Foundational African Writers

Bhekizizwe (Bheki) Peterson, was a South African intellectual, script writer and film producer and Professor of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He published extensively on African literature, performance and cultural studies as well as Black intellectual traditions in South Africa. Makhosazana Xaba is a research associate at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WiSER). She is a multi-genre anthologist, and has published three poetry collections and an award-winning collection of short stories. Khwezi Mkhize is Lecturer in the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and co-editor of the journal African Studies. He is the author of numerous essays and co-editor of Foundational African Writers: Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi and Es'kia Mphahlele. Bhekizizwe (Bheki) Peterson, was a South African intellectual, script writer and film producer and Professor of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He published extensively on African literature, performance and cultural studies as well as Black intellectual traditions in South Africa. Khwezi Mkhize is Lecturer in the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and co-editor of the journal African Studies. He is the author of numerous essays and co-editor of Foundational African Writers: Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi and Es'kia Mphahlele. Makhosazana Xaba is a research associate at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WiSER). She is a multi-genre anthologist, and has published three poetry collections and an award-winning collection of short stories. Jill Bradbury is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand and a principal investigator in the Narrative Enquiry for Social Transformation programme. Hugo Canham is Associate Professor of Psychology in the School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, and a research affiliate of NEST (Narrative Enquiry for Social Transformation). Victoria J Collis-Buthelezi is Associate Professor in English at the University of Johannesburg and inaugural Director of the university's Centre for the Study of Race, Gender and Class. Simon Gikandi is Robert Schirmer Professor and Chair of English at Princeton University. Anne-Maria Makhulu is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies at Duke University Athambile Masola is a lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town. Innocentia J Mhlambi is Associate Professor of African Languages at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Sikhumbuzo Mngadi teaches in the Department of English at the University of Johannesburg. Thando Njovane teaches literature at Rhodes University. Obi Nwakanma is a poet, literary critic and journalist, and Professor of English at the University of Central Florida, Orlando. James Ogude is the Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria. He is Professor of African Literature and Cultures and edited Ubuntu and the Reconstitution of Community. Christopher EW Ouma is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Cape Town. Ouma is the author of Childhood in Contemporary Diasporic African Literature: Memories and Futures Past. Stéphane Robolin is Associate Professor of Literatures in English at Rutgers University, and a former Research Associate at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research Crain Soudien is Emeritus Professor in Education and African Studies at the University of Cape Town, an Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University and the President of Cornerstone Institute. Tina Steiner teaches in the English Department at Stellenbosch University. Thuto Thipe is a historian of Southern Africa and the African diaspora. She holds a PhD in History and African American Studies from Yale University. Andrea Thorpe is a researcher and teacher focusing on South African diasporic writing. She holds a PhD from Queen Mary University of London.

• List of illustrationsForeword – Simon Gikandi AcknowledgementsTribute to Professor Bhekizizwe Peterson – Jill Bradbury, Khwezi Mkhize and Makhosazana XabaIntroduction – Bhekizizwe Peterson, Khwezi Mkhize and Makhosazana XabaPart I: Remapping and Rereading African Literature and Cultural ProductionChapter 1 Foundational Writers and the Making of African Literary Genealogy: Es’kia Mphahlele and Peter Abrahams – James OgudeChapter 2 Foundational African Literary Discourse and Dimensions of Authority – Obi NwakanmaChapter 3 Situating Sibusiso Nyembezi in African Literary History – Sikhumbuzo MngadiChapter 4 A Footnote and a Pioneer: Noni Jabavu’s Legacy – Athambile MasolaChapter 5 ‘Navigations of Tyranny’: Reconsidering Es’kia Mphahlele’s Writing – Crain SoudienChapter 6 Noni Jabavu and the Sensibilities of Early Black Educated Elites – Hugo CanhamPart II: South Africa and Fugitive ImaginariesChapter 7 (Un)Homing and the Uncanny: The (Auto)Biographical Es’kia Mphahlele – Thando Njovane Chapter 8 In the Shadows of the British Empire: Nyembezi’s Inkinsela YaseMngungundlovu – Innocentia J. Mhlambi Chapter 9 Escaping Apartheid: Race, Education and Cultural Exchange, 1955–2003 – Anne-Maria Makhulu Chapter 10 Photographing Home Life in Alexandra between the 1930s and the 1970s – Thuto Thipe11 Down Avenues of (Un)Learning: Reading, Writing and Being – Jill BradburyPart III: In the Eye of the Short Century: Diaspora and pan-Africanism ReconsideredChapter 12 Es’kia Mphahlele and the Question of the Aesthetic – Khwezi MkhizeChapter 13 ‘African Contrasts’: Noni Jabavu’s Travelogue as Kaleidoscope – Tina SteinerChapter 14 Es’kia Mphahlele, Chemchemi and Pan-African Literary Publics – Christopher E.W. OumaChapter 15 The ‘Crossroads and Forkways’ of Pan-Africanism between 1948 and 1968 – Bhekizizwe Peterson Chapter 16 ‘She Certainly Couldn’t Be Conventional If She Tried’: Noni Jabavu, the Editor of The New Strand Magazine in London – Makhosazana Xaba Chapter 17 Anti-Colonial Romance and Tragedy in Peter Abrahams’ A Wreath for Udomo – Andrea Thorpe18 Mphahlele’s Writing in the Whirlwind – Stéphane RobolinChapter 19 From South Africa to Coyaba: Peter Abrahams’ (New) World Geographies – Victoria J. Collis-ButheleziContributorsIndex