Growing up I lived and breathed the work of South African writers like Stuart Cloete, who chronicled the history of white South Africa in factual novels that appealed very much to a child steeped in the ideals of empire. Cloete related rather one sided tales of the Great Trek, the Anglo/Zulu War, the Anglo/Boer War, as well as the various sideshows and sub-adventures that all went to build the complex human mythology of white South Africa.
Wilbur Smith
Another in the genre of historical fiction was the extraordinarily successful Wilbur Smith, who created the renaissance hero Sean Courtney. The fictional adventures of Sean Courtney visited all the major events of South African history that could plausibly be slipped into the span of one man’s life. Smith’s were among the more racy versions of popular South African prose, compared at the time to Harold Robbins, and with such immortal explanations for large African backsides as the necessity for a heavy hammer to drive a long nail.
South African Literature
While this is great reading material - for a 12 year old at least - South African literature is a different animal, and as the maxim goes - that out of hardship and repression comes great art - so South African writers have produced a long and august body of work that once again stamps the nation as something more than just a run of the mill developing country.
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Meet Kalahari.net!
South Africa’s answer to Amazon.com, it’s a virtual emporium of books, music, videos, DVDs, games, electronic products and more. Many of the items for sale on Kalahari.net are available via next-day delivery - especially Christian-themed books and music - and the online shopping is as safe as with the net’s major dotcoms.
Kalahari.net Shopping Tips:
Perfect for buying gifts for your South African friends, even after you’ve left the country.Convenient Computicket booking service for movies and theatre.Excellent “Crafts & Hobbies” section.Gift certificates available.
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This new release and first book by South African author Sihle Khumalo, details his travels from Cape to Cairo by public transport.
‘I had always wanted to write a book but I had never known what type of a book I would write. As my 30th birthday was getting closer I thought, why don’t I do the Cape to Cairo – which I had always wanted to do - and then after the trip attempt to write a book based on my travels and thus kill two birds with one stone. As they say, the rest is history.’
Read Pete “the meat” ’s review below:
From Cape to Cairo - that’s the intention, and that’s the span of the book. Shades of Kingsley Holgate and extended family, with Land Rover engines rumbling and belching, and loads of red rum around camp-fires at night! Maybe a lion roaring, or some hyenas yelping in the distance!
Well - not so, when Sihle Khumalo describes his real-life encounters. Same route, by and large, that many have traversed over the “dark continent”, but somewhat unusual, and a great deal more stamina required by the writer! Because, when the perspectives are flowing from an obviously suave, worldly-wise African graduate of Uni and sometimes life, choosing to get down and dirty on the roads and buses that span this large and complex continent we call home, this make for excellent reading, as well as some good laughs
So, sit back and travel tightly with our friend Sihle, as he buses through most of southern and eastern Africa’s states, backpacks through some very odd places, joins queues for hours at border crossings, gets mildly irritated at fruit and food vendors, becomes furious when he isn’t offered a lift in an air-conditioned 4×4 (with a license plate not far from where he started, two months prior!)………..and you find that he has crept right under your skin, whether it’s superficially black or white! Recall as you read, the personal resolutions he vows to keep, on his return to normality in SA (be worth finding out how our friend is doing on those, I suspect!). Chuckle at the ladies he tries half-heartedly to hook up with, en route, more out of curiosity, it seems, than serious intent
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Howzit! You’ve reached a section of SouthAfricaBlog.com that is, sadly, empty.
In time, however, it will be filled with all sorts of blog fodder, so if this particular subject is your bag, bookmark it and come back later.
Meanwhile, why not visit our Help Wanted section, where you can make yourself useful?
Thanks!
Ben, who am Editor
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