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Africa Writes Back was published in 2008 to coincide with the 50th
anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
- the novel which provided the impetus for the foundation of the
Heinemann African Writers Series in 1962 with Chinua Achebe as the
Editorial Adviser. With the 50th anniversary of the AWS being
celebrated in 2012, James Currey's book has a new resonance. '...
not only the story of a publishing enterprise of great
significance; it is also a large part of the story of African
literature and its dissemination in the latter half of the
twentieth century. The manuscript is full of the drama of that
enterprise, the drama of dealing with the mother house, William
Heinemann, of dealing with the often intractable political
constraints dominating the intellectual space across Africa, and
not least of all dealing with the writers themselves - with their
ambitions, their temperaments, their financial needs and, at time,
their perception of a colonial relationship between themselves and
a European publishing house.' - Clive Wake, Emeritus Professor of
Modern Languages, University of Kent at Canterbury. North America:
Ohio U Press; South Africa: Wits U Press; Nigeria: HEBN; Kenya:
EAEP; Zimbabwe: Weaver Press
PAPERBACK FOR SALE IN AFRICA ONLY AFRICAN LITERATURE TODAY was
established at a time of uncertainty and reconstruction but for 50
years it has played a leading role in nurturing imaginative
creativity and its criticism onthe African continent and beyond.
Contemporary African creative writers have confidently taken
strides which resonate all over the world. The daring diversities,
stylistic innovations and enchanting audacities which characterize
their works across many different genres resonate with readers
beyond African geographic and linguistic boundaries. Writers in
Africa and the diaspora seem to be speaking with collective and
individual voices that compel world attention and admiration. And
they arebeing read in numerous world languages. This volume's
contributors recognize the foundations laid by the pioneer African
writers as they point vigorously to contemporary writers who have
moved African imaginative creativityforward with utmost integrity,
and to the critics who continue to respond with unyielding
tenacity. The founding Editor of ALT, Professor Eldred Durosimi
Jones, recalls in an interview in this volume, the role ALT played
in the evolution and stimulation of a wave of African literary
studies and criticism in mid-20th century: "The 1960s saw a good
deal of activity among scholars teaching African Literature
throughout Africa and the world, and this ledto a series of
conferences in African Literature in Dakar, Nairobi, and
Freetown.around the idea of communication between the various
English Departments which took an interest in African Literature.
We decided on a bulletin, which was just a kind of newsletter
between departments saying what was going on....it was that
bulletin that showed the potential of this kind of communication...
after that we started African Literature Today as a journal
inviting articles on the works of African writers." Contributors to
the series demonstrate the impact of the growth in studies and
criticism of African Literature in the 50 years since its founding.
Series Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu is Professor of Africana Studies
at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. Reviews Editor: Obi
Nwakanma
AFRICAN LITERATURE TODAY was established at a time of uncertainty
and reconstruction but for 50 years it has played a leading role in
nurturing imaginative creativity and its criticism on the African
continent and beyond. Contemporary African creative writers have
confidently taken strides which resonate all over the world. The
daring diversities, stylistic innovations and enchanting audacities
which characterize their works across many different genres
resonate with readers beyond African geographic and linguistic
boundaries. Writers in Africa and the diaspora seem to be speaking
with collective and individual voices that compel world attention
and admiration. And they arebeing read in numerous world languages.
This volume's contributors recognize the foundations laid by the
pioneer African writers as they point vigorously to contemporary
writers who have moved African imaginative creativityforward with
utmost integrity, and to the critics who continue to respond with
unyielding tenacity. The founding Editor of ALT, Professor Eldred
Durosimi Jones, recalls in an interview in this volume, the role
ALT played in the evolution and stimulation of a wave of African
literary studies and criticism in mid-20th century: "The 1960s saw
a good deal of activity among scholars teaching African Literature
throughout Africa and the world, and this ledto a series of
conferences in African Literature in Dakar, Nairobi, and
Freetown.around the idea of communication between the various
English Departments which took an interest in African Literature.
We decided on a bulletin, which was just a kind of newsletter
between departments saying what was going on....it was that
bulletin that showed the potential of this kind of communication...
after that we started African Literature Today as a journal
inviting articles on the works of African writers." Contributors to
the series demonstrate the impact of the growth in studies and
criticism of African Literature in the 50 years since its founding.
Series Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu is Professor of Africana Studies
at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. Reviews Editor: Obi
Nwakanma
In 2012 the African Writers Series celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Africa Writes Back tells the publishing story behind some of the
books and authors in the series. Africa Writes Back was published
in 2008 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication of
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart - the novel which provided the
impetus for the foundation of the Heinemann African Writers Series
in 1962 with Chinua Achebe as the Editorial Adviser. With the 60th
anniversary of the AWS being celebrated in 2022, James Currey's
book has a new resonance. '... not only the story of a publishing
enterprise of great significance; it is also a large part of the
story of African literature and its dissemination in the latter
half of the twentieth century. The manuscript is full of the drama
of that enterprise, the drama of dealing with the mother house,
William Heinemann, of dealing with the often intractable political
constraints dominating the intellectual space across Africa, and
not least of all dealing with the writers themselves - with their
ambitions,their temperaments, their financial needs and, at time,
their perception of a colonial relationship between themselves and
a European publishing house.' - Clive Wake, Emeritus Professor of
Modern Languages, University of Kent at Canterbury. North America:
Ohio U Press; Ghana: Sub-Saharan Publishers; South Africa: Wits U
Press; Nigeria: HEBN; Kenya: EAEP; Zimbabwe: Weaver Press
1959 was the year James Currey arrived in South Africa and found a
nation in crisis. Hopes of change rose and foundered over the next
five years. Letters and vivid conversations capture the excitement
of daily life and political drama. The extra-parliamentary
opposition had used non-violent means of protest since 1952, but on
21 March 1960 the police shot and killed 69 peaceful protesters in
Sharpeville. It was a turning point. In March 1960 some 35,000
Africans protested on Cape Town and the police responded with
further savagery. Shortly after Randolph Vigne, Neville Rubin, Tim
Holmes and James Currey founded The New African a radical review of
politics and the arts. The intense comings and goings of a small
magazine served as effective cover for acts of sabotage. In July
1964 Randolph Vigne appealed to Clare and James to enable him
escape. Clare had no hesitation; 'Randolph and Gillian are our
friends', she said. James used his British passport, to buy a
ticket on a Norwegian freighter so that Vigne could travel to
Montreal. Two days later Clare and James flew out of Johannesburg.
Chinua Achebe is renowned as Africa's most famous novelist and author. He not only contested European narratives about Africa but also challenged traditional assumptions about the form and function of the novel. His literary life spanned over 50 years, from the publication of Things Fall Apart (1958) to There Was A Country (2012), his memoir of the Nigerian Biafran war in the 1960s. This important volume traces the formative years of Modern African writing in English and Achebe's role in helping to shape and nurture the next generation of African writers.
The New African was first published in 1962 and survived in Cape
Town and in London for 53 issues, (www.disa.ukzn.ac.za/newafrican).
The radical monthly introduced to South Africa new writers such as
Bessie Head, Lewis Nkosi, Ngugi, Can Themba, Dennis Brutus, Andre
Brink and Masizi Kunene alongside established writers like Nadine
Gordimer, Dan Jacobson and Alan Paton. It was 'a magazine aimed at
opening up debate and spreading the word about the new Africa' in
the heady years of African independence. The New African was
founded to tell people about this new Africa, a newly born concept
to analyse, report on and rejoice in. It also looked ahead to the
ultimate collapse of white-racial supremacy and the dawn of
non-racial democracies. The journal soon attracted the attention of
the South African state and its Special Branch as recorded in a
leader: "On 9 March 1964 policemen from the Cape Town security
police HQ raided the offices of The New African...The entire
contents was removed. from a locked filing cabinet, carried by four
(black) constables, to a handful of rubber stamps carried by one
(white) constable.' The editors were soon forced to flee, and
printing restarted in London and copies were smuggled back to South
Africa. The second half of the book Cape Escape is an account,
thrilling enough for a film, of how James Currey by leaping from a
Norwegian freighter in Cape Town docks enabled Randolph Vigne the
clandestine editor of The New African to escape to Canada.
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