#9August1956

OUR SISTER KILLJOY, OR REFLECTIONS FROM A BLACK-EYED SQUINT by Ama Ata Aidoo (1977) Out of Africa with her degree and her all-seeing eyes comes Sissie. She comes to Europe, to a land of towering mountains and low grey skies and tries to make sense of it all. What is she doing here? Why aren't the natives friendly? And what will she do when she goes back home? Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo's brilliantly conceived prose poem is by turns bitter and gentle, and is a highly personal exploration of the conflicts between Africa and Europe, between men and women, and between a complacent acceptance of the status quo and a passionate desire to reform a rotten world. Of her own writing, Ama Ata Aidoo said, 'I write about people, about what strikes me and interests me. It seems the most natural thing in the world for women to write with women as central characters; making women the centre of my universe was spontaneous'.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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End of #WomensMonth in South Africa commemorating the anti-apartheid #9August1956 Women's March.✊🏾

NEW DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA: AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF WRITING BY WOMEN OF AFRICAN DESCENT edited by Margaret Busby (2019) This anthology builds on the legacy of DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA (1992) for a new generation, bringing together a selection of overlooked artists of the past with fresh and vibrant voices that have emerged from across the globe in the past two decades, from Antigua to Zimbabwe and Angola to the USA. Key figures join popular contemporaries in paying tribute to the heritage that unites them. Each of the pieces in this remarkable collection demonstrates an uplifting sense of sisterhood, honours the strong links that endure from generation to generation, and addresses the common obstacles Black women writers face as they negotiate issues of "race" and racism, gender and misogyny, and class and capitalism, and confront vital matters of independence, freedom, subjectivity, and oppression. Custom, tradition, friendship, sisterhood, romance, sex and sexuality, intersectional feminism, the politics of gender, "race" and identity – all and more are explored in this glorious collection of work from over 200 writers. NEW DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA spans a wealth of genres – autobiography, memoir, oral history, letters, diaries, short stories, novels, poetry, drama, humour, politics, journalism, essays and speeches – to demonstrate the diversity and remarkable literary achievements of Black women who remain under-represented, and whose works continue to be under-rated, in world culture today. Featuring women across the diaspora, NEW DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA illuminates the richness and cultural history of Africa and its enduring influence, while reflecting contemporary lives and issues today. Bold and insightful, brilliant in its intimacy and universality, this essential volume honours the talents of African daughters and the inspiring legacy that connects them – and all of us.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956 ✊🏾

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956 ✊🏾

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956 ✊🏾

IF THIS BE TREASON by Helen Joseph (1963) "Jy's 'n Bantu!" I see Lilian [Ngoyi] close her lips firmly. The younger wardress repeats "African" under her breath and sniggers. Then to our horror the wardress snaps out at Lilian"Trek uit!" We are paralysed and the order is repeated in English, "Take your clothes off!" Helen Joseph was one of the main organisers of the Women's March of 9 August 1956. Arrested on a charge of high treason, Joseph kept a diary during the infamous Treason Trial Treason Trial, which lasted from December 1956 to March 1961. Hers is a most moving and human account of how committed people stood together, finding strength from their oppression and the resolution that comes from the moral certainty that one's cause is right and just. Much of South Africa's great leadership of the second half of the 20th century, Black and white alike, was affected; men and women like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Helen Joseph and Lilian Ngoyi, were among those who stood trial. Many others, such as Albert Luthuli, Professor Z K Matthews, Oliver Tambo and Joe Slovo, were charged but did not stand trial. The trial became an international cause celebre and deeply affected the mood of dispossessed South Africans who were seeking a more equitable and reasonable society. Through its duration, the clear indications of the white supremacist apartheid government's malice and vindictiveness, the unyielding stance of its racist politicians and its dehumanising bureaucracy, the appalling harshness of the measures it used to suppress dissent were the elements that convinced the leaders of Black resistance politics that they had only one recourse and that was the armed struggle. Helen Joseph recalls in her diary the drama of the courtroom, the brilliance of the advocacy, the mood of the times and, alongside it all is her warm compassionate story of the 156 men and women who stood trial with her and who gave up so much for their ideals. All were acquitted.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956 ✊🏾

OPENING SPACES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN WOMEN'S WRITING edited by Yvonne Vera (1999) "A woman writer must have an imagination that is plain stubborn, that can invent new gods and banish ineffectual ones. […] Together, the women in this anthology prove that the woman writer in Africa is a witness; forgiving the evidence of the eyes, pronouncing her experience with insight, artistry, and a fertile dexterity. Her response to theme, event, taboo is vital and pressing." —From Yvonne Vera's preface In situations where a good woman is expected to remain silent, literature can provide an important medium for the expression of deeply-felt and sometimes shocking views. In this anthology the award-winning author Yvonne Vera (1964-2005) brought together the stories of many talented writers from different parts of Africa. They act as witnesses to the dramas of private and public life. Their stories challenge contemporary attitudes and behaviour leaving no room for complacency. Contributors include Ama Ata Aidoo, Véronique Tadjo, Farida Karodia, Lindsey Collen, Leila Aboulela, Lília Momple, and Sindiwe Magona.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA: AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF WORDS AND WRITINGS BY WOMEN OF AFRICAN DESCENT FROM ANCIENT EGYPT TO THE PRESENT edited by Margaret Busby (1992; 1093pp.) From the editor's introduction: "The linguistic versatility demonstrated by people of Africa and the African diaspora is in itself a remarkable testament to survival of vicissitude in a history that has weathered subjugation and colonization by the powers of Europe. […] The arrangement of this anthology is chronological, by authors' date (or estimated date) of birth. (Where dates were not available from published sources or have not been personally confirmed, living authors are of course free to deny my guesses!) This attaches no spurious relevance to age but is simply a device to try to chart the development of a literary canon over the years, to restore links and show the continuity of expression that against all odds still exists in much of the material. Some selections were made because of their historical significance, others because of their representative nature, or indeed because they have mould-breaking importance. Clearly, African women have always played a central role as storytellers within their communities. […] Throughout these women's words runs the awareness of connectedness to a wider flow of history, to the precursors, our foremothers. Our collective strength, like that of a chain, derives from maintaining the links."

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

WOMEN WRITING AFRICA VOLUME 4: THE NORTHERN REGION edited by Fatima Sadiqi, Amira Nowaira, Azza El Kholy, and Moha Ennaji (2009; associate editors Fatima Bouabdelli, Abena P.A. Busia, Sahar Hamouda, Nadia El Kholy, Marjorie Lightman, Zahia Smail Salhi, and Khadija Zizi; contributing editors Mohamed El-Sayed Abd-el-Ghani, Ali Ouahidi, Heba Sharobeem, and Zakia Iraqui-Sinaceur; text editor Florence Howe. The fourth and final volume of this landmark series from the Feminist Press at the City University of New York, WOMEN WRITING AFRICA: THE NORTHERN REGION includes more than 100 texts in nine different languages from six countries – Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. Drawing on oral and written sources, the entries span several millennia and range from an ancient Egyptian queen's marriage proposal to modern women advocating new marriage and family laws. Writers such as Leila Abou Zeid, Amina Arfaoui, Salwa Bakr, Assia Djebar, Nawal El Saadawi, and Fatima Mernissi explore love, marriage, polygamy, the veil, the struggle for nationhood, and the right to employment.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

WOMEN WRITING AFRICA VOLUME 3: THE EASTERN REGION edited by Amandina Lihamba, Fulata L. Moyo, M.M. Mulokozi, Naomi L. Shitemi, and Saida Yahya-Othman (2007; associate editors Austin Bukenya, Florence Ebila, Susan Kiguli Edrinnie Lora-Kayambazinthu, Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, Nalishebo N. Meebelo, and Sheila Ali Ryanga; contributing editors Tuzyline Jita Allan and Ann Biersteker; text editor Florence Howe) A pioneering work of cultural reclamation more than a decade in preparation, WOMEN WRITING AFRICA VOLUME 3: THE EASTERN REGION collects more than a hundred texts dating back to 1711, each introduced with short notes. In the 1960s, the five countries represented – Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia – achieved independence. As entries from activists and eloquent members of parliament attest, women made historic contributions to the resistance struggles and the process of development. The volume boasts entries of uncommon historical interest, including two rare texts by former slave women; a 1711 letter written by a woman who ruled a large Muslim domain; a mid-nineteenth-century Muslim epic poem, freshly translated; a Christian hymn dating to 1890; and a memoir by a Mau Mau general. The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture by Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and the first African woman named a Nobel laureate, concludes the volume. While Kiswahili is the dominant language of the region, along with English, 31 other languages have been translated for the volume. Motherhood, education, religion, workforce participation, widows' rights, prostitution, polygamy, circumcision, rebellion, and AIDS are some of the subjects examined in fiction, poetry, letters, journalism, oral histories, speeches, and historical documents spanning three centuries.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

WOMEN WRITING AFRICA VOLUME 2: WEST AFRICA AND THE SAHEL edited by Esi Sutherland-Adi and Aminata Diaw (2005; associate editor Abena P. A. Busia; contributing editors Tuzyline Jita Allan, Antoinette Tidjani Alou, Diedre L. Badejo, Rokhaya Fall, Fatimata Mounkaila, Christiane Owusu-Sarpong; text editors Florence Howe and Judith Miller) The acclaimed "Women Writing Africa Project" continues with the second volume of WOMEN WRITING WEST AFRICA AND THE SAHEL. Drawing upon more than a decade of research, West Africa and the Sahel covers the territory where most African Americans find their origins. The collection encompasses an epic cultural history through the voices of women represented in 20 languages spoken in an area encompassing 12 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. Beginning with African kingdoms dating six centuries or more before colonialism and independence, the volume gathers 132 texts – stories, songs, letters, drama, oral history, diaries, and historical documents each with a readable authoritative headnote explaining its cultural and historical contexts. A general introduction provides an overview of West African cultural and literary history, including the brilliant and diverse traditions of women's oral literatures.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

WOMEN WRITING AFRICA: THE SOUTHERN REGION (The Women Writing Africa Project, Volume 1) edited by M.J. Daymond, Dorothy Driver, Sheila Meintjes, Leloba Molema, Chiedza Musengezi, Margie Orford, and Nobantu Rasebotsa; associate editors Heike Becker, Devarakshanam Govinden, Mary Lederer, V. M. Sisi Maqagi, Virginia Phiri, and Cristiana Pugliese; consulting editors Tuzyline Jita Allan and Marcia Wright; text editor Florence Howe. This landmark collection documents and maps the extraordinary and diverse landscape of southern African women's oral and written literatures. Presenting voices rarely heard, some recorded as early as the mid-nineteenth century, as well as rediscovered gems by well-known authors such as Bessie Head and Doris Lessing, it reveals a living cultural legacy that revolutionises the understanding of African women's literary and cultural production. The texts – ranging from communal songs and folktales to letters, diaries, political petitions, court records, poems, essays, and fiction provide a vivid picture of women's lives, and demonstrate the critical role played by women in cultural continuity and resistance to oppression. Work and family, the cruelty of colonialism and war, and the struggles for liberation are described in voices from twenty languages and six countries in the region: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, eSwatini, and Zimbabwe. The result of a decade of research, WOMEN WRITING AFRICA VOLUME 1: THE SOUTHERN REGION is an essential resource for anyone interested in women's history, culture, and literature, in Africa and worldwide.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

THE ESSENTIAL GESTURE: WRITING, POLITICS AND PLACES by Nadine Gordimer (1988) 'What is a writer's freedom? To me it is his right to maintain and publish to the world a deep, intense, private view of the situation in which he finds his society. If he is to work as well as he can, he must take, and be granted, freedom from the public conformity of political interpretation, morals and tastes.' Over many decades of writing fiction Nadine Gordimer has conveyed imaginatively the realities of transition in South Africa. Many may not realise that she has also produced a remarkable array of non-fiction which reveals much about the transition of the artist herself. These essays illustrate the relationship between outer and inner change for the writer of conscience in South Africa. From the relative optimism of the 1950s, to the Sharpeville massacre and the banning in the 1960s of the ANC and Pan-Africanist Congress, to the challenges of the Black Consciousness movement in the 1970s, and the "interregnum" of the 1980s, Nadine Gordimer rigorously analyses political events – while examining the political implications of her writing. Her stand on censorship is unequivocal; her commitment to the community of writers – Black and white, in South Africa and elsewhere – is forthright. The sheer stimulation of Gordimer's arguments, the brilliance of her observation, the vulnerability and toughness of her position emerge clearly in these pages. To follow where her thoughts and experiences lead, as to read her fiction, is an inspiration.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

THE WORLD THAT WAS OURS by Hilda Bernstein (1967) This memoir focuses on the lives Hilda Bernstein and her husband, Rusty, white radicals opposing the white supremacy of apartheid in the 1950s and 1960s. Both of them were detained in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, and while her husband was placed under house arrest, Hilda found herself under close surveillance by the apartheid security police. As events build up to the Rivonia trial (the apartheid regime's court process which led to the imprisonment of senior figures in the African National Congress like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Dennis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Elias Motsoaledi, and Andrew Mlangeni; Rusty Bernstein was the only one acquitted; their lawyer was Bram Fischer; the book is dedicated to all of them), and through the trial and its dispiriting aftermath, Hilda Bernstein records her anxieties as a young wife and mother balancing the quotidian business of daily life along with the terror and danger of living as an anti-apartheid activist in a white supremacist totalitarian state.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

RACE, NATION, TRANSLATION: SOUTH AFRICAN ESSAYS, 1990-2013 by Zoë Wicomb (2018) The most significant nonfiction writings of Zoë Wicomb, a South African author and intellectual, are collected here. This compilation features essays on the works of such prominent South African writers as Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Njabulo Ndebele, and J. M. Coetzee, as well as on a wide range of cultural and political topics, including gender politics, sexuality, 'race', identity, nationalism, and visual art. Also presented here are a reflection on Nelson Mandela and a revealing interview with Wicomb. In these essays, written between 1990 and 2013. Wicomb offers her interpretation into South Africa's history, politics, and people. In a world in which nationalist rhetoric is on the rise and right-wing populist movements are the declared enemies of diversity and pluralism, her essays speak powerfully to a host of current international issues. Zoë Wicomb is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Strathclyde and was an inaugural recipient of the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prize. Her acclaimed works include DAVID'S STORY (2000) and PLAYING IN THE LIGHT (2006), and the short-story collections YOU CAN'T GET LOST IN CAPE TOWN (1987) and THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY (2008).

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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📚💙 📚🖋 873

August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

LOVE AND COURAGE: A STORY OF INSUBORDINATION by Pregs Govender (2007) Pregs Govender is widely admired for her feisty courage, radiance of being, and integrity of purpose. These qualities have inspired her contribution as an activist and feminist, teacher and trade unionist, and, from 1994 to 2002, as a member of democratic South Africa's parliament. LOVE AND COURAGE offers us a refreshing vision of true power, both personal and political, based on the love and courage within each of us. Told with spirit and humour, this book draws on the story of her life beginning with her childhood in Durban, a life that has often involved insubordination to the powers that be. This memoir is an inspiring and inspired tale of resistance to oppression and autocracy, but also opposition to the abuse of power by tjose who do so in the name of and through the institutions of democracy.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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📚💙 📚🖋 871

August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

TO MY CHILDREN'S CHILDREN by Sindiwe Magona (1990) Written as a 'letter from a Xhosa Grandmother', to record her life in South Africa for her grandchildren so that they do not lose their own history, this is Sindiwe Magona's account of her eventful first twenty- three years. Her early years were in a Transkei village in southeastern South Africa, and her childhood and adolescence on the Cape Flats in Cape Town on Africa's southwestern tip, in Retreat (the name derives from the 1795 Battle of Muizenberg between the British and the Dutch) and later Gugulethu (an ironic name given the conditions engendered for its inhabitants by the white supremacist policy of unequal development for Black people; the name derive from a contraction of the isiXhosa term for "our pride"), where she was poor but secure in a loving family. All this is described with humour, zest, and enjoyment of township life. But then came the disaster of a teenage pregnancy and a forced change of all immediate plans for a teaching career. She tells a candid, unself-pitying story of triumphant endurance, in the face of hardships relentlessly reinforced by the apartheid system.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956

WOMEN IN SOUTHERN AFRICA edited by Christine Qunta (1987) By and about African women, this is a unique first-hand account, in essays, interviews and life stories, of the lives, achievements, and struggles of women in Southern Africa, and an informed examination of women's role in African society before, during and after colonialism. The historical backdrop is provided in an essay by the editor, South African Christine Qunta, who discusses theories of the origins of women's oppression, in the context of the prevalence of matriarchy as a long-standing tradition in Africa. She also gives fascinating biographical portraits of some of the outstanding women – such as Nehanda of Zimbabwe and Queen Nzinga of Angola – who were rulers and social catalysts across the African continent during a period dating back to 1500 BC. Contributions on twentieth century issues cover a wide range. Women still under colonial rule at the time of publication in South Africa and Namibia explain their perception of belonging to an oppressed nation, an oppressed 'race', and an oppressed gender, and their role in the liberation movements of their polities, while other topics relate to politically independent countries in the area, including the functions and limitations of women's organisations as vehicles for women's emancipation. This book remains a vital resource and was a response of the need for self-representation by Black women in Africa as late as the 1980s.

A selection of life-altering books beloved or enjoyed by The Emperor of Solitude across the decades of a long life and in the many incarnations of the #LateImperialLibrary.

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📚💙 📚🖋 📚💡 868

August is #WomensMonth in South Africa to commemorate the Women's March of #9August1956