WiSER, the Governing Intimacies project and UKZN Press invite you to a book discussion of Our Words, Our Worlds: Writing on Black South African Women Poets, 2000–2018, edited by Makhosazana Xaba.

Books will be on sale, at a special launch price of R250.

This groundbreaking, multi-genre anthology answers the question: what did the literary landscape look like in South Africa at the start of the 21st century?

Our Words, Our Worlds documents a slice of this landscape by bringing together the writings of over 20 contributors through literary critique, personal essays and interviews.

The book tells the story of the seismic shift that transformed national culture through poetry and is the first of its kind to explore the history and impact of poetry by Black women, in their own voices. It straddles disciplines: literary theory, feminism, history of the book and politics – thus decolonising literary culture.

Makhosazana Xaba will be discussion with Nedine Moonsamy (senior lecturer, English Literature at the University of Pretoria and editorial assistant Nordic Journal of African Studies) and Moshibudi Motimele (sessional lecturer and PhD candidate at Wits University with a master’s degree in political studies).

Contributors present at the event will include: Myesha Jenkins, duduzile zamantungwa mabaso, Makgano Mamabolo, Tereska Muishond, Qhakazambalikayise Mthembu, Napo Masheane and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers.

The collective contributions are a testimony to the power of creativity and centrality of poetry in a changing society. This book is an assertion of Black women’s intellectual prowess and – as Gabeba Baderoon puts it – black women’s visions of ‘a world made whole by their presence’.

The event will be chaired by Sinethemba Makanya (WiSER Medical Humanities Doctoral Fellow).

Event details

Date: Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Time: 17:30 for 18:00
Venue: WiSER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus, Wits University
RSVP: Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za

Makhosazana Xaba is currently a Research Associate at WiSER and a Governing Intimacies Project Fellow, working on her long term project, a biography of Helen Nontando Jabavu (Noni), the author of Drawn in Colour: African Contrasts (1960) and The Ochre People: Scenes from a South African Life (1963). Makhosazana is an anthologist, essayist, short story writer and poet. She has published three collections of poetry, these hands (2005 and 2017), Tongues of their Mothers (2008) and The Alkalinity of Bottled Water (2019). Her debut short story collection Running and Other Stories (2013) was joint winner of the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award at the 2014 South African Literary Awards (SALAs).

Categories Non-fiction South Africa

Tags Book events Book launches Johannesburg Makhosazana Xaba Our Words Our Worlds Poems Poetry UKZN Press