South African literature is the literature of South Africa, which has 11 national languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Venda, Swazi, Tsonga and Ndebele.
Overview
Elleke Boehmer (cf. Cullhed, 2006: 79) writes: "Nationalism, like patriarchy, favours singleness—one identity, one growth pattern, one birth and blood for all ... [and] will promote specifically unitary or 'one-eyed' forms of consciousness". The first problem any student of South African literature confronts is the diversity of literary systems. Gerrit Olivier notes, "While it is not unusual to hear academics and politicians talk about a 'South African literature', the situation at ground level is characterised by diversity and even fragmentation". Robert Mossman adds that "One of the enduring and saddest legacies of the apartheid system may be that no one – White, Black, Coloured (meaning of mixed-race in South Africa), or Asian – can ever speak as a 'South African'". The problem, however, pre-dates apartheid significantly, as South Africa is a country made up of communities that have always been linguistically and culturally diverse. These cultures have all retained some autonomy, making a compilation such as the controversial Southern African Literatures by Michael Chapman difficult. Chapman raises the question: [W]hose language, culture, or story can be said to have authority in South Africa when the end of apartheid has raised challenging questions as to what it is to be a South African, what it is to live in, whether South Africa is mlg, and, if so, what its mythos is, what requires to be forgotten and what remembered as we scour the past in order to understand the present and seek a path forward into an unknown future.
South Africa has 11 national languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Venda, SiSwati, Tsonga, and Ndebele. Any definitive literary history of South Africa should, it could be argued, discuss literature produced in all 11 languages. But the only literature ever to adopt characteristics that can be said to be "national" is Afrikaans. Olivier argues: "Of all the literatures in South Africa, Afrikaans literature has been the only one to have become a national literature in the sense that it developed a clear image of itself as a separate entity, and that by way of institutional entrenchment through teaching, distribution, a review culture, journals, etc. it could ensure the continuation of that concept." Part of the problem is that English literature has been seen within the greater context of English writing in the world, and has, because of English's global position as ', not been seen as autonomous or indigenous to South Africa – in Olivier’s words: "English literature in South Africa continues to be a sort of extension of British or international English literature." The African languages, on the other hand, are spoken across the borders of Southern Africa - for example, Tswana is spoken in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho. South Africa's borders were drawn by the British Empire and, as with all other colonies, were drawn without regard for the people living within them. Therefore, in the history of South African literature, should we include all Tswana writers, or only those with South African citizenship? Chapman bypasses this problem by including "Southern" African literatures.
The second problem with African languages is accessibility: because they are regional languages, none can claim a national readership comparable to Afrikaans and English. Sotho, for instance, while transgressing the national borders of the RSA, is, on the other hand, mainly spoken in the Free State and bears a strong relationship to the language of, for example, Zulu. Thus, the language cannot claim a national readership while, on the other hand, being "international" in the sense that it transcends national borders.
Olivier argues that "There is no obvious reason why it should be unhealthy or abnormal for different literatures to co-exist in one country, each possessing its own infrastructure and allowing theoreticians to develop impressive theories about polysystems". Yet political idealism proposing a unified "South Africa" (a remnant of the colonial British approach) has seeped into literary discourse and demands a unified national literature, which does not exist and has to be fabricated. It is unrealistic to ever think of South Africa and South African literature as homogeneous, now or in the near or distant future, since the only reason it is a country at all is the interference of European colonial powers. This is not a racial issue but rather concerns culture, heritage, and tradition (and, indeed, the constitution celebrates diversity). Instead, it seems more sensible to discuss South African literature as literature produced within the national borders by the different cultures and language groups inhabiting these borders. Otherwise, the danger is of emphasising one literary system at the expense of another, and, more often than not, the beneficiary is English, with African languages being ignored. The distinction between "black" and "white" literature is a remnant of colonialism that should be replaced by drawing distinctions between literary systems based on language affiliation rather than race.
Pre Colonial Khoisan Literature of South Africa Sources:
Pre-colonial Khoisan "literature" primarily existed as oral traditions, including narratives, myths, and stories, which were later transcribed and published by missionaries and scholars like Wilhelm Bleek in the 19th century, such as Reynard the Fox in South Africa. These oral accounts, passed down through generations, formed the basis of Khoisan culture and knowledge, with some examples, such as the story of the sisters and the Mantis, providing cultural and social explanations.
The most significant form of pre-colonial Khoisan literary tradition was the spoken word. This included fables, which often conveyed moral lessons and explained the world around them.
Stories about the Mantis and other mythical figures served to explain the origins of customs, traditions, and the natural world.
Knowledge was passed down orally across generations, with names of geographical features, such as the Camissa River, reflecting the deep connection between the people and their environment.
The earliest surviving written accounts date to the 19th and early 20th centuries, when colonial-era figures such as Bleek collected these oral traditions. These collected works were often subject to colonial biases, which shaped how indigenous narratives were presented and understood.
Bleek's 1864 collection of Khoi narratives is considered the first published collection of indigenous South African literature.
Later researchers, such as Leonhard Schultze, collected tales that contrast with Bleek's work, revealing the extent of censorship and transformation that occurred during the colonial period.
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a Germanic language closely related to Dutch. It has its origins in the 17th century but was officially recognised only in 1875, when the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners was established. Afrikaans is spoken throughout South Africa, and is the mother tongue of both whites and coloureds (in the South African sense, meaning a specific independent culture rather than the disparaging European or American use of the term). The literary history is thus short, but surprisingly vibrant. The significant literary histories are H. P. Van Coller's Perspektief en Profiel, J. C. Kannemeyer's Geskiedenis van die Afrikaanse literatuur, and Dekker's Afrikaanse Literatuurgeskiedenis. Lewis Nkosi (cf. Cullhed, 2006: 18) claims that "in South Africa there exists an unhealed—I will not say incurable—split between black and white writing". This split occurs because, Nkosi claims, black writers are "largely impervious for the most part to cultural movements which have exercised great influence in the development of white writing". The Afrikaans literary system, in contrast to the African languages, engages with European artistic movements such as Symbolism, expressionism, modernism, post-modernism, Dadaism and the like, offering literature familiar to a European or American audience.
Poetry
Some of the early names include Leipoldt and Langenhoven, who wrote the national anthem ("Die Stem"). Early poetry often addressed the Anglo-Boer War, and it is only in the 1930s that poetry attains a significant literary standard. N. P. van Wyk Louw is the vanguard of the new movement, called Dertigers, along with his brother WEG Louw, and Elisabeth Eybers, although they were all to write in future literary periods. Olivier notes Van Wyk Louw's predominance: "It was only in the Thirties that a fully developed theory about Afrikaans as a national literature was launched by the erudite poet, N. P. van Wyk Louw, in his two collections of essays Lojale verset (1939) and Berigte te velde (1939)". Van Wyk Louw introduced international literary theories and movements into the South African literary scene on a much larger scale than any of his predecessors, and his "theory provided the intellectual and philosophical space within which poets and novelists could exercise their craft without fear of transgression; in short, it became the paradigm for Afrikaans literature" (Olivier). D. J. Opperman started writing in the 1940s and was to have a particularly prominent role with his anthology, Groot Verseboek.
The next major paradigm shift came in the 1960s, with T. T. Cloete and Ingrid Jonker, who, after her death, attained cult status. Cloete et al. discuss this literary watershed in Rondom Sestig. Cloete is further noteworthy for his compilation, Literêre Terme en Teorieë (1992), which is one of the most encompassing works on literary theory available on the global market, although written in Afrikaans. Some modern poets of note include Joan Hambidge, Hennie Aucamp, Ernst van Heerden, Antjie Krog and Gert Vlok Nel. Breyten Breytenbach is regarded by many as one of the best, if not the best, Afrikaans poets. He spent many years in prison for his political beliefs during apartheid and later lived in France. Breytenbach's latest work, "Die windvanger", was published in 2007. The major poetry anthologies are DJ Opperman's Groot Verseboek, Foster and Viljoen's Poskaarte, Gerrit Komrij's controversial Die Afrikaanse poësie in 1000 en enkele gedigte, and André P. Brink's Groot Verseboek, a remake or reworking of Opperman's anthology.
Prose
As a predominantly agricultural society, South Africa has produced a prominent body of plaasroman (farm novels) in both early and later periods. One of the archetypes is C. M. van den Heever's Laat Vrugte, which laid the foundations for parodies in the 1960s and later, such as Etienne Leroux's Sewe dae by die Silbersteins, André P. Brink's Houd-den-bek and Eben Venter's Ek stamel ek sterwe. Another example is Marie Linde's novel Onder bevoorregte mense, published in 1925 and also issued in English as Among Privileged People.Van Coller, 1998, p. 26. Even some English novels, such as J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace, remind one of the plaasroman. As urbanisation became more prominent during the time of the two World Wars, other forms emerged, notably the dorpsroman (town novel) such as Lettie Viljoen's Karolina Ferreira, Etienne van Heerden's Die Swye van Mario Salviati, or Die Werfbobbejaan.