by Adele on Mar 28th, 2012
Despite it being just over 50 years since Frantz Fanon’s death and the publication of The Wretched of the Earth, time has done little to weather the relevance of his intellectual production. Last year saw the seminal African writer celebrated in various tribute articles, many written by Fanon scholar Nigel Gibson, author of Fanonian Practices in South Africa.
Taking a slightly more graphic approach to the topic of his intellectual legacy, Josh MacPhee at Thinking Africa looks at how The Wretched of the Earth hassurvived the modulating fashions of book jackets and the refurbishment of subtitles – from the linocut-style graphics and Helvetica font of the early editions, to the “pop star photoshoot” appearance of the more recent Penguin Classics edition:
I can’t quite remember exactly when and where I was first introduced to Frantz Fanon. I do remember pulling down the pocket paperback to the right (Grove Press, 1968) off a shelf at a bookstore, and being intrigued by the orange and black mass in motion on the cover. I assume I knew who Fanon was, or picked it up because I had been told I should by someone, but those specifics have slipped away. Then again, if the title Wretched of the Earth didn’t completely capture me, I suspect the subtitle added to this American edition—”The Handbook for the Black Revolution that is Changing the Shape of the World”—would have been more than enough to convince me to fork over the $3 it likely cost.
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by Adele on Mar 22nd, 2012
Michael Chapman’s Time of the Writer anthology, Africa Inside Out: Stories, Tales and Testimonies, was launched on Tuesday night at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre in Durban.
Introducing the event, Peter Rorvik, director of the Centre for Creative Arts (CCA), revealed his surprised that such a collection “had not happened sooner”. Rorvik described the book as a remarkably easy collaboration and expressed his delight that Chapman, who established the CCA in 1996, was available to edit it.
Debra Primo, Director of UKZN Press, followed on from Rorvik, saying that the book reaffirmed the common vision of both UKZN Press and the CCA, namely the aim to promote an awareness of African literature.
Africa Inside Out is the result of a call sent out to participants of previous Time of the Writer festivals. The call, said Chapman, asked for “stories, tales and testimonies” about Africa. According to Chapman, the 18 stories in the volume contain “dislocations and affirmations” about Africa, which generate a kind of “restless energy”. He did not want to create the sense of a “Mbeki-esque African Renaissance, but to rather turn to the living challenges of ‘Africa Inside Out’.”
Chapman concluded by thanking UKZN Press’ Elana Bregin for her “efficient and generous assistance” in co-editing the book, and wishing his readers a “stimulating reading experience”. Several of the book’s contributors were present at the launch. They included Ronnie Govender, Kirsten Miller, Sally-Ann Murray and Kobus Moolman.
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by Adele on Mar 22nd, 2012
In a piece for ZNet, Patrick Bond, author of Politics of Climate Justice: Paralysis Above, Movement Below, responds to an editorial in the City Press (26 February) which claimed that South Africa’s National Treasury is, among other things, a “powerhouse of big brains and safe hands”.
According to Bond, the National Treasury is better described as source of destruction, both environmental and economic.
Read the City Press editorial:
A few years ago, former finance minister Trevor Manuel handed out saplings to the gathering at Parliament’s annual tabling of the budget.
The symbol was this: it was time to plant for the future, to move away from consumption spending to investment-geared fiscal planning.
This meant a tempering of the public sector wage bill; a medium-term planned decline of social grant beneficiaries and a healthy injection into infrastructure.
Read Patrick Bond’s response:
Is the National Treasury, as a CityPress editorial claimed on 26 February, truly a “powerhouse of big brains and safe hands”, “a template for good governance”, “a hothouse of talent filled with expensive and committed officials” under “excellent political leadership”, and “a careful place”?
No. The Sunday Times asked a good question two weeks ago: “Did the Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, really think that a decision to spend R300 billion over the next 17 years on nuclear power stations did not merit a mention in his budget speech?”
That newspaper reminded readers of the “greed, fraud, corruption and cover-ups surrounding the R45-billion arms deal” financed by Gordhan’s predecessor, Trevor Manuel. As former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein revealed, Manuel advised, “It’s possible there was some shit in the deal. But if there was, no one will ever uncover it. They’re not that stupid. Just let it lie.”
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by Adele on Mar 20th, 2012
In an article for Pambazuka News, Nigel Gibson, author of Fanonian Practices in South Africa, takes a critical look at translations of the works of Frantz Fanon. Gibson also examines the impact of Fanon’s ideas in South Africa and reveals that he was introduced to Fanon through a pamphlet titled “Frantz Fanon, Soweto and American Black Thought”.
While Gibson emphasises how Steve Biko and Abahlali BaseMjondolo were influenced by Fanon during apartheid, he adds that “a Fanonian critique of post-apartheid South Africa now seems quite obvious”:
In the Cheikh Djemal’s film ‘Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work,’ Rehda Malek, one of the co-editors of El Moudjahid at the time, recalls how he was ‘impressed by Fanon’s intellectual vivacity and the speed in which he could write papers,’ adding that ‘he could write an article almost without crossing out a word in a direct and spontaneous way.’
In a sense the same can be said of his writing of L’an 5 de la révolution algérienne and Les damnés de la terre which were ‘written’ orally, so to speak, with Fanon speaking and his assistants writing down or typing his ideas. Though we know that Fanon gave much thought to each work, they were of the time and written very much for the time, and in the latter case very much against the time. Fifty years later, we consider these works as part of the oeuvre of a brilliant man, to be pored over and taken apart, every phrase scrutinised. And yet, when it was published, Les damnés was roundly criticised by the French liberal and left intelligentsia. Communists and liberals agreed: Fanon’s analysis was flawed; his insights were simply insights not theory; he made wild generalisations; he didn’t understand Algeria, or Islam, or the peasantry, and so on.
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by Adele on Mar 13th, 2012
UKZN Press invites you to join Michael Chapman for the launch of the Time of the Writer anthology Africa Inside Out: Stories, Tales and Testimonies.
The launch, which forms part of the 15th Time of the Writer Festival, will take place at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre’s Wellington Tavern Deck on Tuesday 20 March.
Don’t miss it!
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by Adele on Mar 9th, 2012
David Hallowes, author of Toxic Futures: South Africa in the Crises of Energy, Environment and Capital, will be presenting a talk, together with Tristen Taylor, on the impact of civil society on COP17.
The talk takes place on 15 March 2012 at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard College Campus from 12.30 to 2.00 PM.
See you there!
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by Adele on Mar 7th, 2012
Margaret von Klemperer has written an article in the Witness highlighting the work done by FunDza, an organisation that is trying to provide a practical solution to the problem of literacy in South Africa – a pertinent task amidst a swathe of “hand-wringing” commentary on the topic.
FunDza takes books targeted at young black readers and makes them available to download on the mobile social network, Mxit. Nobody Will Ever Kill Me, written by the young Mbu Maloni, has already proved a hit on the network with enthusiastic response from readers (read an extract here):
Hand-wringing about how kids don’t read, won’t read — even can’t read — is not going to solve South Africa’s literacy problem. However, an organisation called FunDza has come up with a possible solution that is cool and interactive, and designed to appeal to local youngsters, particularly those who neither have access to books nor the money to buy them.
FunDza takes books, including Mbu Maloni’s Nobody Will Ever Kill Me (reviewed above) and makes them accessible on its Mobi site, where kids can download them on MXit. And if reading isn’t cool, MXit is.
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by Adele on Mar 2nd, 2012
In an article for Pambazuka, Patrick Bond, author of Politics of Climate Justice: Paralysis Above, Movement Below, critiques the logic that advocates applying a market-model solution to solving climate change problems.
Says Bond, “advocating a risky market fix to a massive market failure under circumstances of widespread market melt is the latest version of state failure”:
In 2007, former World Bank chief economist Nick Stern termed climate change the worst ‘market failure’ in history – since those who pollute greenhouse gases are not charged, and since they threaten future generations and vast swathes of natural life – and at that moment, even the 1991 ravings of another former Bank chief economist, Larry Summers, made sense.
‘I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable and we should face up that’, according to a memo with Summers’ signature, although actually Summers was a mere plagiarist of Harvard economist Lant Pritchett’s genius, insiders allege.
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by Adele on Feb 29th, 2012
Africa Inside Out – an anthology of stories, tales and testimonies – challenges the global newscast, daily, nightly, of an Africa of dictatorships, starvation and disease.
Writers inside and outside the continent were invited by Time of the Writer Festival instead to respond to an Africa of the now: an Africa inescapably part of contemporary world culture.
In seeking to portray an Africa that goes against the stereotype, writers pushed boldly against literary expectation. Responses range from quirky interpretations of oral tradition, to explorations
of digital possibility, to experiential testimony and humorous renditions of old – and new – conundrums.
Africa Inside Out – as its title suggests – does not present the politicised version of Africa. It portrays an Africa in flux; still grappling with familiar problems, but caught up in the global drive towards reinvention and the possibilities of an unpredictable yet interconnected future.
Edited and introduced by Michael Chapman, the selection presents a cross-section of Time of the Writer Festival participants.
About the editor
Michael Chapman is emeritus professor of English at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, and a leading South African anthologist, among whose edited books are The Drum Decade: Stories of the 1950s (1989; 2001) and The New Century of South African Short Stories (2004).
About Time of the Writer
Time of the Writer is an International Festival of Writers held annually in Durban, South Africa, under the auspices of the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
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by Adele on Feb 22nd, 2012
Nicoli Nattrass, head of UCT’s Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) and professor in the School of Economics, was one of four speakers who delivered lectures in a series entitled “The Human Question” at UCT Summer School.
Nattrass, the author of Mortal Combat: AIDS Denialism and the Struggle for Antiretrovirals in South Africa, dedicated her talk to a discussion on “the way in which the human has been conceptualised by neoclassical economics as ‘homo-economicus’”.
The CSSR has made a podcast of her lecture, “Homo-Economicus?”, available online:
Nicoli Nattrass - Homo-Economicus? [65:51m]:
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