The role of literature in a society is that of a mirror, reflecting its politics, values and culture or playing a critical role, challenging society and what it perceives as its evils. In the forward to her book, Literature and Politics, writer Bernice Slote writes that "In the plainest sense, of course, literature is itself one part of the structure, the institutions, the actions of society - like bread or banking." (Shava, p. v). Publishing provides the connection between literature and society, Writers and their writings cannot survive in isolation and hence it is the role of the publishing house to make a writer's writings available to society, where they may be disseminated and absorbed into the body politic. In many parts of the world, this relationship between the writer and the publisher is a common assumption. When South Africa was ruled under the system of apartheid, the relationship of the publishers and those writers opposed to apartheid was one that ranged from tenuous to non-existent. The system of apartheid was one of overwhelming oppression. It was a system, as well as a political philosophy, that had severe consequences regarding every aspect of a black South Africans life. Looking at the literature that was being written at that time, it was not surprising to find that it was a literature of protest. Given the nature of apartheidf it would have been impossible for a black South African writer to ignore the oppression. Writer Piniel Viriri Shava refers to this oppression as "a matter of orientation, a matter of perceiving social realities..to help promote understanding and preservation of, or change in the society's values and norms."(1). One of the legacies of apartheid and colonialism in general was the disorientation, distortion and domination of African culture, so that in their wake, the role of black South African writers is still a political one. As South Africa emerges from the rule of apartheid, _ Ses the challenge of regaining black South African culture, its values, identity and dignity. For black South African writers, ignoring such issues would, for them, certainly run the risk of being irrelevant. Though apartheid is dismantled, its impact still lingers, leaving writers and publishers alike facing the challenge of helping South African society. This is difficult, as David Philip and Mike Kantey have written in their encyclopedia International Book Publishing, noting that in South Africa there exists eight major African languages; among them Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana as well as English and Afrikaner. They also describe South African book publishing as being sectional with race, not language, religion or culture being a determining factor (415). Though formally established in 1948, the first ten years of apartheid were not marked by massive police oppression. The absence of the heavier aspects of a police state allowed for a limited political freedom, one that permitted the formation of a multiracial alliance to oppose apartheid. Within thisalliance there was a flowering of black literature, much of it dealing with issues such as racial prejudice, prison conditions and the violence that was being directed at black South Africans by whites and fellow blacks. With racial prejudice being so pervasive in South African society, it was the theme that received the most attention. The forms which these writings took were mainly autobiographical, with a tone that ranged from detachment to outright anger. In using the autobiographical form, writers such as Peter Abrahams and Ezekiel Mphahlele dwelt with these issues in a personal context. Autobiography allowed them, and other writers, to show the dehumanizing and oppressive aspects of apartheid through personal experience (Shava, 29). Within the context of a multi-racial opposition to apartheid the writings of black South Africans in the 1950's would come to be viewed as a literary renaissance.(In the publishing world The African Drum and The Golden City Post were publications that served as a outlet for writers such as Ezekeil Mphahlele, Bessie Head and Todd Matshikiza, who created a slick jazzy language called "Matshikese," among others. Much of their output was best exemplified by essays that were humorous in tone, while at the same time celebrating the shebeen culture as well as the racially mixed environment that was Sophiatown (Watts, 2). The African Drum magazine in particular needs to be singled out for examination. Started in 1951, its early editions avoided any hint of political controversy, though it did feature stories that had a strong tribal flavor. However, in contrast to a rivalmagazine, Zonk, its initial attempts at expanding its readership met with little success. Almost at the brink of closing, it was taken over by a young white South African Jim Baily. Reorganizing the magazine's editorial staff, the African Drum to deal with contemporary issues that confronted black South Africans. An example of this was a series on crime that focused not so much on the effects but rather the causes of crime and the effect that apartheid had on those who lived under its yoke. The African Drum sought to have as much of its material written by black South African writers (Abrahams, 144-45). The African Drum , as well as The Golden Eagle, were publishing at a time when South Africa was going in two different directions. The national government was slowly implementing the system of apartheid, while those involved within the framework of the multi-racial coalition opposed to apartheid believed that South Africa was moving towards a multi racial society and, along with several other emerging nations, throwing off the last vestiges of colonialism. For all of the talent and output The African Drum and The Golden City Post were operating within a vacuum. For all their Populist appeal, they never were accessible to those in the streets or the rural areas. In politics neither the publications or the writers they published had any strong political connections, while their audiences were for the most part a cosmopolitan white audience (Watts, 3).Despite these limitations, Black South African writing and publishing in the 1950's was a departure from earlier generations. Writers like Sol Plaatje, Thomas Mofolo, and later Peter Abraham were products of missionary schools and later had their work published by the missionary press. Their writings dealt with African historical subjects, but their outlook was influenced by a western literary tradition which was a result of their academic education. In contrast, the writers and publishers in the 1950's reflected a more African outlook which addressed apartheid and its consequences in a direct fashion (Watts, 1-2). In the mid 19th to early 20th century, black South African literature encompassed the oral tradition and written form using the English language. Oral literature was a tradition that ran deep in black South African culture while writing in English was a result of the missionaries and their mission schools. One of these schools was the Lovedale School, which was founded in the Cape Province. Through its own publishing company, Lovedale Press, it began to publish much of the oral literature in newspapers and book form (Shava, 5). Like those who were writing in the 1950's, black South African literature in the mid-19th to early 20th-century reflected and dealt with the political issues of the time. Though influenced and shaped by the missionary presses, the vehicle from which black South African writers were able to publish, black South African literature was thematicallycommitted to the idea that for them, something was fundamentally wrong with the lives that they and their fellow black South Africans led. Be it colonial occupation, moral decay or economic deprivation, the idea was that only a radical transformation of the existing political system could improve life for black South Africans (Shava, 5). early writings, a central theme was the loss and dispossession of land. It was land that formed the basic foundation of tribal life helping to give a tribe a sense of its place in the world, and to define its role. In Solomon T. Plaatje's novel, Mhudi, one of his characters, Chief Tauana of the RaTshidi tribe, reacts to a Boer (Dutch) plan to keep the land they have seized from the Matabele tribe while at the same time give the captured cattle to Barolong tribe as reward for their aid against the Matabele. "'What an absurd bargain!; exclaimed Chief Taunna of the RaTshidi. 'What could one do with a number of cattle if he possessed no land on which to feed them? Will his cattle run on clouds! and their grass grow in air? No, my lord; I would rather leave the Matabele where they are and remain a sojourner with my people in the land of the Selekas under my cousin, Moroka'." (Plaatje, 142). Plaatje was not the first writer to address this theme which the effect of the loss of land had on tribal culture, but in his novels Mhudi and Native Life in South Africa, he dealt extensively with this subject. In fact, both novels were written at the time when the gold and diamond mines were beingestablished in South Africa, and though such developments would have profound impact on the lives of black South Africans, for Plaatje it was the loss and dislocation of the black South African tribal lands that was the root of all that black South Africans have lost (Shava, 13-14). Before Plaatje, who was writing from an early 20th century perspective, there was I. W.W. Citashe who is considered to be one of the first to address issues such as the loss of land and its impact on black South African culture. For Citashe, literature played an important role in raising the political and social consciousness of the people. Hence his poem, Your Cattle are Gone, is both a reminder to his people of what has happened to them, and also addresses the role that literature must play in seeking to reclaim what had been lost. "Your Cattle are Gone" Your cattle are gone, My countrymen! Go rescue them! Go rescue them! Leave the breechloader alone And turn to the pen. Take paper and ink, For that is your shield. Your rights are going! So pick up your pen, Load it, Load it with ink. Sit in your chairRepair not to Hoho, But fire with your pen. (Shava 6). For Citashe, Your Cattle are Gone signifies not so much a need to replace the existing political and social order but rather the need to reclaim what had been lost. As Piniel Shava,8 has noted "Given the return of his land, goats, sheep and rights, Citashe would probably be satisfied with the political system that prevailed before the arrival of the Boers." (Shava 6). Though mission presses such as Lovedale provided the means in which these early black writers could see their works published there were limitations to what they would print. Writers such as R.R.R. Dhlomo and Thomas Mofolo who wrote of the dislocation of black South Africans did so in the context of alcoholism, gambling, and crime. Conforming with the Christian viewpoint that such corruption was the result of personal failure, Dhlomo and Mofolo did not take into account the impact that larger issues, such as the dislocation of land and culture, had on black South Africans. In fact, Dhlomo not only had his work published by Lovedale Press but allowed Lovedale to edit his work so that it would fit with the publisher's Christian outlook of morality (Shava 16). Though also educated in, as well as influenced by, the mission schools, Solomon Plaatje and Peter Abrahams did put the issues of corruption into a broader context. Plaatje, who was Lutheran as well a a lay preacher did not allow this affiliation to ignore some of the hypocritical positions of the Christian Church in regards to race. For Plaatje, it was through the Christian church that the Boers were able to legitimize and enforce their racist philosophy over the black South Africans. For Plaatje, it was the Dutch Reformed Church that not only sanctioned Boer racism but, like other aspects9 of the Boer culture, legitimized it. Along with the theme of dislocation from their homelands, racism as dispensed through the Dutch Reformed Church was a recurring issue in Mhudi and Native Life in South Africa. The two novels deal with these issues against the backdrop of the Land Act of 1913 which formally annexed territory occupied by blacks, confiscated of un-surrveyed territories, and forbade those black South Africans who owned property to sell to anyone but whites. For Plaatje, the objectives of the Land Act were two fold: segregation and exploitation. Non-whites who wished to continue with their agrarian existence found themselves moved to desolate areas of the country known as reserves, which were by and large unproductive for farming. For those unable or unwilling to farm, their alternative was to sell their labor (Shava 10-14). Plaatje's politics were conveyed through what Shava calls a "foreshadowing technique." (14). Though writing at a time of industrialization and urbanization, Plaatje focused on the dislocation of black South Africans from their land and the culture associated with -ting about the events prior to the Land Act and its aftermath, he created a framework in which the issues of landlessness, poverty and the disenfranchisement of black South Africans would be played out to the present day. In the development of black South African protest literature, Plaatje's writings played a major role.1 o Published in the 1940's, Peter Abraham's writings dealt with the problems of an industrial society and the impact it had on black South Africans in terms of economics and the conflict between rural and urban cultures. This contrast between the urban and rural cultures provided a backdrop for another of his themes, which was the loss of innocence. In his novels, Abraham's protagonists arrive from the country only to become corrupted by the urban environment. This usually takes the form of gambling, alcoholism, or crime. Abrahams doesn't attribute his characters downfall to any moral defect, as Dhlomo did, but rather the political and economic conditions that black South Africans lived under. An example of this can be found in his novel, Mine Boy, in which Ma Plank explains to the novel's main character, Xuma, about the external forces that made Daddy, another character, an alcoholic. Abrahams does not condone excessive drinking but in condemnation presents to the reader awareness of the various forces at work in South African society contributing to alcoholism (Shava 17-18). Though writing from different perspectives and different styles, black South African writers from I.W.W. Cltashe to Peter Abraham shared the common bond of being products of the mission schools and gaining their first exposure to the world of publishing through the mission presses. Their outlook on the world was heavily influenced by the mission schools' Western influence. Their politics with the exception of Peter Abrahams whose outlook was that of a Marxist, were based on westernliberal 1 1 ideas with a strong Christian bias. It is altogether remarkable that given such an educational background, they devoted themselves and their writings to their native culture and their desire to preserve it. Though the generation of writers that came of age in the 1950's were more African in their outlook, and thus addressed apartheid and its consequences in a more direct fashion, they shared with this older generation of writers the sense of mission to preserve their native culture, reminding their people of what was once theirs in regards to both land and sense of place (Shava 26). However, the influence of the Mission presses would lessen, and 1943 saw the establishment of the African Bookmen publishing house which was devoted to publishing writers opposed to system of apartheid. Among some of its authors were Ezekiel Mphahlele and Govan Mbkei, who would go on to become a leader in the African National Congress. In 1946, Oxford University Press established a local publishing division that was run by Leo Marquard, a liberal Afrikaner, who founded the National Union of South African students and cofounded the South African Institute of Race Relations. Though not exclusively devoted to works opposed to apartheid, Oxford Press would publish Alan Patons Cry of a Beloved Country the first South African novel to win world wide acclaim that dealt with the subject (Philip 417).12 Independent of the mission presses were the publishing of black newspapers, which had a stronger appeal than books for black South Africans. Newspapers such as the Umshumayeli Wendaba (translated as Publisher of the News and first published q .. . . in 1837), Ikwezi (translated as Morning Star and first published in 1844), and Imvo Zabantsundu (translated as African Opinion and first published in 1884) all represented the beginnings of the black press and, not coincidentally coincided with the stirring of black resistance to white rule. These newspapers served the black community as an outlet for political expression. It was not to last however for by the turn of the century, white capital was playing a more dominant role in the financing of the black press. The result was a transformation of newspapers that once discussed politics featuring more and more stories on sex, crime, and sports, in effect turning them into tabloids and thus depriving the black community a forum for political discussion (Philip, 416). In spite of the broad multi-racial opposition to apartheid in the 1950's South Africa was increasingly becoming a police state that favored white South Africans. As early as 1950 laws prohibiting racial mixing (such as the "The Prohibition of of Mixed Marriages Act") were already on the books, including laws that controlled one's movements. In 1953 with the "The Bantu Education Act," the ruling Nationalist Party placed restrictions on what kind of education black South Africans could receive.In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, current President Nelson Mandela writes that "Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor...It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another." (Mandela, 144). Mandela notes even though that there were economic disparities between educational facilities, blacks and whites still shared the same educational syllabus, which was essentially a "Western-style English language" education. "We were limited by lesser facilities," he writes "but not by what we could read or think or dream." (145). In spite of this less than half of black South African children even attended school and an even smaller number graduated from high school (145). Introduced in 1953," The Bantu Education Act" put the stamp of apartheid on the South African education system. Under the act, those mission schools and African primary and secondary schools were given the choice of having the government take control of their education programs or have government funding severely reduced. The act also forbade African teachers from ~| ho crnxzcxrnmant nr mns cohnnl ~.1ehnrieR,. (Mandela crltlclzl..s W1._ D~ 145), removal of black South Africans from the sphere of educational institutions, such as the mission schools, and providing only the minimal requirements of education, "The Bantu Education Act" was in effect designed to prepare black South Africans for a life of servitude (Watt, 154).14 Speaking for the ruling Nationalist Party, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, who was the minister of Bantu education, defined education for black South Africans as an education that "must train and teach people in accordance with their opportunities in life," meaning that Africans did not and would not have any opportunities, therefore why educate them. "There is no place for the Bantu in the European community above the level of certain forms of labor," Verwoerd said (Mandela 145). It was, as Mandela noted, an "intellectual 'basskap', a way of institutionalizing inferiority" (145). Opposition to the Bantu educational act was widespread. With the exception of the Dutch Reformed Church and the Lutheran Mission, churches of all denominations opposed the act. However with the exceptions of the Roman Catholic Church, Seventh Day Adventists and United Jewish Reform Congregation, churches throughout South Africa turned over their education programs and, in effect, as Nelson Mandela observed grimly, handed over thousands of students to the National Government. Those churches who did not continued on without state aid. As Mandella wrote," If all other churches had followed the example of those who resisted, the government would have been confronted with a stalemate that might have forced a compromise. Instead the state marched over us." (146). In 1952, opposition to the government's policies could be seen in political acts such as the "Defiance Campaign", which was aimed at the policies of "separate but equal". In actions15 which would be echoed by the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., South Africans deliberately ignored segregation laws, challenging the separate but equal laws and ignoring curfew and pass regulations. Police reaction to the "Defiance Campaign" was characterized by few arrests and very short periods of detention. However as political activities accelerated so to did Police response. It would come to a head in 1960 with Sharpeville crisis. Sharpeville was a result of the campaign against the pass laws. Organized by the Pan Africanlst Party it was a political action to shut down the ruling government through economic means and bring about a policy of one man, one vote. Black South Africans left their passes at home, and declared this fact to the police. This would be followed by a second phase in which black workers would not report to work What the PAC did not anticipate was the reaction of the police and the Nationalist government. On March 21, 1960 in the township of Sharpeville police killed 67 peaceful demonstrators leaving 186 wounded. In the fallout of Sharpeville the Pan Africanist Party and the African National Congress were outlawed. Many of its leaders were arrested and 22,000 were detained or arrested. (Shava, 38 & Marsh, 8). Sharpeville was to put chill on the Black Literary Renaissance that had flourished in the 1950's. Shattering the multi-racial alliance through government crackdowns removed the protective environment in which many of these writers, and the publications that they had written for, had flourished.16 In its wake the government introduced a series of new laws that were aimed at censoring what it considered to be subversive materials. Taking their cue from writer Olive Schreiner, who wrote in 1883, "Whenever you come into contact with any book, person, or opinion of which you absolutely comprehend nothing, declare that book, person, or opinion to be immortal...Carefully abstain from studying it. Do all that in you lies to annihilate that book, person or opinion," the Nationalist Government instituted in 1963 "The Publications Act" (Schreiner, 106). On the face of it "The Publications Act" simply granted the ruling government the right to censor material that it deemed to be indecent, obscene, offensive or harmful to public morality. In this context and when viewed in relation to governments throughout the world, "The Publications Act" could not be looked at as any worse than any other country, including the United States which had the freedom of expression written into its constitution. The teeth in "The Publications Act" lay in its Publications Board, a committee which was set up to investigate all published materials. The boards mandate was censor materials that could be construed has having a negative impact on any facet of South African society. Revised in 1974 the Publications Board mandate was simplified to judge materials as to whether or not they were undesirable as well removing the right for any appeal. This was not the only form of censorship that the government. Under the "Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 and the "Riotous17 Assemblies Act" of 1956 books and periodicals could be suppressed on the grounds that they were written to create feelings of hostility between the Europeans and other ethnic groups. (Watts, 17). One result of these laws was to create a series of legal obstacles that made it difficult for both writers and publishers alike to figure out what could be published. Jane Watts recounts an example of how sometimes even those who worked for the government were caught in these obstacles. She writes of an expert witness who, in testifying on behalf of the government, was labeling articles which would fall under the criteria of being communistic ended up inadvertently labeling one of his own articles. Perhaps the most assiduous form of censorship was the act known as banning. Banning was the National Party's way of totally silencing an individual and their work. Those who were banned found themselves restricted to a certain area and were forbidden to meet with more than one person at a time. They could not be published or quoted. If a person who was banned had published works it was it was against the law to read, quote or own those works. The effe_ in South Africa (Marsh 50). _D make the banned individual invisible Writers opposed to apartheid they had two options. They could stay in South Africa and try to survive under an oppressive situation or go into exile. Most were to go into exile where they would be able to find a limited audience. With18 publications such as The African Drum no longer in business, they turned to British and American publishers who in the early 1960's saw a small boom for African literature. Writers such as Peter Abrahams and Ezekeil Mphahlele were able to publish autobiographical works the focus of which dealt more with their exile and feelings of separation from their homeland. Though exile allowed these writers to continue writing and see their work published, the fact that their works were banned in their homeland left them with an audience that had no emotional connection to the events they were writing about. Banned in their homeland and writing to a limited audience abroad, these writings had little impact and would soon cease to be available in print. Lacking a sizable international audience for many of these exiled writers, it was clear that a period of great literary output had come to an end. Some, like Nat Nakasa committed suicide while others, such as Arthur Nortte died from drug overdoses (Shava 45). In 1977, Ezekeil Mphahlele returned to South Africa. Frustrated by 20 years of exile, his return to South Africa coincided with some of the bloodiest periods of apartheid. Mphahlele justified his return as one who was unable to no longer function as an exile. "I am an African humanist and an empiricist, as well as an idealist. I can function here in South Africa...In a sense my homecoming was another way of dealing1 g with impotent anger. It was also a way of extricating myself from twenty years of compromise, for exile is compromise." (Shava, 45). Mphahlele's reasons for returning to South Africa sounded impressive but read in the light of apartheid's brutality, they come off sounding more self-serving. Mphahlele was warned by friends not to return and that to do so would merely play into the hands of the government. Mphahlele's return to South Africa and subsequent employment as an Inspector of Schools and then teaching in a predominantly white school created for him a new sense of exile and spiritual alienation, this time within his own country. That he was allowed to return at all was for many of his countrymen a sign that a deal of some kind must of have been struck. As he was later to write, "The trap was set and I walked into it. When I think intensely about it, I find that after various circular movements I can rationalize it and live with it. The conclusion, however, fails to give me the sense of release which I experienced after I had made the decision to return...In exile, it was the literary compromise that bothered me. After my return it is the existential and political compromise which has come to the fore." (Shava 46). Exile allowed Mphahlele and others to continue with their writing, but isolated from their homeland and lacking an interested international audience, their writings ceased to have any relevance. They were soon surplanted by a new generation of writers and poets who, living under apartheid's censorship20 laws, would develop a non-militant-political writing style which was still critically implicit. The newer generation would also turn away from the autobiography and the short story as forms for their expression. For Mphahlele and his generation of writers, autobiography and the short story were very effective ways of protest. The multi-culturalism and its illusion of progress, coupled with fairly minor police repression, made these forms ideal ways of combating and exposing the evils of apartheid. Autobiography helped illustrate the human cost of apartheid, and the short story was a quick way of registering protest As Mphahlele has pointed out, "It is impossible for a writer who lives in oppression to organize his whole personality into creating a novel. The short story is used as a short cut (to get) some things off ones chest in quick time." (Shava 47). In the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, black South African writers found themselves taking two different directions in recording what was going on within South Africa. Each approach was dictated by a sense of place. For those who were writing from the perspective of exile, and thus free from the government's censorship laws, a more militant attitude was promoted. This was also a reflection of the African National Congress' call to take up arms against the Nationalist Government. This in itself was a departure from the ANC's position of using non-violence to bring about peaceful change. Three writers that best illustrate this transition are21 Peter Abrahams, Alex La Guma and Nadine Gordimer. Abrahams' book, A Night of Their Own, and La Guma's In the Fog of the Seasons End both trace the emerging militancy in black South Africa and in one sense act as bridge from the non violence of the 1950's to the beginnings of armed struggle in the 1960's. Abrahams A Night of their Own, which is dedicated among others to Nelson Mandela who was then in prison, populates his novel with a variety of characters who each demonstrate various activities of the underground as well as the police crackdowns of the early sixties. His main character is Richard Dube who uses the pseudonym Richard Nikosi. Nikosi is a messenger for the resistance who enters South Africa to deliver money for the underground. Though meant to symbolize the movement, Abrahams portrayal reveals a certain ambivalence about the armed struggle. The reader learns that Nikosi is something of a globe trotter who, during the course of ten years in exile, has lived in London and Paris attending parties and mingling with the elite. In one bizzare scene, he evens rubs shoulders with a South African diplomat, a representive of the government that he is supposed to fight (Shava 54). Nikosi comes across as an anachronistic figure by being linked to the non-violent politcs of the 1950's. His position is highlighted by characters such as Dee Nunkhoo, who is a strong female character which Shava points out was not unusual in contemporary African novels. In both literary and historical terms, A Night of their Own is an important book. It illustrates22 well the transition to militant policies by the ANC. The differences between Nikosi and Dee Nunkho are meant in part to show the split that existed in the anti-aparthied movement over tactics, with Nikosi representing the older pacifist approach, and Dee the coming armed struggle (Shava 58). For Abrahams, the use of sabotage is for the purpose of disrupting government actions; he does not seek a society with a different political philosophy, but rather one without apartheid. Alex La Guma, however, does view armed struggle as a way of obtaining a new political system. In his novel, In the Fog of the Seasons End, La Guma uses flashbacks to show how the current system of apartheid was established. From its earliest forms up through the Sharpeville massacre, La Guma uses events to justify armed struggle against the Nationalist government. Published in 1972, when the armed struggle was still in its beginning stages, La Guma's conviction that armed struggle as the only solution for South Africa was based on speculation. For the reader, armed struggle is put at a distance and presented in the abstract (Shava, 65). Published twelve years later, Nadine Gordimer's novel, Something Out There, though writing about the same time, presents a more detailed view of the resistance. Though clearly committed to the overthrow of apartheid, Gordimer, unlike La Guma (who as Shava notes wrote like a committed partisan) writes with the perspective of a detached observer while at the same time offers detailed accounts of the guerrillas' activities (67).22 Born in 1923, Nadine Gordimer was and still is one of South Africa's preeminent writers. Her writing focuses on the tensions that exist between people living under the system of apartheid. As opposed to a writer such as Alex La Guma, whose work can be seen as polemical, Gordimer writes about the price that blacks and whites must pay living under apartheid and gives insight into the cost that racism can extract from a society. Gordimer, who was and is a member of the African National Congress, would help found (in 1987) the Congress of South African Writers, an organization that was 90% black. With apartheid now dismantled, she still continues to write about apartheid and its effects on the lives of black and white South Africans. In A People's Voice, Shava herself writes that Gordimer's "ability to see deep into her characters set her apart from other writers... significantly, her objectivity lends creedence to and enhances the impact of her implied rejection of the whole South African regime." (68). For Abrahams, La Guma, and Gordimer, writing about armed struggle not only reflected a turning point in the fight against apartheid but also represented a change of thinking. The crackdown in the late 50's and early 60's found them, and other writers, thinking and writing less about individuals under apartheid and more about collective action against it (Shava, 68).24 Exile provided Alex La Guma and Peter Abraham with an immunity from which they could openly write about and advocate armed struggle against apartheid. For those who stayed behind, living under the strict censorship laws and threats of banning, writing, saying or even thinking such things aloud were impossible. From 1960 to 1965, very little was published from black South African writers. This is not to say that there was no writing. For those who lived in South Africa, to write and publish about the lives of their countrymen under apartheid without being censored or banned made it necessary that a new form of writing be developed. In order to write and be read, black South African writers realized that a non-militant style must be adopted and that oblique language must be employed in order to not only be published but also to tell the truth about apartheid (Shava 71). Poetry and the poetic form best accommodated these literary demands. Nadine Gordimer understood this well when she wrote "Black writers have had to look for survival away from the explicit if not to the cryptic then to the implicit, and in their case they have turned instinctively to poetry." (Shava 71). The use of poetry also connected many of these writers to older oral traditions, re-establishing an important link to their tribal heritage. It is ironic that a system such as apartheid, dedicated as it was to the destruction of black South African culture, would be an instrument in reviving one of that cultures most ancient traditions. Jane Watt has pointed out25 that "The oral tradition is fragile in that the social system in which it operates has broken down." (Watt, 24). In much of South Africa, disruption of tribal life was so overwhelming that the use of the oral tradition was impossible. Though not exactly an oral tradition, poetry has developed roots in this tradition. Oswald Mitshali's collection of poetry, Sounds of the Cowhide Drum was one of the early examples of this kind of writing. It explored familiar territory of race and politics but did so through the use of vivid suggestive similes and images that were both oblique and ironic. Another source of imagery was his use of children and things associated with children such as playgrounds. This last point was nothing new. Autobiographies, a popular form, of writing in the 1950's, were often written from a child's point of view. In his poem, "The Shepherd and his Flock," Mtshali uses pastoral imagery to criticize economic and educational deprivation of black South African children. As Shava notes the opening couplet is somewhat reminiscent of William Blake. "The Shepherd and his Flock" The rays of the sun are like a pair of scissors cutting the blanket of the dawn from the sky. ...The young shepherd drives the master's sheep from the paddock into the veld. A lamb strays away26 enchanted by the marvels of a summer morning the ram rebukes the ewe "Woman! Woman! Watch over your child!" (Shava, 72). In the first two stanzas the poem, the shepherd's world,is clearly laid out indicating the state of harmony t.. between the shepherd and his enviroment. The third stanza, however, indicates that this sense of harmony may be false or imposed. The lambs, or young ones are drawn away from the flock by what the society at large has to offer. Only the shepherd is aware of the true nature of this society. Shava quotes additional passages that show the shepherd's own impoverishment. "His bare feet/kick the grass/and spill the dew like diamonds/on a cutters table." (Shava 73). It is in the final stanza that Mtshali offers an implicit protest on discrepancies in education between black and white children. In observing his master children on their way to school he asks "O! Wise Sun above/will you ever guide/me into school?" (Shava 73). This use of Blake-like innocence was again used in another poem "Boy on a swing." Using the image of a boy on a swing gives the poem a tone of innocence while the questions that are asked of his mother indicate the unsettled state that their lives are in. "Boy on a Swing" Mother! Where did I come from? When will I wear long trousers? Why was my father jailed?27 (Shava 73). It was this use of imagery that made Sounds of the Cowhide Drum popular with both black and white South Africans. Some critics felt that Mtshali overused the this Blakean imagery and that his poetry sometimes bordered on the simplistic. However, Shava points outs that that while on the surface Mtshali's poetry may appear simple, it is this very simplicity that provides the setting for his very insightful critiques. Using imagery that on the surface presents the reader with pastoral imagery is an example of the indirect approach that many black South African poets were using in writing about apartheid (Shava 73). This indirect style of writing was not to last very long. Mtshali, Wally Serote, Mandlenkosi Langa and other poets of this genre soon discovered, like those writers before them, that their political situation would become difficult so that they too would be forced to choose exile. They did, however, mannage to keep the literary spark lit. Writing at a time of the early crackdowns, they were able to maintain the literary tradition of opposing apartheid. That they had to formulate an entire new approach is an indication of their ingenuity and determination (Shava 92). The poets and writers that came after them were more militant and less inclined to be so indirect. They were inspired by the Black Power movement that was beginning to take hold28 in the United States as well as socially conscious music that was being written by Bob Dylan. An early proponet of this style was James Mathews, whose poetry first published a year after The Cowhide Drum, was direct as Mtshali's was indirect. It was marked by anger and, Shava notes," of the poets who wrote before the 1976 Soweto uprising..he was probably the angriest." (Shava 86). For Mathews it is not just anger against apartheid but that he openly advocates hatred of it that characterizes his poetry and his other writings as well. While other writers employed humor, sarcasm, and irony to get their point across, Mathews takes his subjects straight on. He, like Solomon Plaatje, writes in part from a historical context as well as a global one. The latter is illustrated well by a poem that not only attacks soul singer Percy Sledge for performing in front of a white only audience in 1972, but also takes those black Americans to task for failing to connect the struggle for civil rights in the United States with the one in South Africa (Shava 90). Written in 1972, this cry for a global awareness in the fight for human rights would foreshadow " The Sun City" record project, which in 1986 challenged its listeners to place the struggle against apartheid in a global context and not to do business with those institutions that gave the South African government legitimacy. In her book, A Poetics of Resistance, Mary DeShazer quotes Ezekial Mphahlele. "Writing and publishing, especially in the29 oppressor's language, constitute an 'essential weapon for wrenching power from the white man's hand."' (DeShazer, 11). She goes on to write that "creating black literature in the cultural context of apartheid has been an urgent business, not a question of merely claiming equality but of claiming the right to ones own existence." (DeShazer, 11). She takes this thought a step further by noting that those poets and writers, who write in their native language such as Zulu, Sotho, or Xhosax are not just claiming their right to their own existence but are also challenging the hegemony of the English language (DeShazer, 20). With the exception of Nadine Gordimer, the writers discussed in this paper have been male. Mary K. DeShazer's book, A Poetics of Resistance, addresses this abscence of women writers. DeShazer notes that from the beginning, women have played major roles in the fight against apartheid, organizing and leading protests against rent increases, rising transportation costsr and supporting the educational demands of students against inferior education (DeShazer, 20). In the field of writing and publishing women such asBarabara Masekela, head of the ANC's Cultural Affairs Division, Baleka Kgositile, executive secretary of the ANC's Women's League, and Gcina Mhlope, an actress at Johannesburg's Market Theatre have written autobiographies, scholarly works and poetry. Noting that though occasionally their work has appeared in Anthologies by and large their work has remained unknown 30 (DeShazer 20-21). Like their male counterparts, the work of these women addresses issues such as class and race, but they also add concerns that affect their gender. Hence, in one of her poems Baleka Kgositile compares the struggle of labor in childbirth to that of the struggle against apartheid, while Barabara Masekela writes of "my scarred face alien mask / shaded and rouged" to describe her feelings of exile and the loss of identity that goes with it (DeShazer 21). DeShazer writes about these women not in isolated terms but rather in relation with women writers in Latin America and the United States. Linking the struggle against apartheid with other movements world wide was becoming more and more common, and by the 1980's, the struggle against apartheid was gaining world wide support. One way this being done was through a cultural boycott. Started in December 1980 the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 35/206 which stated in part that the U.N. "Requests all States to take steps to prevent all cultural, academic, sporting and other exchanges with South Africa. This resolution "Appeals to writers, artists, musicians and other personalities to boycott South Africa and urged all academic and cultural institutions to terminate all links with South Africa. Non-binding, however the only punishment that it carried was that anyone who violated the boycott would have their name put on a list of violaters. (Denselow 187).31 While the boycott enjoyed wide support, questions as to any possible negative effects persisted, particularly in the field of education. Did the boycott hurt students more than the government that the boycott was aimed at? To find out, a fact finding trip was organized in 1989, under the auspices of the International Freedom to Publish Committee of the Association of American Publishers and the Fund for Free Expression. The Purpose of the fact finding trip was to simply find out what, if any, negative effects the cultural boycott was having on black South African students. For ten days, Lisa Drew and Robert Wedgeworth, who represented the AAP, visited schools, universities, private educational organizations, and four libraries. They also interviewed several writers ( among them Nadine Gordimer and Jonathon Paton ). as well as 75 representatives from various organizations and institutions. What they found was that even those educators, librarians and book publishers and writers who supported the general cultural boycott and economic sanctions for South Africa opposed "the inclusion of books and educational materials"(4). Many educators, publishers and librarians expressed the view that by halting the flow of books and other educational materials, it was only helping the South African government by isolating black South Africans even more from the flow of information ( AAP Report 1 - 5). In spite of the Bantu education act, which was designed to provide the barest amount of education to black South32 Africans, the AAP study found that Universities had increased enrollment for black South Africans by 20%. Government funding of institutions such as schools and libraries did not necessarily mean that they supported apartheid and, in fact, many openly challenged it (5). As for the public library system, with the exception of all towns such as Pretoria the study noted that city public libraries were open to all races. The study noted that in many libraries the majority of those using it were black, and that the textbooks they were using were out of date. The study also noted that while black South Africans were employed it was rarely above the clerical level (6). Schools also had a similar problem when it came to textbooks, with many of them noted that the texts they had were not only out of date but of an inferior quality. This was also true for private schools and institutions that were devoted to combating illiteracy. As for the effect of the boycott the study noted the following points. 1.Books that manage to get into South Africa are very expensive and slow to arrive. 2. In many of the schools inferior textbooks are used in place of textbooks published in the United States. 3. Due the high cost of the text books that are available there had been a dramatic increase in photocopying and a marked decrease in trying to stop it. With textbooks costing $50 to $60 making photocopies helped defray the cost of purchasing a copy. 5. The gap between black and33 white South African in terms of quality education grew even wider. In 1989 the government was spending five times more on education for white South Africans than for blacks. The book boycott only depleted the meager resources that were already available to them. Conversely the unavailibility of certain books only made the white population even more insular as whites were cut even more so from the outside world. In talking with South African publishers, librarians and educators one of the themes expressed was that in regards to books, the boycott was having an adverse effect. Encouraging book publishers in the United States to refrain from doing business in South Africa was in effect cutting off the free flow information to those who stood the most to gain by it. As noted at the beginning of this paper the role of literature was that of a mirror, challenging society on what it perceives as its evils. Publishing provides the connection between literature and society. In South Africa publishers and writers alike played that role of being a mirror. Each generation picking up where the previous one left off, pushing the resistance to apartheid a little bit further.