Due to the variety of languages spoken in South Africa, the literature has become quite diverse.
John Maxwell Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer are two of the country's leading writers. The first won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003, having written books that were translated into Portuguese and edited and published in Brazil. His writing genre is fiction and some of his books are O Cio da Terra, Diary of a Bad Year and Waiting for the Barbarians.
Nadine, on the other hand, prefers to develop texts about apartheid, the political regime by which whites held the power over blacks, forcing them to live apart, in a great demonstration of racial prejudice. His books are in the fiction genre, but also in chronicles such as: The Engate, The Lying Days and The Conservationist.
Vonani Bila is a black writer who fought hard to get his work recognized. She founded a poetry project entitled Timbila, publishing several poems in addition to the literary magazine Timbila.
Vonani managed to circulate works by poets who were marginalized. As a result, it became a source of inspiration for several workshops and projects involving new writers in the poetic genre. Vonani Bila harshly criticizes writers who work writing articles for the government, where he says they are paid to talk about government labels, standing against this type of literature that makes the reader a puppet.
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South Africa has a literary museum, which started its activities in 1972, in order to promote a good reading for South Africans.
At the museum, they collect and conserve literary works, as well as other materials related to this literature, such as poetry, plays, novels, short stories, diaries, memoirs and children's books. In addition to these, they garner criticism on South African issues, works recorded by the press and published by magazines.
The museum's opening hours are from Monday to Friday, from 8 am and 30 am to 1 pm, opening again from 2 pm to 4 pm and 30 minutes.
Literary competitions and festivals are commonly held, involving the genre of poetry. In these participate writers, students and some members of the government. The contests are very well accepted, with great participation from the whole society.
By Jussara de Barros
Graduated in Pedagogy
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
BARROS, Jussara de. "Literature in South Africa"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/africa-do-sul/literatura-na-africa-sul.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.