Michael Chapman

Born in Durban, he went to school in Kimberley and, as a qualified schoolteacher, he taught in Durban schools before continuing his studies in London. With degrees from the universities of London, Natal, and Unisa, Dr Chapman lectured at Unisa in Pretoria before, in 1984, returning to the city of his birth as Professor of English at the then University of Natal. Having retired in 2010, he continues as an emeritus professor and fellow to contribute to research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is also a research fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study.

A-rated as a world leader on South African literature, Michael Chapman has published numerous articles, anthologies and literary studies for which he has won several awards including the prestigious Bill Venter/Altron prize for his history, Southern African Literatures. This is first study to consider all the language-specific literatures of the southern African subcontinent as part of a single, though multi-perspectival, ‘story’.

Chapman’s literary output has considerable links to KwaZulu-Natal. He wrote the first study of the Durban-based poet, Douglas Livingstone; he is one of the editors of the 4-volume, collected works of Roy Campbell; and he is co-editor of a facsimile edition of the short-lived but – in its time in the mid-1920s – controversial journal, Voorslag (published by Campbell, William Plomer and Laurens van der Post). In 2012 he delivered the English Academy of Southern Africa Commemorative Lecture on the Durban-born author/journalist, Lewis Nkosi.

The following extract is taken from Chapman’s collection of essays, Art Talk, Politics Talk:

The Praises of King Shaka, Then and Now

A re-interpretation of Shaka hero and Shaka villain, as Shaka human being, strikes at the core of traditional white views of the mfecane [the scattering of the ‘tribes’ in the 1820s]: that Shaka’s conquests were those of a savage force in defiance of rationality or analysis. Instead, revisionism sees a Zulu Kingdom not entirely secure in its military might, but having to respond to a conflictual state of affairs. Accordingly Shaka, undoubtedly an exceptional being, may also be understood as vulnerable in relation to surrounding shifts of authority, influence and territorial occupation consequent upon the beginnings of the colonial advance into older Zulu social organisations. Shaka may be regarded, therefore, as both belligerent and insecure; his wars both aggressive and defensive, expansive and conservative; and in re-locating his praises in the living past, we might want to consider whether the hyperbole and relentless catalogue of victories (‘he slaughtered Sikhunyana born to Zwide’) feature simply as the documentation of a bloody age, or whether the boasting style hints at a more complicated, even devious, rhetorical act: an act concerning the obligation of the imbongi (the court poet) to bolster the image of the Kingdom at the same time as he fictionalises its immunity from intrusions on its borders. If we are prepared to grant the praiser his own humanity in a psychology of poetry and social duty, in which he has to tell lies truer than the truth, we may become attuned to the resonance of several lines and phrases that persist in James Stuart’s variations of Shaka’s praises. When the praiser announces that Shaka’s name is fear – ‘Shaka! I fear to speak the name Shaka!’ – the thrall of admiration might have been mingled, almost imperceptibly, with the thrall of terror as the court poet, in resorting to the grand, ceremonial statement, attempted to conceal the dangerous political situation from his powerful, but explicably human, King.

After Shaka’s assassination in 1828, the colonial intrusion took root in Zululand, and in Dingana’s reign the praiser Magolwana, in lines attributed by Stuart’s respondents to his invention, eulogised the living-dead as he sounded the death knell of a heroic age of action:

Though people may die, their praises remain,

These will remain and bring grief to them,

Remain and lament for them in the empty houses.

(tr. isiZulu, D. McK. Malcolm)

The words echo eerily in KwaZulu-Natal: a province that continues to experience tensions, even killings, in rivalries between the Zulu past and the Zulu present, between the rural powerbase of the IFP and the urban strongholds of the ANC. In a society in which the remnants of Zulu monarchical tradition vie with a Western-derived Constitution of individual rights, Magolwana’s words issue a warning not to underestimate the complexities of people in history.

Ancient royal praises are as much about processes of modernisation as about glorious chiefdoms. At least, that is how they should be understood to live in their reception.

(‘From Shaka’s Court to the Trade Union Rally’, Art Talk, Politics Talk, 35 - 36)

Select Bibliography

1981. Douglas Livingstone: A Critical Study of His Poetry. Johannesburg: Ad Donker.

1982; 2007. (ed.). Soweto Poetry. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.

1984. South African English Poetry: A Modern Perspective. Johannesburg: Ad Donker.

1985. (co-ed.). Voorslag 1 - 3. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.

1985. (co-ed.). The Collected Works of Roy CampJohannesburg: Ad Donker.

1989; 2001. (ed.). The Drum Decade: Stories of the 1950s. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.

1996; 2003. Southern African Literatures. London: Longman/Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.

2004. (ed.). The New Century of South African Short Stories. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball.

2006. Art Talk, Politics Talk. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.

2011. (co-ed.). SA Lit: Beyond 2000. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.

(For a complete bibliography, go to: www.michaelchapman.co.za)

By Imraan Coovadia

Review by Alan Muller

A book of essays that opens with a piece serving as an “expression of doubt in the book” is bound to leave most readers, be they academic or otherwise, with certain misgivings.  Imraan Coovadia’s Transformations is a collection of seemingly disparate essays that focus on topics ranging from his mother’s digital Azan clock, vuvuzelas and Thabo Mbeki’s 2007 letters to the nation, to the shift “from one framework of perception to another” in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.  While Coovadia suggests that he “cannot imagine any reader, apart from a friend or two – and probably not even two - who would be interested in all the essays in this collection”, the vast majority of his works are fiercely readable.  Foremost among these are “How to Read Lolita” and the controversial “Coetzee in (and out of) Cape Town”.

“How to Read Lolita” sees Coovadia approach Nabokov’s narrative technique in Lolita from a psychological vantage point, using Gestalt psychology and the visually ambiguous Necker Cube to explain how the hebephilic Humbert Humbert’s narration can be seen to tell two different stories at the same time.  “Coetzee in (and out of) Cape Town” has, as Jane Rosenthal had envisaged in her review of Transformations for Mail & Guardian, sparked a great deal of controversy regarding Coovadia’s often scathing indictment of J.M. Coetzee’s emigration to Australia and his lionisation within South African literary circles, suggesting that “Coetzee has become a religion rather than a source of literary experience”.   While his commentary on Coetzee’s private and professional lives may come across as harsh, perhaps betraying a personal agenda of sorts, one cannot help but enjoy the piece for its bold, controversial and nothing-is-sacred  approach.

While there is a great deal of intellectual insight to be gleaned from these essays, they also add to Coovadia’s biographical profile as he distributes fragments of his own narrative throughout the collection, from his childhood in Overport in Durban during the 1970s and 1980s to his scholarly endeavours at the University of Cape Town.  Furthermore, one is able to identify tropes in both his intellectual and creative thinking, such as allusions to classical mythology that are evident from his debut novel, The Wedding (2001), through to his most recent, The Institute for Taxi Poetry (2012).  The essays in Transformations are sure to open vistas for scholarly research when considered in conjunction with his novels.

While Coovadia admits that “this collection of essays has no proper reason for existence apart from a publisher’s tolerance”, the text is never the less substantial and thought-provoking while remaining playful and accessible.

Shabbir will be in conversation with Betty Govinden .

In a coffee shop in modern-day Cape Town, a dark shadow is encroaching on the lives of Tito and Lara, who are struggling to stay in love – while Jacob listens to an old man narrating a strange story. Whose story is it really? And what is its purpose? To prevent a murder reminiscent of one committed centuries ago?

Shabbir Banoobhai is an established South African poet based in Cape Town. He has participated in the Poetry Africa Festival held in Durban, South Africa, as well as in the Istanbul International Poetry Festival. His book Inward Moon Outward Sun was short-listed for the 2000 Sanlam Literary Awards. In 2001 he received the Thomas Pringle Award for a poem titled Sarajevo. He has published a number of books – mainly poetry – but also essays, letters, and philosophical and meditative reflections. Heretic is his first novel.

Home, Exile and Resistance in Letters from Bessie Head, Dora Taylor and Lilian Ngoyi by Professor Margaret Daymond, Emeritus Professor , UKZN.

Date: Thursday, 11 April 2013

Time: 17:30

Venue: Howard College Theatre, Howard College Campus, University Of KwaZulu-Natal

This book explores the complex and relevant concept of cultural identity in post-colonial or post-apartheid South Africa. Distiller does this by examining South Africa’s long standing and complicated relationship with the English language and Shakespeare as a signifier of that culture and literary education. She illustrates this through South Africa’s rich Shakespearean literary and political history, dating back to the early colonial mission schools, claiming that important writers and thinkers had an intellectual as well as emotional connection to his writings.

The term “coconut” in its rawest form indicates someone who is black on the outside and white on the inside, and according to Distiller is a concept reliant on old colonial-Apartheid binary logic in which one is “either/or”. Either authentically African and everything it entails, or European/white and everything associated with it. This binary logic is easily understandable due to the ongoing socio-economic inequality, as well as the violent and oppressive past.  With this book she hopes to reclaim the coconut by attempting “to challenge the negative implications of the accusation of ‘coconuttiness’, while still retaining an awareness of the histories of power that gave the term its bite.”  This “reclaimed coconuttiness” is a version of South Africanness , which cannot be captured by binary logic, and is rooted in the country’s history, yet rarely acknowledged.

The book’s investigation of the complex history of English and Shakespeare in South Africa since the mission schools  and what it meant for the new class of Africans, concludes that owning these, was not only a means of social, economic and personal advancement  during colonial times but also useful for opposing the  Apartheid system. Many local writers, notably Solomon Plaatje, appropriated Shakespeare as a means of shaping their political views, which aimed to attack the colonial system by illustrating its shortcomings, as well as a means  of preserving their own local culture and language. Such is the example of Plaatlje’s translation of A Comedy of Errors into Setwana.  These writers show that there existed a rich Shakespearean tradition in South Africa.

The use of Shakespeare in post-apartheid South Africa, however, reinforces  values we should be moving away from  and which are very limiting in terms of the possibility of a South African identity. Some writers emphasized   the rejection of colonial imports and history in search of an authentic African literature and experience. Such a view promotes the idea that the figure of the ‘coconut’ is an agent of ‘whiteness’ who will inevitably suppress or reject his or her African roots in hope of socio-economic advancement or acceptance. However, the idea that, “To be black one cannot own English and modernity is reductive and ignorant of a very rich and important local history.” Other writers attempted to draw parallels between Elizabethan England and Africa which, despite its intention, depicted African life as premodern, chaotic or barbaric. Such parallels invoked the justification of the colonial system rather than questioned its implementation.

Distiller dedicates a whole chapter to the use of Shakespeare in post-apartheid South African schools, which is the place most South Africans encounter Shakespeare for the first time. However the way Shakespeare is taught at school does not recognize the rich Shakespearean tradition exemplified by Plaatje and other writers.  She also explores the challenges of teaching Shakespeare in school, as well as looking at some of the modern “tailored editions” of his plays and to what extent they can be successful or inadequate.
The post-apartheid use of Shakespeare raises questions as to his role or place in South Africa. Distiller explores the use of  Shakespeare as part of political discourse by Thabo Mbeki,  and his notion of the “African Renaissance” which  encodes this revised meaning of the coconut, and the “tragedy that the coconuttiness he has come to stand for entails the signification of Shakespeare which bears very little relevance to Africa.”

Shakespeare wrote his plays to mirror European society, its moral corruption and soul destroying capabilities. That is precisely how his oeuvre should be read.  However trying to connect him to some sort of uniquely African identity or struggle can be problematic and make him seem irrelevant or outdated, not to mention elitist. Nevertheless many local writers, who knew how to read Shakespeare, adopted his writing to shape their political views, which they could use in a fight against injustice and oppression. But due to the complex history of English in this country and its turbulent past and present, the role of Shakespeare, considering who brought him and why, is confusing.  “If for Plaatje, Shakespeare was an embodiment of what English had to offer, in our time, Shakespeare may be the embodiment of its empty promise.”

Opening night will feature all participating writers as they make brief presentations at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, while the newly appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor of the School of Humanities, Prof Cheryl Potgieter will make a keynote address and a tribute to the late Phyllis Naidoo will be read. The rest of the week’s evening presentations will be panel discussions with writers talking about their writing and the issues dealt with in their work. The musical act opening the festival is Zimbabwean band Tanga Pasi. The panel discussion titled Perspectives in South African Writing on Tuesday 19th March will feature South African writers Kabelo Duncan Kgatea and Jo-Anne Richards. Trained as a journalist and working as a miner, it was after Kgatea’s first book Njeng manong fa ke sule! (Devour me, vultures, when I’m dead!) was published and won the Sanlam Prize Youth Literature (silver) in the Sotho category, that he got promoted to communications officer and no longer worked below ground. When The Innocence of Roast Chicken, the debut novel of internationally published author and journalist Richards first appeared, it topped the South African best seller list in its first week and remained there for 15 weeks. This discussion will be facilitated by Zukiswa Wanner.

Controversial human rights issues are brought to the fore in the evening’s second panel titled Africa Writing Queer Identity, featuring leading Nigerian writer Jude Dibia and Graeme Reid of South Africa, and will be facilitated by Sarojini Nadar. Dibia’s books address issues which range from sexuality, gender roles, race to the stigma of HIV/AIDS in modern day Africa. Reid, the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Programme and founding director of the Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa, explores gay identities in South Africa in his book How to be a Real Gay. Music by Durban duo Njeza and Siphelele Dlamini will commence the evening proceedings at 19h30.

Book launches take place at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre’s Wellington Tavern deck prior to the evening shows, from 18h45. The first book launch of the festival is the UKZN English/IsiZulu Book (UKZN Press)– a collaborative venture of stories by various authors.

On Wednesday 20th March, the first panel, titled Reflections on the Palestinian State, features Palestinian-born American-based novelist and essayist, Susan Abulhawa, in an interview discussion with Lubna Nadvi. Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin was translated into 24 languages worldwide and hailed by The Times as the “first English-language novel to express fully the human dimension of the Palestinian tragedy”. Exploring Genre in African Literature is the topic of the second panel, featuring South African author, photographer and filmmaker, Zinaid Meeran, alongside Nnedi Okorafor, award-winning author born in the United States and of Nigerian descent. Meeran was awarded the European Union Literary award for his debut Saracen at the Gates in 2009. About a curious exploration of living raceless in a country where just about everybody seems to have one, this debut was also shortlisted for the Sunday Times fiction prize in 2010. A professor of creative writing, Okorafor has received numerous accolades for her books, which are often characterized by African culture infused with reminiscent settings and memorable characters. This panel will be facilitated by True Love books editor and publisher Melinda Ferguson. Music by Durban duo Nhlanhla Zondi and Zulublue will kick start the evening presentation, while Molope’s book, This Book Betrays my Brother launches prior to the show.

On the evening of Human Rights Day, Thursday 21st March is the panel titled Perspectives in SA Writing, with a panel which features Elana Bregin and Damon Galgut, and facilitated by Siphiwo Mahala. Galgut’s In a Strange Room, a novel which follows the journey of an isolated South African traveler seeking a deep satisfaction in life, was shortlisted for several awards, including the 2010 Man Booker Prize and M-Net Literary Award. Bregin is well known for her award-winning young adult titles, which include The Kayaboeties and The Red-haired Khumalo, which all deal with the social realities of a changing South Africa.

Under the title The Reporter as Writer, Jackee Batanda from Uganda and Aman Sethi from India, both novelists and journalists, feature in the evening’s second panel discussion. Together with the numerous awards for her fiction writing, Batanda also featured in the London Times alongside 19 young women shaping the future of Africa. A seasoned journalist working as a correspondent for The Hindu, a newspaper in India with a daily readership of about 2.5 million, Sethi has also contributed articles to various publications, around health policies in India. The evening’s musical act is the pair Mike Muyo and Tom Watkeys.

Following the book launch of The Imagined Child (Picador) by festival participant Jo-Anne Richards, and a music performance by the band Nje, the presentation of prizes to winners of the schools short story competition will take place on Friday 22nd March. The first session titled Youth Literature, similarly puts a spotlight on young people, and features writers Elieshi Lema from Tanzania and BD Khawula from South Africa. Lema started off writing poetry before moving on to children’s books. Her first novelParched Earth - A Love Story received an honorable mention in the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa and forms part of the curriculum in various universities. Based in Durban, Khawula’s inspiration to write stems from his love for his country. His debut novel Yihlathi Leli,won a silver award in the African Languages category at the Sanlam Youth Literature Awards.

The second panel for the evening, Writing Transformation, features South African critical thinkers and writers Andile Mngxitama and Prof Sampie Terreblanche. While Mngxitama writes significantly around the philosophy and writings of late Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko, Terreblanche’s focuses lies on the history of economic thought and policy matters in South and Southern Africa.

The Saturday evening book launch is On Being Human featuring contributions by various writers and edited by Duduzile Mabaso (Black Letter Media). Music and song by Durban songbird Skye Wanda will precede the discussion Writing the Other, featuring the South African panel of Ashwin Desai and Jonny Steinberg. An activist intellectual, Desai is celebrated the world over, for his poignant articulation of stories about struggle, oppression and resistance. Award-winning author Steinberg, writes about experiences about everyday life in the wake of South Africa’s transition to democracy. His debut novel Midlands, about the murder of a white South African farmer,won the Sunday Times Alan Paton Prize in 2003. This panel discussion will be facilitated by Dr. Frederico Settler from the Philosophy department at UKZN.

The festival closes with a look at the pertinent issue with South African writers Shafinaaz Hassim and Kagiso Lesego Molope, in a panel titled Writing Gender Violence. Hassim, a writer, poet and sociologist and driving force behind Johannesburg-based publishers, WordFire Press, recently published a novel on domestic violence titled SoPhia in November 2012, while Molope’s third novel This Book Betrays my Brother raises many gender equality issues prevalent in South Africa, amongst them the perception that women who wear revealing clothing invite sexual advances. Molope's first novel, Dancing in the Dust, was put on the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) list for 2006, making her the first Black South African to make the list.

Publishing is undoubtedly one of the central elements in the development of a local literary culture. That said a notable event that has become a significant part of the annual Time of the Writer international writers’ festival, is the Publishing Forum. Taking place on Wednesday, 20th March between 10h00 – 14h00 at the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, this year’s forum will feature a range of panels on salient issues within the publishing landscape. Topics discussed will cover the magazine industry, maximizing exposure in the world of digital publishing, converting your PhD thesis into a book and what publishers look for in a manuscript.

In addition to the nightly showcases at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, a broad range of day activities including seminars and workshops are formulated to promote a culture of reading, writing and creative expression. This includes the educator’s forumwith teachers on the implementation of literature in the classroom, the community writing forum with members of the public interested in literature, visits to schools, and a prison writing programme.

Tickets are R25 for the evening sessions, R10 for students, and can be purchased through Computicket or at the door one hour before the event. Workshops and seminars are free.

Presented by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal) with principal funding from the National Lottery Distribution Fund, the 16th Time of the Writer – International Writer’s Festival, which takes place between 18 – 23 March 2013, once again invites learners to submit material for its short story writing competition. The Time of the Writer Schools Short Story Competition is open to all high school learners and aims to encourage creativity and expression in young people. This competition is the springboard for future storytellers of South Africa.

Winners will be awarded cash prizes, book vouchers and complimentary tickets to the festival.

Submit your stories, with the name of your school, teacher’s name, and your school’s telephone number, to the Centre for Creative Arts (details below). You can write about any topic, but entries must be fictional stories and not critical essays. A maximum of 5 pages (preferably typed) are to be written in English, Zulu or Afrikaans. Illegible entries will not be considered.

Entries can be submitted by e-mail: cca@ukzn.ac.za, fax: 031 260 3074, or hand-delivery: Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, Mazisi Kunene Ave, Durban, 4041, South Africa.

DEADLINE: 28th February 2013

For more information on the festival or the competition, please contact the Centre for Creative Arts on 031 260 2506/1816 or email cca@ukzn.ac.za.

Author and activist Phyllis Naidoo, featured on our Grey Street Writers Trail, has passed away.

Our condolences to her family. She will be missed!

"The ANC has paid tribute to activist Phyllis Naidoo (85) who died on Thursday in hospital. Naidoo died of heart failure at Chief Albert Luthuli Hospital and was cremated according to her wishes at a private crematorium, the Daily News reported. The ANC said it was saddened by her death. "The ANC dips its flag in honour of comrade Phyllis Naidoo," said spokesman Keith Khoza. Naidoo was born in Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal, on January 5 1928. Later in her life she joined the Natal Indian Congress and became involved with the South African Communist Party (SACP)." Read the full article on the M&G ...

Phyllis Naidoo (1928 - ) was born in Estcourt. She is the daughter of Simon David, a teacher and principal. When she was ten years old, her father took her to an Institute of Race Relations Conference in Pietermaritzburg at which she was to serve tea. At the meeting someone asked her to go and call the boy. She went outside and when she asked for the boy a very dignified, traditional Zulu woman confronted her. 'The boy you want is my husband.' The woman's regal presence made Phyllis realise that she had given tremendous offence and she was mortified. This incident awakened her, more than any event or speech at the meeting, to the evils of racism. Phyllis joined the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) and in 1958, married MD Naidoo, a member of the SACP, and in 1961 she joined the Communist Party. She was banned in March 1966. In 1967, MD was charged and sent to prison on Robben Island. His detention together with her banning left her destitute. She could not work and had to depend on friends and family for welfare assistance. Read Phyllis Naidoo's author profile ...