| Abrahams, Peter. Born: Transvaal, South
Africa, 1919. Mother coloured; father Ethiopian. Childhood: slum
of Vrededorp in Johannesburg. Publication many novels. Now: lives
in the West Indies, edits West Indian Economist.
Abruquah, Joseph Wildred. Born: Ghana. education Wesley
College, Kumasi, Ghana; B.A. (Hons.) Degree and Dip.Ed at King's
College and Westminister College, London. Now: in the
International Writing Program at University of Iowa. publications:
The Catechist, 1965 and The Torrent, 1968. Son of a
catechist.
Achebe, Chinua. Born: 1930, Eastern Nigeria. Father:
catechist and teacher with the Church Missionary Society.
Education: Government College in Umuahia; B.A. at University
College in Umuahia; B.A. at University College, Ibadan.
Occupation: 1954, broadcasting; 1961, Director of External
Broadcasting in Nigeria. Four novels. Wife: Christie Okoli. Taught
at Northwestern University Studies program. Spent much of the war
in Biafra and on speaking tours in behalf of Biafra.
Aluko, T.M. Born: 1918, Western Nigeria. Education:
Ilesha and government college, Ibadan; studied civil engineering
and town planning in Lagos and London. In 1960 was appointed
director of Public Works for the Western Region of Nigeria. Then
with the staff of the staff of the University of Lagos. Three
novels.
Kayira, Legson. Born: village, Malawi. Walked 2500 miles
seeking education in U.S.A. Graduated from university of
Washington. Post-graduate work at Cambridge, England. publication:
three books.
Laye, Camara. Born: 1924 in French Guinea. He grew up in
a society where magic was an everyday event. Both his parents were
believed to possess supernatural powers. education: technical
college at Conakry; engineering in France. Work: in a Simca
factory in the suburbs of Paris while studying. Publications:
several books.
Maimane, Arthur. Born: 1932, South Africa. Trained as a
journalist there. Became Reuter's correspondent in East Africa.
Worked for a time in Ghana. Went to England. Worked as a current
affairs commentator for the BBC. Has had several plays broadcast
and published many short stories.
Matthews, James. Born: 1929, Cape Town, South
Africa. Eldest son of a poor and large family. First job:
newspaper seller. After leaving high school, a messenger,
journalist, and a telephonist. His collection of short stories, Azilwewla,
has been published in Sweden.
Mphahlele, Ezekiel. Born: 1919, in slums of Pretoria.
Started school at 13 years of age. His childhood was spent
carrying washing which his mother did for the white residents so
that her three children might eat and gain an education. he
finished high school, taught English and Afrikaans. Dismissed from
school for his opposition to Bantu Education. Received external
degrees of B.A. and M.A. from University of South Africa. Not
allowed to teach. Stories, Man Must Live, were published in
1947; autobiography, Down Second Avenue was published in
1959; his master's thesis, The African Image in 1962.
Taught in Nigeria, worked in Paris, Geneva, Denver and East
Africa.
Ngugi, James. Born: Highlands of Kenya. Education:
University College, Makerere. Occupation: Journalist in Nairobi.
University of Leeds. Several novels and plays. Places taught:
University of Makerere.
Nkosi, Lewis. Born: Johannesburg, South Africa.
Occupation: Journalist and broadcaster. Worked on Drum and
other magazines. Eventually left South Africa for political
reasons. Many published articles.
Oyono, Ferdinand. Born: 1929, Cameroons. Educated there
and in France. Appeared on stage in the title role of Louis
Sapin's Papa Bon Dieu at the Theatre d'Aujourd'hui in Paris.
Diplomatic service, first in Paris, then Rome, then at the UN, and
in Brussels. Two novels translated into English.
Rabearivelo, Jean-Joseph. Born: 1901, at Antananarivo,
Madagascar, of poor parents. With French and Spanish and wrote
poetry in both languages as well as in his native Malagasy. he
worked as a publisher's clerk and published several volumes of
poetry. In spite of his devotion to French culture, he was never
able to visit France. he committed suicide in 1937. From 1930-31
he was co-editor of an interesting but short-lived literary
review, Capri corne.
Soyinka, Wole. Born: 1935 in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Studied
at University College, Ibadan. Read for English honors degree at
Leeds University. Returned to Nigeria in 1960 to staff of the
University of Ife. many plays, poems, and one novel. early in the
Biafran war he was imprisoned by the Lagos regime as a security
risk (he tried to visit Biafra), was released in October 1969
under a general amnesty. Reorganized the drama department at the
University of Ibadan and filmed Kongi's Harvest. In the summer of
1970, he produced a play, madmen and Specialists, written in
prison, at Connecticut's O'Neil theater, following previews in the
black areas of Hartford, new Haven and Waterford. * * * * *
Cry Sorrow, Cry Joy
Selections from Contemporary African
Writers
Edited by Jane Ann Moore
* * * * *
Lewis Nkosi (5 December 1936 – 5 September 2010) was a South
African writer and essayist. He was a multifaceted personality, and
attempted every literary genre, literary criticism, poetry, drama, and
novels. Nkosi worked for many years in
Durban for the magazine Ilanga lase Natal and in
Johannesburg for
Drum.
Nkosi faced severe restrictions on
his writing due to the publishing regulations found in the
Suppression of Communism Act and the Publications and Entertainment
Act passed in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1961, he received a scholarship to
study at Harvard, and he began his life in exile. He was an editor for
The New African in London, and the NET in the United
States. He became a Professor of Literature and held positions at the
University of Wyoming and the
University of California-Irvine, as well as at universities in
Zambia and
Warsaw,
Poland.
As opposed to apartheid, Nkosi's
work explores themes of politics, relationships, and sexuality. His
essays and other works were published over four decades in America,
England and Africa. His works, possessing great depth, received less
recognition than they had actually deserved. In the post-apartheid era,
his works are gaining critical attention across the third world.
Interestingly, Nkosi joined forces with African powerhouse authors
Chinua Achebe and
Wole Soyinka in an interview in the third chapter of Bernth Lindfors'
Conversations With Chinua Achebe. In 1978, Nkosi and composer
Stanley Glasser wrote a collection of six
Zulu-style songs called "Lalela Zulu" for
The King's Singers, a group of six white British, male
a cappella singers.—Wikipedia
* * * * *
|
Mating Birds
By Lewis Nkosi
From his cell in Durban, South
Africa, the black narrator of this short, powerful novel
can see mating birds "clinging to each other joyfully in
the bright air as though for dear life." But he is
condemned to die: condemned for mating with a white
woman. On her accusation, he has been found guilty of
rape; by his account they were "mating birds," drawn
together across racial barriers by irrepressible sexual
desire. While the nature of their encounter remains
ambiguous, the squalid evils of apartheid are rendered
with the utmost clarity. Nkosi, an exiled South African,
has a fine ear for dialogue and an unusual economy of
expression. Recommended for black studies and fiction
collections.—Peter
Sabor, Library Journal |
 |
* * * * *
Lewis Nkosi (documentary film)
* * * * *
Books on African Film
African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent
/
Symbolic Narratives: African Cinema /
African Cinema: Politics and Culture /
Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives In Sub-Saharan
Francophone African Films /
Black African Cinema /
African Cinemas: Decolonizing the Gaze /
Questioning African Cinema: Conversations with Filmmakers
* * * * *
 |
Still Beating the Drum : Critical Perspectives on Lewis
Nkosi
By Lindy Stiebel
Lewis Nkosi is one
of South Africa’s foremost writers and critics, and one
of the few survivors of the exile generation dating from
the Drum era. Up until now, however, no full length
study has been done on his work. This is a gap in South
African literary history and criticism that this book is
intended to fill. Besides his well known earlier works,
Nkosi is still very much an active writer as the
publication in 2002 of his novel, Underground People,
shows, with his latest novel due out in 2005. The timing
of
Still Beating the Drum, a book which intends to
highlight and evaluate his extensive and varied oeuvre,
is thus appropriate. Given Lewis Nkosi’s life
trajectory, this volume will appeal to readers
interested in South African and African literature, both
in South Africa and abroad.
Intended as a important critical
resource on Lewis Nkosi, the book is divided into three
parts: |
Part One collects papers from scholars around the
world currently working on Nkosi’s work in various genres; Part Two
reprints key articles from different moments in Nkosi’s critical
writing, together with hitherto unpublished recent interviews with
Nkosi; and Part Three provides the reader with a timeline and
extensive bibliography for Lewis Nkosi, both invaluable resources
for scholars working on Nkosi given the scattered nature of much of
his more ephemeral writings in the past. Lewis Nkosi is an important
figure in South African literature whose voice has been heard far
and wide—this book aims to collect for critical consideration some
of the echoes and reverberations his voice has generated. * * * * *
African Film on DVD
Black Girl / Borom Sarret /
Sugar Cane Alley /
Kirikou and the Sorceress /
Lumumba
Amandla: A Revolution in Four Part Harmony /
Cry, The Beloved Country /
The Power of One
Bopha /
Mandela and deKlerk /
Cry Freedom /
Hotel Rwanda /
Sarafina /
Yesterday
Tsotsi /
Hyenas /
Mandabi /
Xala /
Madame Brouette /
Yeelen /
Life on Earth
* *
* * *
update 21 November 2010 |
