaper, Umteteli wa Bantu, the first and only female poet to produce a substantial body of work in Xhosa. Apart from what is revealed in these writings, very little is known about her life. She explodes on the scene with her swaggering, urgent, confrontational woman's poetry on 23 October 1920, sends poems to the newspaper regularly throughout the three years from 1924 to 1926, withdraws for two years until two final poems appear in December 1928 and January 1929, then disappears into the shrouding silence she first burst from. Nothing more is heard from her, but the poetry she left immediately claims for her the status of one of the greatest literary artists ever to write in Xhosa, an anguished voice of an urban woman confronting male dominance, ineffective leadership, black apathy, white malice and indifference, economic exploitation and a tragic history of nineteenth-century territorial and cultural dispossession. The Nation's Bounty contains the original poems alongside English translations by Jeff Opland. It was the first of a number of new titles planned for release in the African Treasury Series, a premier collection of texts by South Africa's pioneers of African literature and written in indigenous languages. First published by Wits University Press in the 1940s, the series provided a voice for the voiceless and celebrated African culture, history and heritage. It continues to make a contribution by supporting current efforts to empower and develop the status of African languages in South Africa.


Xhosa Oral Poetry

Xhosa Oral Poetry

Author: Jeff Opland

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1983-12-30

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9780521241137

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This book, first published in 1983, was the first detailed study of the Xhosa oral poetry tradition.


Xhosa Literature

Xhosa Literature

Author: Jeff Opland

Publisher: University of Kwazulu Natal Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781869143862

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Xhosa Literature consists of fourteen essays addressing Xhosa literature in three media-the spoken word, newspapers, and books. Literary critics tend to focus on Xhosa literature published in books with some attention paid to Xhosa oral poetry and tales, but by and large the contribution of newspapers to the development of Xhosa literature has been overlooked. This book explores aspects of Xhosa literature in all three media, and their interconnections. Six of the essays treat historical narratives (amabali) and praise poetry (izibongo), setting out the social and ritual function of poetry and the poet (imbongi), mapping changes in the izibongo of three poets as South Africa moved towards democracy in the 1990s, and analyzing recordings of two poems recited by S.E.K. Mqhayi. Three essays are devoted to the first Xhosa novel, Mqhayi's U-Samson (1907), to the publication of the greatest novel in Xhosa, A.C. Jordan's Ingqumbo yeminyanya (1940), and to the first published poem in praise of Nelson Mandela, D.L.P. Yali-Manisi's 'UNkosi Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela' (1954). There follow accounts of Xhosa literature in the nineteenth century and the appropriation of the press by Xhosa editors towards the end of that century, of Nontsizi Mgqwetho's fiery poetry published in Umteteli wa Bantu, and of poems by Mgqwetho and Mqhayi published in Abantu-Batho, two Johannesburg newspapers. The volume concludes with an exposition of an imaginative response to David Yali-Manisi and his poetry. (Series: Publications of the Opland Collection of Xhosa Literature, Vol. 6) [Subject: African Studies, Politics, Sociology, Xhosa Literature]


Of Land, Bones, and Money

Of Land, Bones, and Money

Author: Emily McGiffin

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2019-07-18

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0813942772

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The South African literature of iimbongi, the oral poets of the amaXhosa people, has long shaped understandings of landscape and history and offered a forum for grappling with change. Of Land, Bones, and Money examines the shifting role of these poets in South African society and the ways in which they have helped inform responses to segregation, apartheid, the injustices of extractive capitalism, and contemporary politics in South Africa. Emily McGiffin first discusses the history of the amaXhosa people and the environment of their homelands before moving on to the arrival of the British, who began a relentless campaign annexing land and resources in the region. Drawing on scholarship in the fields of human geography, political ecology, and postcolonial ecocriticism, she considers isiXhosa poetry in translation within its cultural, historical, and environmental contexts, investigating how these poems struggle with the arrival and expansion of the exploitation of natural resources in South Africa and the entrenchment of profoundly racist politics that the process entailed. In contemporary South Africa, iimbongi remain a respected source of knowledge and cultural identity. Their ongoing practice of producing complex, spiritually rich literature continues to have a profound social effect, contributing directly to the healing and well-being of their audiences, to political transformation, and to environmental justice.


The Making of a Servant and Other Poems

The Making of a Servant and Other Poems

Author: Walter Saunders

Publisher:

Published: 2020-07-28

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13:

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The Making of Servant and Other Poems was first published in the early 1970's when Zithobile Qangule and Walter Saunders were fellow lecturers at the University of South Africa in Pretoria - the spiritual heart of Apartheid but with a growing 'verligte' or 'enlightened' element. One day Zithobile sent him a Xhosa poem he had translated into English for publication in Ophir, a radical independent anti-apartheid poetry magazine, which Saunders co-edited with Peter Horn and Michael Macnamara. The poem was The Making of a Servant by J.J.R. Jolobe. What a stunning poem! Ophir immediately decided to publish it with a selection of other newly-translated Xhosa poems as a small book. Qangule selected six more poems by six other - St J. Page Yako, S.W. Nkuhlu, M.E. Nyoka, Samuel Edward Krune Loliwe Ngxekengxeke Mqhayi, Alfred Zwelinzima Ngani and R.M Tshaka. All the poems Qangule wanted to work on had already been published in Xhosa and some of them translated. But those were the days of apartheid. The publishers included core Afrikaner Nationalist companies, who were making their money producing books for Bantu Education schools. Qangule felt that all the poems were deeply subversive but they had never been translated in English so as to reveal their satire and political commentary. The brief therefore of the translators, Qangule himself and Robert Mshengu Kavanagh, was to translate or re-translate the poems so as to bring this out.


The Nation's Bounty

The Nation's Bounty

Author: Nontsizi Mgqwetho

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 9781868146550

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The Nation's Bounty contains the original poems alongside English translations by Jeff Opland. It was the first of a number of new titles planned for release in the African Treasury Series, a premier collection of texts by South Africa's pioneers of African literature and written in indigenous languages.


Wena

Wena

Author: Ntsiki Mazwai

Publisher: African Perspectives Publishing

Published: 2011-07-26

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 0992187559

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The collection of poems is an intriguing reflection of the sometimes torturous evolution of inner self which so many South Africans face as they struggle to find who they are in a multicultural society that espouses the values of traditional culture while reaching for the promise of a global community. Thus the blend of Xhosa and English as Ntsiki strives to merge her modern views with cultural roots. She feels strongly the need to reclaim her culture and language and blend them within the context of a cosmopolitan society. She captures the vibe and energy of young South Africa and its blossoming as well as its quandaries. Ntsiki does not hesitate to deal with controversial and painful issues, such as rape, and her work challenges the reader to stop and think, really think. The quest for self expression and self-understanding echoes throughout the book and through it, she exhorts the reader to have the courage to explore and understand himself. Underlying many poems is the unspoken but burning desire that, by telling the truth, she will create possibilities for others to do the same. In many ways, Wena is a celebration of life. The poems brim over with Ntsikis own desire to drink to the full and then go out there and pour love and life out into the world. The manner in which she distills meaning and value from the negative is perhaps best expressed in her own words, from the poem, I choose life:


Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Author: Craig W. McLuckie

Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9780894108839

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"The authors examine Saro-Wiwa's literary output both in terms of literary criticism and within a political framework. They give equal attention to his more public roles, including public reaction within Nigeria to his work."--BOOK JACKET.