South Africa and Zimbabwe

Introduction: South Africa

2015 was a tumultuous year for South Africa with mass protests about corruption, increased student activism, police violence, xenophobia, the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements, disruptions in parliament, and more broadly a move away from rainbow nation rhetoric to an escalated awareness and anger over ongoing economic and race-related inequalities. This was also felt in the literary world as writers became increasingly vocal about socio-political concerns. Thando Mgqolozana took the Franschhoek Literary Festival to task for its predominantly white audiences, leading to calls to decolonize the literary establishment. The Time of the Writer Festival also made negative headlines when Z. P. Dala was assaulted after praising Salman Rushdie at a public reading; a reminder that global issues such as censorship affect local writers.

Despite these challenges, writers continue to write and publish, with the bibliography showing the vibrancy of South African literature. There are new books by established authors as well as new voices emerging. The criticism shows a wide range of authors under discussion.

The Ingrid Jonker Prize for a debut poetry collection went to Thabo Jijana for Failing Maths and My Other Crimes, with Matric Rage by Genna Gardini and The Attributes of Poetry by Elisa Galgut receiving judges’ commendations. Vangi Gantsho, Eliza Kentridge, Nick Mulgrew, and Sihle Ntuli also produced impressive first volumes. Matthews Phosa has published in Afrikaans but Chants of Freedom is his first English collection. Athol Williams has published several books under the pseudonym A. E. Ballakisten but now has a collection Bumper Cars in his own name. He was the winner of the fifth Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award for his poem “Streetclass Diseases”.

Kobus Moolman has been announced as the winner of the American-based Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. Noteworthy new collections from established poets came from Isobel de Gruchy, Clive Lawrance, Vonani Bila, Maishe Maponya, Marí Peté, Peter Midgley, Croc E. Moses, Lesego Rampolokeng, Arja Salafranca, and Wendy Woodward.

For the Duration contains poems by Jana van Niekerk, Rosemund Handler, and Natalie Railoun. It blurs the boundaries between individual collection and anthology, with the poems arranged by themes, the three voices intermingling and blending. Sound Piping is the latest in the annual anthologies compiled by poetry collective Ecca Poets, containing poems in English from Brian Walter, Norman Morrissey, Silke Heiss, Cathal Lagan, and Eduard Burle and Afrikaans poems by Lara Kirsten and Alvené Appollis-du Plessis. A more conventional anthology is Home Is Where the Mic Is which brings together the work of 24 spoken word performers and poets, including Vangi Gantsho, Ian Ewok Robinson, and Nthabiseng JahRose Jafta. The McGregor Poetry Festival’s annual anthology Depth and Wonder, edited by Billy Kennedy, includes poems in English and Afrikaans.

Most early isiXhosa poetry was published in magazines and newspapers and is difficult to find. University of KwaZulu-Natal Press has brought out two scholarly works on seminal poets D. L. P Yali-Manisi and William Wellington Gqoba, translated and edited by Jeff Opland, Pamela Maseko, and Wandile Kuse. The books contain the isiXhosa versions of poems as well as English translations.

With few outlets for poetry, a new journal Stanzas, edited by Douglas Reid Skinner and Patricia Schonstein, and a new publisher uHlanga New Poets, both dedicated to poetry, are welcome developments.

Fiction continues to be strong, with impressive debut novels coming from Sally Andrews, Z. P. Dala, Jacqui L’Ange, Andrew Miller, Pamela Power, Rehana Rossouw, Beverly Rycroft, Nkosinathi Sithole, Dalena Theron, and Nakhane Toure. Sithole won one of South Africa’s biggest literary awards, The Barry Ronge Fiction Prize (formerly the Sunday Times Prize) for his debut Hunger Eats a Man, with Boy on the Wire by Alastair Bruce, The Dream House by Craig Higginson, The Magistrate of Gower by Claire Robertson, and Green Lion by Henrietta Rose-Innes shortlisted. The Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Fiction went to The Fetch by Finuala Dowling.

The Nielsen Bookseller’s Choice Award had not been awarded at the time of writing; however, the shortlist included Death by Carbs by Paige Nick, Icarus by Deon Meyer, Little Suns by Zakes Mda, Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew, and Sweet Medicine by Zimbabwean author Panashe Chigumadzi. This award has tended to be dominated by non-fiction, so it is pleasing to see so many novels listed.

The Etisalat Prize for Literature (for a debut novel from an African author) had two South African writers shortlisted; Penny Busetto with her 2014 novel The Story of Anna P, as Told by Herself and Rehana Rossouw for What Will People Say?. A new award, the FT/Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Award for authors from Africa and the Middle East included Mandla Langa and Ingrid Winterbach on the longlist.

Hunger Eats a Man by Nkosinathi Sithole explores the impact of unemployment and poverty in rural South Africa. What about Meera by Z. P. Dala shows a woman going to Ireland to escape a toxic marriage, but childhood memories continue to haunt her. Poet Beverly Rycroft turns to fiction with Slim Green Silence where the main character is a dead woman who floats over her home town, keeping watch on those she loves and trying to figure out why she is still there. Piggy Boy’s Blues is musician Nakhane Toure’s debut novel and focuses on an Eastern Cape family and the impact of the main character’s return to his home town. The Paper House by Dalena Theron depicts a young woman living with an unconventional family in a conservative small town who must find her own identity as she supports her ailing father.

The Seed Thief by Jacqui L’Ange follows a botanist to Brazil in search of rare seeds for a seed bank, a mission complicated by her family history, unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies, and a mysterious cult guarding the plants. With her impressive debut novel, L’Ange has attracted comparisons to Barbara Kingsolver and Anne Patchett. Green Lion by Henrietta Rose-Innes is another novel with ecological concerns which centres on a young man’s obsession with the last surviving black-maned Cape lion. It is an exploration of loss, healing, and human relationships with the natural world.

Stray contains poems, extracts from novels, and short stories on the theme of animals and was produced as a fundraiser for an animal protection charity. Two anthologies contain the winning stories in competitions. Incredible Journey edited by Joanne Hichens contains the best stories from the short.sharp.stories competition, which was won by Andrew Salomon. Terra Incognito edited by Nerine Dorman is a collection of speculative fiction from the Short Story Day Africa Competition, with the winning story coming from Dianne Awerbuck. African speculative fiction is the focus of another two anthologies, African Monsters and AfroSF, both containing several stories by South Africans.

In addition to the anthologies, several strong short story collections appeared. Melissa de Villiers, Stacy Hardy, and Sandra Hill impressed with their first books. After three novels, Niq Mhlongo turns to short fiction in Affluenza. Sabata-Mpho Mokae has previously won awards for his Setswana fiction. His English collection Kanakotsame contains interlinked short stories set in Kimberley. Breyten Breytenbach translates his own collection Catastrophes while Ivan Vladislavic’s 101 Detectives is his first collection in several years.

Crime fiction continues to be popular, with new novels from Deon Meyer, Mike Nicol, Charlotte Otter, and Michéle Rowe. An interesting trend is the appearance of novels combining crime with humour (and food). Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew features a food columnist and agony aunt who gets caught up in a murder investigation. Paige Nick’s Death by Carbs plays with the popular banting diet, having the controversial proponent Tim Noakes as a character who is murdered. The novel follows the detective investigating the murder and several suspects who all have reason to want Noakes dead. Sifiso Mzobe explores police corruption and crime in his second novel Durban December.

Some authors combine the genres of thriller and speculative fiction. Rob Boffard’s Tracer is a thriller set on a space station 100 years after the destruction of earth, while J. T. Lawrence’s Why You Were Taken is set in near future Johannesburg. Day Four by Sarah Lotz was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Award and Goodreads Choice Awards for Horror. When a cruise ship is stranded at sea, people start to die, confronting the remaining passengers with a murderer on board, or something worse. Lotz also writes with Louis Greenberg as S. L. Grey. Their latest novel Under Ground combines apocalyptic fiction with a locked room mystery as the inhabitants of an underground refuge find they have brought the danger in with them. The Legend by Melissa Delport completes her Legacy trilogy of post-apocalyptic novels. Fred Strydom’s strong debut novel The Raft takes place after everyone on earth has lost all memories of the past. While the story focuses on a man on a quest to find the son he dimly remembers, it also explores the nature of memory and consciousness. In Andrew Miller’s Dub Steps it is not memories but people that have vanished. The majority of the population has mysteriously disappeared and all technology has failed, leaving the survivors to develop a new society. In unpublished form, it won the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award (previously the European Union Literary Award).

If the future was a popular setting for fiction, so too was the past, with several novels exploring aspects of South African history. Zakes Mda sets his historical novel Little Suns in the late nineteenth century against the backdrop of the entrenchment of British colonial power in South Africa and the destruction of the amaMpondomise kingdom. Sindiwe Magona’s Chasing the Tails of My Father’s Cattle is set in the rural Eastern Cape in the 1930s and explores the ways in which traditional customs can harm women. Both novels give an insight into the past while also incorporating elements of magic realism. Joyce Kotzè self-published The Runaway Horses in 2012 but it has now been released by a commercial publisher. The novel follows the fortunes of an extended family fighting on both the British and Boer sides of the South African War of 1899–1902. The Magistrate of Gower by Claire Robertson spans the first half of the twentieth century, going from the end of the South African War in 1902 to the rise of the National Party. The Shouting in the Dark by Elleke Boehmer is set in the 1970s and focuses on the daughter of a Dutch immigrant who must confront her father’s Second World War ghosts as well as her own exile as an anti-apartheid activist. The Curator by Jacques Strauss moves from the 1970s to the 1990s and shows the ongoing impact of a family murder. What Will People Say by Rehanna Rossouw is set in the Cape Flats in the 1980s, showing a family dealing with the political turmoil and rise in gangsterism of that era. Jimfish by Christopher Hope is a satirical novel which follows a South African man of indeterminate race on his journey through the 1980s and 1990s.

True Blue Superglue by Jenny Hobbs follows a woman from her childhood in the 1950s, through her marriage, family life, and career as a journalist and agony aunt. Hobbs depicts a challenging relationship but also explores the changing roles of women in society. Boy on the Wire by Alastair Bruce and Notes from the Lost Property Department by Bridget Pitt both have characters forced to confront the impact of childhood accidents, and in different ways explore secrets, memory, and trauma. The Last Road Trip by Gareth Crocker and Tribe by Rahla Xenopoulos depict groups of friends gathering and confronting their past. In Up Against the Night by Justin Cartwright, the main character confronts the past and present challenges of his family and his country. Like Cartwright, Craig Higginson sets his novel The Dream House in KwaZulu-Natal. The last night of an elderly couple on their farm, which is to be turned into a housing development, provides the backdrop for a meditation on memory, aging, love, loss, and white guilt.

In its original Afrikaans version, Ingrid Winterbach’s It Might Get Loud won several awards. The novel features two characters on separate journeys from Durban to Cape Town, both journeys prompted by a troubled sibling. The characters never meet, but their paths cross and intersect. Finuala Dowling has been called South Africa’s Jane Austen. Her latest novel The Fetch is a poignant comedy of manners, set in a small coastal town near Cape Town, featuring a shy librarian who is drawn into the glittering circle of a glamorous neighbour. Rachel Weeping by Michael Innes explores the impact of grief and guilt on the already complex relationship between domestic workers and employers. A Mozambican woman is forced by economic concerns to continue working for the couple who were responsible for the death of her daughter. The novel has been adapted into a film Sink, directed by Innes.

Modern technology provides the impetus for Now Following You by Fiona Snyckers, which addresses the danger of internet stalkers, and This One Time by Alex van Tonder, which follows an unpleasant blogger who gains celebrity status, with both fans and foes.

While reprints are not usually included in the bibliography, From Man to Man is a new edition of Olive Schreiner’s posthumously published novel. Unfinished at the time of her death, it was later published by her husband, who added an ending that she had recounted to him. Driver’s edition corrects errors from earlier versions and includes an alternative ending found in a letter from Schreiner. Alex La Guma: A Colossus Revisited brings together three of La Guma’s novels from the 1960s and 1970s: A Walk in the Night, The Stone Country and Time of the Butcherbird.

In youth fiction, Liz de Jager completes her Blackheart fantasy series with Judged following the adventures of a young woman fighting supernatural crimes. Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen is a reworking of the story of “Beauty and the Beast”, in which a young girl tries to understand and avoid a family curse that will see her turn into a beast when she first falls in love. Scarred by Joanne Macgregor explores the impact of trauma, loss, and bullying. A teenage girl’s life is torn apart when an accident leaves her physically and emotionally scarred. Almost Grace by Rosie Rowell is a coming-of-age novel set in contemporary Cape Town, while Granite by Jenny Robson is historical fiction set in the fifteenth century around the collapse of the city state of Zimbabwe. Playwright Charmaine Kendal turns to fiction with her debut novel Miscast which deals with a transgender teenager.

There was not a lot of drama published, but it is encouraging to see new voices emerging. Uhm… was workshopped and created by the members of The Papercut Collective and then written by Alex McCarthy and Callum Tilbury. First performed at the National Arts Festival in 2014, it won the award for Best Student Writing. Khayalethu Anthony won the Best Script Award at the 2014 Baxter Zabalaza Theatre Festival for his play The Champion.

New plays by established playwrights Pieter-Dirk Uys and John Kani appeared. iVirgin Boy by Peter Krummeck appeared in the 2013 anthology Gay Plays 2 but has been posthumously published by Junkets.

Two collections of literary letters appeared. Flame in the Snow contains letters and telegrams between novelist André Brink and poet Ingrid Jonker. Published simultaneously in English and Afrikaans, the letters were translated by Leon de Kock and Karin Schimke, both writers as well as translators. De Kock translated Brink’s letters, and Schimke Jonker’s. The letters provide insight into the relationship between Brink and Jonker and also into their writing lives and the literary conditions in South Africa in the 1960s. Everyday Matters, edited by M. J. Daymond, brings together previously unpublished letters of writers Bessie Head and Dora Taylor and political activist Lilian Ngoyi.

Personal accounts of nineteenth-century South Africa appear in An Entirely Different World: Russian Visitors to the Cape 1797–1870, which contains memoirs and reflections of early Russian visitors to the Cape Colony, and in Burchell’s Travels by Susan Buchanan, which examines the life and works of William Burchell, a botanist and early travel writer.

The Good Story: Exchanges on Truth, Fiction and Psychotherapy brings together novelist J. M. Coetzee and psychotherapist Arabella Kurtz in an extended discussion about psychotherapy, philosophy, literature, self-examination, and the art of storytelling.

Once again criticism on J. M. Coetzee dominates, with five books devoted to his works. Particularly noteworthy is David Atwell’s J. M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing, which was shortlisted for the Alan Paton Prize for non-fiction. Attwell draws heavily on Coetzee’s manuscripts and notebooks to explore his creative process. Peter Horn, Antjie Krog, and Sol T. Plaatje are other authors with book-length studies on their work, while a special issue of the journal English in Africa was devoted to Olive Schreiner. Zakes Mda, Nadine Gordimer, and André Brink have also attracted substantial critical attention.

Brink passed away in 2015 at the age of 79 after a long and illustrious career as a writer, working in both English and Afrikaans. Brink used his novels and his international stature to speak against apartheid, resulting in several books being banned. His later works engaged with life in post-apartheid South Africa. A younger author, Mark Behr, also died. Behr came to the fore with his award-winning 1995 novel The Smell of Apples.