South Africa has a rich, quality history in respect of black women's Writing, with a staggering amount of pertinent creative comprising fiction, short stories, poetry, drama etc published over the years.
Literary pundit, Tiisetso Thiba recently stated: "Where can one even start? Is it with Miriam Tlali, supremely talented, who became the first black woman in the country to publish a novel? What about Laureta Ngcobo, world class and sophisticated, who produced superb novels? Or Ellen Kuzwayo, author of the stunning work, Call Me Woman? These three women, all late now, have gone into history,"
Another world class female writer is Sindiwe Magona, who is still very much with us. Over the decades, she has produced literary masterpieces. So has the enigmatic NMM Duman, and younger black female writers like Futhi Ntshingila, whose work is scintillating.
Lorato Trok is another very important South African female writer, chronicler, biographer, and children's author. She has published a string of quality books over the years, and continues to do so.
Biographies might well be Trok's forte, as evidenced by the shining success of one of her books: Rosina Sedibane Modiba. On the whole, Trok continues to be in the vanguard in promoting the culture of reading, literacy and literature.
"All hands must be on deck for us to forge ahead in this wise," she says. "No stone should be left unturned in the process."
All time great South African (male) writer, Es'kia Mphahlele, always pays tribute to the strength, resilience and talent of women in his books, especially his classic, Down Second Avenue. It is no surprise that Trok also acknowledges the importance of her own mother, and aunt as she embraced the literary sphere.
Lorato Trok's new book is about another remarkable South African, SAUL SITHOLE. Trok explains: "I enjoyed writing the story of Ntate Saul Sithole. He gave the Transvaal Museum (now Ditsong Natural History Museum ) 62 years of his life in ornithology and anthropology, with no formal education ... but my goodness what a gift he had!"
Quality books... what a
gift…
An indefatigable literary activist. We salute her, and the distinguished line of our female writers
ReplyDeleteI once again congratilulate ausi Lorato Trok for her amazing new book about Rre Saul Sithole and great work he has done during his life time. Ausi Lorato continue to inspire female writers here in South Africa and across the world. Ke a mo lebogisa.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. Thrilling background of South African Black female Writing here. Biographies are very important, else many worthwhile lives would be left undocumented - sadly so often the case in Africa.
ReplyDeleteSuch features (articles) delight me. More of it please. South Africa is so vibrant in Writing - just like Nigeria. Tlali was first SA Black woman to write a novel; just like Flora Nwapa was the first Nigerian woman to do so
ReplyDeleteBrilliant.
ReplyDeleteA lady worth emulating. But such books should be made available mainstream, reviewed far and wide, on goodreads etc
ReplyDeleteBiographical works are very important, and of course for historical and scholarly purposes. I remember I used to read series of biographies of great writers, from the library stock: writers like Dickens, Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Hardy, Jane Austen, etc
ReplyDeleteNow that I read the reference to Tlali here, I rememeber reading her great work (I think the first) Muriel at Metropolitan. Very fine writer, Tlali, and sensitive too.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, biographical works are very important... an autobiography is when the protagonist writes the story of his/her life themselves. Biographies are accounts put together by another person who would be more neutral and less subjective.
ReplyDeleteSPLENDID. Up African Literature!
ReplyDeleteWE congratulate another great lady of letters (from western world), Ms Louise Gluck, for winning the Nobel award for literature
ReplyDeleteOur women must continue to write - they are wonderful
ReplyDeleteVery impressive. A lot of Writing is going on in Africa, which so many people are not even aware of. Facilitators must also be commended
ReplyDelete