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Black Poetry
from southern Africa
This
comprehensive anthology of black poetry from Southern Africa ranges from the
earliest known poems of the Khoisan and the praise poetry of the isimbongi, to
the apocalyptic Soweto voices of the 1970s.
The emphasis falls on poetry from South Africa, but representative examples of pre- and post-independent poetry
from Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique reveal the larger coherences underlying the themes of oppression
and liberation.
The concise and informative introduction indicates fascinating
parallels between traditional and oral, and modern and written poetic
approaches, between the mission-school idiom of the first black poets writing
in English and the harsh, utterly authentic speech rhythms of today, between a
pre-Sharpeville voice of protest and a post-Sharpeville, and particularly a post-Soweto,
poetry of resistance.
Voices from Within conveys the extraordinary vitality of a poetry which has found both
sociological and artistic value in the close relation of literature, southern
African specifics and the participatory ideals of a black community.
Ad
Donker
1982
ISBN
0 949937 95 9 (hardback)
ISBN
0 949937 96 7 (paperback)
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