The 2023 publication of a selection of Sindiwe Magona’s essays, titled I Write the Yawning Void, is significant for a number of reasons, not least of which are her reflections on the writing of her two-volume autobiography, To My Children’s Children (1990) and Forced to Grow (1992). Of significance also is how the title of the selection not only frames the book as a whole but speaks broadly to the act of writing, particularly Black South African autobiographical writing of the 1980s and 1990s, as “writ[ing] the yawning void.” Against this background, the aim of this article is to revisit the first volume of Magona’s autobiography in the context of its reception around the time of its publication and, in the light of Magona’s reflections, to proffer some thoughts on how it may be read post-apartheid. The second volume, Forced to Grow, is also on the horizon of my discussion. In her selection of essays, Magona sets a new agenda for reading her autobiography today by setting up the tension between “our Now,” by which she refers to the active present in which she lived and later wrote about, and “their Then,” which is the past-ness of that present which the title of To My Children’s Children anticipated, by projecting its address and, thus, meaning to the future. In this sense, both the autobiography and the essays operate in the space between memory and forgetting and between historicity and presentism. It is in these spaces that I locate my re-reading of To My Children’s Children in this article.
Many African nations envisioned the prospects of true liberation for everyone following colonial independence. For women, this freedom promised an end to their marginalisations that surface through intersecting oppressions of sexism, racism, and classism. Through a thematic analysis of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body (2018), this article examines how being Black, female, and often poor continues to define women’s experiences in postcolonial Zimbabwe. In addition, African Womanism and intersectionality are employed as theoretical lenses with which to explore how Shona traditions and colonial legacies, such as socio-economic challenges, are portrayed in the novel as impediments to a gender-equal society. The study’s findings indicate that female characters such as the protagonist Tambudzai, Nyasha, Mrs Taka, Netsai, and Mainini Lucia remain confined by rigid gender roles, economic marginalisation, and post-independence disillusionment, which undermine their aspirations and agency. In this way, the study argues that Dangarembga demonstrates how neocolonialism and patriarchal structures jointly perpetuate women’s oppression. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to African Womanist literary scholarship in Southern Africa, and Sustainable Developmental Goal (5) 2030, by addressing the continued subjugation of African girls and women as a result of their intersectional identity. Theoretically, this study reaffirms the significance of employing African Womanism and intersectionality as interpretive perspectives on postcolonial women’s lived experiences as Black, female, and poor.
This article analyses two poems that thematise Murundu and Domba, initiation rites for boys and girls in Tshivenḓa culture. Despite these rites being imperatively central to Vhavenḓa, they remain strictly bound to secrecy, silence, and mystery, resulting in their minimal documentation. However, Ralson Ramudzuli Matshili’s two poems on Murundu and Domba enlighten the reader on how the rituals operate. Guided by semiotic theory and thematic analysis, this article examines the poems’ use of symbolic language to reveal the inner workings and meanings of the rites. The article shows that the rites operate at a level surpassing other rituals, as they contribute to the construction and expression of the initiates’ transformed identities. Ultimately, the article foregrounds poetry as a key commentator on culture and notions of masculinity and femininity, and thus adds to the discourse on gender and culture.
This article is catalysed by a dual aim: It (1) names a yet unidentified canon of South African War Drama and (2) spotlights Reza de Wet’s subversively feminist contribution to this canon with her drama Breathing In. To this end, I draw on performance theory, enhanced by feminist theatre studies, and research on (South) African women’s drama and/or feminist dramaturgy that evokes conceptualisations of metadrama/-theatre. While I caution against the pitfalls of moralisation (by way of justifying/valorising the protagonist’s abusive and murderous actions), I interpret De Wet’s creation of this character as a feminist strategy to stage women’s largely overlooked agency and inventive self-assertion in South African history—dramaturgically and otherwise.
This article analyses two poems that thematise Murundu and Domba, initiation rites for boys and girls in Tshivenda culture. Despite these rites being imperatively central to Vhavenda, they remain strictly bound to secrecy, silence, and mystery, resulting in their minimal documentation. However, Ralson Ramudzuli Matshili's two poems on Murundu and Domba enlighten the reader on how the rituals operate. Guided by semiotic theory and thematic analysis, this article examines the poems' use of symbolic language to reveal the inner workings and meanings of the rites. The article shows that the rites operate at a level surpassing other rituals, as they contribute to the construction and expression of the initiates' transformed identities. Ultimately, the article foregrounds poetry as a key commentator on culture and notions of masculinity and femininity, and thus adds to the discourse on gender and culture.
