Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A Wounded Name by Judy Croome

I've talked here in the past about how much I love Japanese writers and British writers. I've always been interested by how place and culture affects what we write.

Well, when Judy Croome published her book Dancing in the Shadows of Love (and, really, it is an excellent book that I've bought four copies of already), we asked her if she would give us some information on the writing culture in South Africa. Below is her excellent guest post on the subject...and stick around to the end to win some free books.



A Wounded Name

South Africa is a country with a bad-ass reputation.

Newspaper headlines blare MURDER CENTRAL! HIGHEST RAPES PER DAY! And don’t forget our recent history: APARTHEID!

This darkness is part of our past and our present, but what the scaremongers conveniently forget is that every country has its demons, just as every country has its moments of glory.

South Africa is not only a land of darkness; she is also a land of hope and glory and great natural beauty.

There is much to inspire us. The iconic Nelson Mandela heads the list, but we also have Oscar Pistorious, an amputee athlete known as the Blade Runner. Dr. Chris Barnard, who performed the world’s first-ever successful heart transplant was born in the Karoo and performed his world famous operations in Cape Town. And did you know that the great JR Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein?

The list of South Africa’s achievements goes on and on, and includes nine Nobel Laureates: three medical, four peace and two literature prize winners.

Two Nobel Literature prize winners? J M Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer have both won the Nobel Prize for Literature. And don’t forget J M Coetzee was the first author ever to win the coveted Man Booker Prize twice.

Eish!* South Africa’s current literary scene has a big history to live up to.

There was the short story writer Herman Charles Bosman, who is best known for the Oom Schalk Lourens series set in the Marico region and for his semi-autobiographical book, Cold Stone Jug, based on his experiences in prison, where he served a sentence for killing his step-brother. Between his Bohemian life-style and satirical sketches of rural Afrikaans life, Bosman also found the time to translate the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam into Afrikaans.

Olive Schreiner is best remembered today for her highly acclaimed novel The Story of an African Farm (1883.) For a Victorian woman, Schreiner was ground-breaking in her free-thinking views: the novel deals with some of the critical issues of the day, including agnosticism, career aspirations of women and an insightful portrayal of the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier. But Schreiner was no radical, for her writings tend to hint at universal values such as moderation, peace and co-operation among people, rather than promoting socio-political causes, such as feminism or anti-racism.


During the apartheid era, many of the most influential anti-apartheid activists were local South African writers. There was JM Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer, who was a close friend of Nelson Mandela's defence attorneys during his 1962 trial. When Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Gordimer was one of the first people he wanted to see.

Alan Paton, Andre Brink and Breyten Breytenbach all wrote passionately against the apartheid regime: perhaps for personal reasons, but their voices were effective nonetheless. One wonders what was discussed at the Sunday lunch table in the prominent Afrikaans Breytenbach family, for Breyten Breytenbach’s brother was Colonel Jan Breytenbach, who formed the elite 32 Battalion - known as the Buffalo Battalion - of the South African Defence Force; in the brilliant movie “Blood Diamond,” Leonardo di Caprio’s tragic character, Danny Archer, had served in 32B.

Our literary history also includes some well-respected poets, such as Guy Butler and Roy Campbell. In his poetry, Butler strove for the synthesis of European and African elements into a single voice, while Campbell was considered by T. S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas to have been one of the best poets of the early 20th century.

In contemporary South Africa, we have a vibrant literary community. Writers such as Lauren Beukes (who won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award) and Sifiso Mzobe (whose debut novel Young Blood won both the Herman Charles Bosman Prize and the 2011 Sunday Times Literary Award for Fiction) carry the torch of South African literature high.

South African authors today reflect the literary voices of this wounded nation as she struggles to throw off the demons of her past and overcome the challenges of her present.

And it is their myriad voices that are helping to rebuild South Africa’s reputation: one that will match the warmth and hope of a country battered and scarred by dark memories, yet ever hopeful of a future glory.

###

*“Eish!” A catch-all South African exclamation that expresses anything from surprise to annoyance. Not allowed to appear in print without an exclamation mark.

###

Judy Croome lives and writes in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was recently shortlisted in the African Writing Flash Fiction 2011 competition, and other short stories and poems have appeared in Itch-e Magazine and Notes from Underground Anthology. Her independently published novel, Dancing in the Shadows of Love, is available from Amazon.com and other bookstores. Visit Judy on her blog www.judycroome.blogspot.com.



###

One lucky commentator will receive a free copy of The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner (cover may not match image) and a copy of Judy’s novel Dancing in the Shadows of Love.

###

Bibliography

The South African Fact Book by Hopkins, et al. (2009; Penguin, South Africa)
Only an Anguish to Live Here: Olive Schreiner and the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902 by Karel Schoeman (1992; Human & Rousseau, South Africa)
Nadine Gordimer and the South African Experience by Per Wästberg
Roy Campbell: Bombast and Fire by Joseph Pearce
Wikipedia, a Free Encyclopedia

15 comments:

  1. Fascinating. I love hearing about new (to me)books and authors. There are so many I could never discover them by myself and I have had some great finds from promotions on blogs. I think these may make it to that list.

    ReplyDelete
  2. South Africa has and can continue to lead the way for the world to get past its own wounded past and present.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I never thought about it like this, but I guess that there are some South African influences in my books. Even my YA fantasy has a theme woven in that comes from me growing up here...

    :-) And yes, I'd like the books please. ;-P

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very interesting, thanks for inviting Judy to share her thoughts and experiences!

    Another to add to the list: Dave Matthews was born in Johannesburg.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nadine Gordimer is a favorite. Thanks, Judy, for this overview of South African literature. Also, thanks for all the links to news articles you do on facebook! It's fascinating.

    ReplyDelete
  6. DOMEY: you've bought FOUR copies of my book? If you were closer I'd give you a hug (and now maybe you're glad there's an ocean between us?!?) :)

    SP: The fact that there are so many excellent authors "out there" that I don't even know about sometimes drives me crazy! So many authors, so little time! Blogs & personal recommendations help a lot.

    JUDITH: My feelings exactly! The physical evolution of mankind started here, not 20 kms from where I live, and I firmly believe on 2 February 1990 when then President FW de Klerk made the historic announcement that he was unbanning the ANC (and effectively ending apartheid) South Africa began the process of becoming a world leader in the spiritual evolution of mankind.

    MISHA: I think every author is influenced by the land and culture that surrounds her; her vision is inevitably filtered through that veil. And how lucky are we to have this beautiful country as our backdrop!

    RICK: Dave Matthews born in Johannesburg? Oh dear, now I'm stressed. As I said to SP, so many excellent authors I still don't know about...off to google him now!

    SCOTT: Gordimer's work is amazing, although I confess I prefer Schreiner. And glad you find the links on Facebook useful!

    Judy, South Africa

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is a wonderfully-written post.

    I can relate to your title as a Muslim feminist writer. (Talk about a wounded name!) And I feel the same pride in writers like Khaled Hosseini and Mohsin Hamid that I see in your wonderful descriptions of authors here.

    I am reminded, too, of another African writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED lecture about the "Danger of a Single Story" (http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html) about how powerful a narrative can become when others are allowed to tell our stories for us.

    Thank you for sharing so many "moments of glory" from your country.

    ReplyDelete
  8. JA: I can imagine the challenges you face as a Muslim woman writer; an Egyptian friend of mine has to write with a pen name because she's concerned what her community will say. Write on! And the best of luck to you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Judy, Dave Matthews isn't an author- he is the lead singer of The Dave Matthews Band. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. TIFFANY: Oops! So Google told me. As you guessed, music isn't one of my passions...now, if he'd been a chocolatier, I would have recognised the name immediately!! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Domey asked me to draw the name of the commentator who has won the free copy of Olive Schreiner's "Story of an African Farm" as well as a print copy of my novel "Dancing in the Shadows of Love"

    So, out came the trusty Randomizer.com form and the winner is....

    S.P. Bowers

    S.P., please contact me on judy@judycroome.com, so I can arrange to send your prize to you.

    Congratulations and I hope you enjoy the books!

    Judy, South Africa

    ReplyDelete
  12. Judy, I'm sorry I missed out on this post earlier! What a beautiful tribute to your country. I would love to visit South Africa someday. I also can't wait to get to your book! It's been calling to me as my life blurs around me with busy-busy book stuff. More reading time is coming up! :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lovely post on South Africa, Judy (makes me so, so homesick).
    I never knew Tolkein was SA, lol. Love seeing that rollcall of names, there's always been a lot of talent in SA.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.