The article examines Modisane's self-portrayal in his autobiography, Blame Me on History (1963). The author argues that for Modisane autobiographical self-representation takes the form of a complex ...and multi-layered process of symbolic and metaphorical translation of (self) identity. Symbolic self-translation in Modisane's autobiography involves attempts by the narrator-protagonist to untangle the conundrum resulting from what is presented as an unbridgeable chasm between the kind of person he could have been in a country devoid of racial oppression and what he was forced to become in the racially segregated South Africa of the twentieth century. Central to the analysis of Modisane's chosen mode of self-portraiture is James Olney's notion of "metaphors of self" in terms of which the autobiographical self seeks to articulate its elusive ontological status through metaphors and symbols. The article also provides a critique of contradictions inherent in the ideology of liberal humanism which is presented as universally desirable in Modisane's autobiography.
Regrettably, during the first two decades of freedom in South Africa Gwala, who was obviously disgruntled and disillusioned, stopped writing poetry and disappeared from the literary scene spending ...most of his time in local shebeens and taverns in the township of Mpumalanga near Hammersdale. Like the AfroAmerican writers of the Harlem Renaissance with whose work he was thoroughly familiar, Gwala chose to confront social injustice head-on offering trenchant and unapologetic responses to critics who questioned the literary merit of his poetry. Thengani H. Ngwenya Thengani H. Ngwenya is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Durban University of Technology.
While it is argued in the paper that the New Public Management theory and practice has been applied much more in education than in any other area in the public sector, literature on education ...leadership and management still reveals a startling degree of confusion among education authorities, managers and leaders over what strategies to apply in order to bring out commitment, positive results and accountability among the school leaders. The authors argue that the confusion is caused by the fact that there has been a dramatic change in education policymaking that has adopted a more market-oriented approach and underplayed the conception of "education as a public good." The authors conclude that this change has led to the obsession of educational authorities with quantifiable outcomes which have an adverse effect on the standard and quality of education in South Africa.
Mafika Pascal Gwala who passed away in September at the age of sixty seven (67) will be remembered as a straight- talking and often cantankerous South African poet who made a notable contribution to ...South African English poetry in the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Verulam in 1946, Gwala started writing in 1966 and his first poems and short stories appeared in the Classic, New Nation, Realities and Ophir. He edited the Black Review in 1973 and published essays in several books and magazines.
The main concern in this article is to offer a critical evaluation of a selection of Vilakazi's poems in which he deliberately foregrounds what he considers to be his social roles and obligations as ...a 'modern' Zulu poet. Vilakazi's poems and his critical writings reflect his awareness of the inherent contradictions underlying the challenging task of having to ensure the continuity and preservation of the Zulu traditions and value system while simultaneously devising new strategies and forms of poetic expression to suit the modern context. It is one of the central contentions of this article that postcolonial theory has provided contemporary critics with the conceptual and analytical framework within which to situate these dilemmas and begin to explore what they meant for first generation Zulu writers such as Vilakazi.
Mafika Pascal Gwala who passed away in September at the age of sixty seven (67) will be remembered as a straight-talking and often cantankerous South African poet who made a notable contribution to ...South African English poetry in the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Verulam in 1946, Gwala started writing in 1966 and his first poems and short stories appeared in the Classic, New Nation, Realities and Ophir. He edited the Black Review in 1973 and published essays in several books and magazines. Literary critics who have written on Gwala's work as a poet, critic and social commentator have noted the ways in which his poetry was informed by the turbulent political climate of his time. His first collection of poems, Jol'iinkomo came out in 1977 the year in which Stephen Bantu Biko, Gwala's close comrade in the Black Consciousness movement, was murdered by the police in a Pretoria prison cell. 1982 saw the publication of his second volume of poetry titled No More Lullabies. In 1991 he co-edited, with the acclaimed scholar of African oral literature Liz Gunner, a collection of praise poems titled Musho!: Zulu Popular Praises.
This paper examines the portrayal of BW Vilakazi in selected contemporary poems written in isiZulu. What emerges from a close and judicious analysis of these poems is what seems to be a shared belief ...among established and budding Zulu poets that Vilakazi plays the role of a sustaining and inspiring muse. Therefore, the main concern of this paper is to examine the conception of the muse that is both implicitly and explicitly articulated in these poems. While focusing specifically on Zulu poetry, the paper examines the conventional and historical conception of the literary muse and its re-interpretation in the context of modern African literature. The main purpose of this article is to show how the selected poems reflect a conscious re-definition and re-conceptualisation of the Western concept of the muse to suit the African (in this case Zulu) culture and belief systems. With remarkable consistency, the spiritual figure of the departed poet emerges as a national source of imaginative and creative writing in the poems selected for this article. In the poems selected for this paper, the notion of the muse, which is traceable to Greek culture, has been successfully re-interpreted to resonate with the African experience and context.
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