Decolonising the Mind – The Politics of Language in African Literature


R280.00
Ngugi wrote his first novels and plays in English but was determined, even before his detention without trial in 1978, to move to writing in Gikuyu.
Ngugi describes this book as ‘a summary of some of the issues in which I have been passionately involved for the last twenty years of my practice in fiction, theatre, criticism and in teaching of literature.’
East Africa [Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda]: EAEP
Author: Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Based on 0 reviews
|
|
0% |
|
|
0% |
|
|
0% |
|
|
0% |
|
|
0% |
Related Products
Lerato Tshabalala first came to our attention in 2011 with her ‘Urban Miss’ column in the Sunday Times, and since then she has by turns entertained, exasperated, amused and confounded her fans and critics alike.
Now, with her first book, she looks set to become the national institution she deserves to be. With her customary wit and keen insight into social, political and cultural affairs, Lerato shines a bright – and controversial – light on South African society and the quirky ways of the country. She is brutally honest about her experiences as a black South African in post-apartheid Mzansi, and no subject is too sacred for her to explore: annoying car guards, white-dominated corporate South Africa, cultural stereotypes, economic and racial inequality, and gender politics, among many other topics, come under her careful – and often laugh-out-loud – scrutiny.
The Way I See It is written for people who are hungry for a book that is thought-provoking, funny, irreverent and truly South African all at the same time. It is light but full of depth: like a supermodel with an MBA!
Author(s): Lerato Tshabalala
An international bestseller which has sold over a million copies in the UK, Dreams From My Father is a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking big questions about identity and belonging. The son of a black African father and a white American mother, President Obama recounts an emotional odyssey, retracing the migration of his mother’s family from Kansas to Hawaii, then to his childhood home in Indonesia. Finally he travels to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
Author(s): Barack Obama
Available on back-order
Down second avenue is Es’kia Mphahlele’s autobiography of his South African childhood and his struggle against discrimination. The memoir tells of Es’kia’s childhood in Maupaneng, a small village outside Pietersburg, and Marabastad, a location in Pretoria. Here he showed academic promise. This resulted in a career as a teacher. After a number of years, though, he was barred from teaching because of his vocal opposition to the segregation and discrimination occurring in schools. Mphahlele then worked for Drum magazine in various capacities. The biography culminates in his exile from South Africa in 1957. Down second avenue is Mphahlele’s personal account of his struggle for identity and dignity in the face of the growing discriminatory policies of the South African government. It is a compelling mix of humour and pathos.
uthor(s): Es’kia Mphahlele
In Sorry, Not Sorry, Haji Mohamed Dawjee explores the often maddening experience of moving through postapartheid South Africa as a woman of colour.
In characteristically candid style, Dawjee pulls no punches when examining the social landscape: from arguing why she’d rather deal with an open racist than some liberal white people, to drawing on her own experience to convince readers that joining a cult is never a good idea. In the provocative voice that has made Dawjee one of our country’s most talked-about columnists, she offers observations laced throughout with an acerbic wit.
Sorry, Not Sorry will make readers laugh, wince, nod, introspect and argue.
Author: Haji Mohamed Dawjee
1 in stock (can be backordered)
With indomitable spirit, she describes attempts to make something of her life – from experiences as a seller of dagga and sheep’s heads, and ginger beer at rugby matches – to her life as a young teacher, her ambitious studies out of hours, her agonies as a parent during the 1976 student revolt, and her involvement in women’s organisations working for racial harmony. Forced to Grow covers the tough years, and her triumph as the recipient of a scholarship from Columbia University. Throughout, she retains her sharp sense of humour even when describing her many hardships and crises.
Author(s): Sindiwe Magona
Basetsana Kumalo shot to fame as a fresh-faced Miss South Africa in 1994 and soon became the face of South Africa’s new democracy. As the first black presenter of the glamorous lifestyle TV show Top Billing, she travelled the world and interviewed superstars like Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson, Jon Bon Jovi, Will Smith, the Bee Gees, Gloria Estefan and Luther Vandross. After a successful career in television, Bassie’s drive and ambition took her into the world of business. The street savvy that her entrepreneurial mother gave her stood her in good stead as she built a media empire. When she married the handsome businessman Romeo Kumalo in a fairytale wedding, they became South Africa’s sweethearts and ‘it’ couple.
Bassie: My Journey Of Hope recounts the stories of Bassie’s life as a celebrity, including her relationships with mentors like Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela- Mandela and Graça Machel. She also shares the secrets of her success and all the lessons she’s learnt along the way, and opens up about the pressures of her high-profile marriage to Romeo, their heartbreaking struggle to have a family, and how they made sure that their loving and respectful union has lasted two decades.
Bassie also talks frankly about the domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of boxer Dingaan Thobela and the legal battles she had to fight to protect her name and her brand over the years. She gives her account of the stalker who harassed her for decades, and the nonexistent ‘sex-tape’ allegation that rocked her family and career, leading to painful experiences of cyber-bullying. It is an intimate, inspiring and entertaining account of a remarkable life.
Author(s): Basetsana Kumalo
***THE WORD OF MOUTH INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER NOW UPDATED WITH 15 EXPLOSIVE NEW CHAPTERS*** False economics. Threats, bribes, extortion. Debt, deception, coups, assassinations and unbridled military power. These are the tools used by the ‘corporatocracy’ – a vast network of corporations, banks, colluding governments and rich and powerful individuals – to ensure that they retain and expand their wealth and influence, growing richer and richer as the poor become poorer. In his original, post 9/11 book, John Perkins revealed how he was recruited as an economic hit man in the 1970s, and exposed the corrupt methods American corporations use to spread their influence in the developing world, cheating countries out of trillions of dollars. In this new, extensively updated edition he lays bare the latest, terrifying evolution of the economic hit man, and how the system has become even more entrenched and powerful than ever before. In New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins provides fresh and chilling evidence of how the corporatocracy has grown its influence to every corner of the globe, making us all unwitting slaves to their regime. But he also provides advice on how we can end our unconscious support of the system and its self-serving, lethal economy. —————————————————————————————————— “Perkins has, once again, made a substantial contribution to a world that needs whistle-blowers to open its eyes to the true sources of political, social, and economic power” – Yanis Varoufakis “It comes from the heart. I highly recommend it.” – Michael Brownstein “it’s all here in toe-curling detail’ – Guardian
Author(s): John Perkins
A family struggle to make ends meet in the township and to better themselves. The book deals with the desire to give up, but also answers it’s own question with an affirmation of what things make life worthwhile.
Author(s): EM Damane
One of the few guys with no tattoos has been staring at my sneakers for too long and I know he’s trying to figure me out. I have four tattoos, and they are all on my arms. Maybe that will work in my favour, at least they show I can stand pain. I will stand here, in the corner, for the whole night if I have to. I have slept under bridges, I have killed men with their eyes looking into mine. I am Nomafu’s son.
A cold hand over my mouth and a tight grip pulling my arms back are nothing compared to the knife going repeatedly into my thighs. They aren’t trying to kill me, that I know for sure, because otherwise he would have gouged that knife into my heart by now. The stabs in my thighs are continuous but not deep. I can feel them. It’s my blood they want to see, not my dead body lying on the floor.
I’m still trying to kick and free myself, though. Screaming for help is not an option. Men don’t scream for help. They fight to the death with their teeth clenched and voice held in their throat. I fight until I can’t move my legs anymore and I know that this is it, I’m dying tonight. I’ve always wanted to take my own life, die on my terms, in my own time. But it’s clear now that I’ll never get what I want in this life. I never have been able to. I feel my mind separating from my body and I know it’s over. I Stop. For the first time in my life, I stop fighting before I win. I’m dead. It’s happening for real this time and I don’t have my brothers to stop me.
Author: Dudu Busani-Dube
At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe – a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who’d been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the U.S. government, who – after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing – gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving completely into this topic, trying with all her might to discover (through historical research, interviews and much personal reflection) what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. The result is Committed – a witty and intelligent contemplation of marriage that debunks myths, unthreads fears and suggests that sometimes even the most romantic of souls must trade in her amorous fantasies for the humbling responsibility of adulthood. Gilbert’s memoir – destined to become a cherished handbook for any thinking person hovering on the verge of marriage – is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love, with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
2 in stock
Some of my best friends are white is a collection of sharp, satirical essays on contemporary South African issues from the point of view of a successful corporate professional – who just happens to be Zulu. Crossing various controversial, amusing and downright confusing racial divides, the title delivers a healthy dose of black – and white – humour as it explores some of the rainbow nation’s defining characteristics, its many colourful characters and its myriad mysterious idiosyncrasies.
Author(s): Ndumiso Ngcobo
Tumi Morake modelled her public persona on her mother, a charming and contentious woman who used her big, bold voice to say what others were afraid to utter. It’s the personality that Tumi took on stage in the mostly male space of stand-up comedy, and the one that gave her the courage to join a white, Afrikaans radio station and comment about apartheid on air.
But there’s only so much you can find out about Tumi from the stage, the screen and the internet. And Then Mama Said… is the voice of Tumi in private, as well as a behind-the-scenes perspective of a pioneering South African star who has been both deeply loved and viciously hated by her audiences.
Tumi gets frank about the race row at Jacaranda FM; the Jaguar car accident that cyber bullies said she deserved; the body-shaming she endured on the set of Our Perfect Wedding; and her tumultuous relationship with her beloved husband. Throughout her story, she carries the voice of her mother, and with it the indispensable life lessons that made her who she is today.
Author(s): Tumi Morake
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.