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Protea Distribution

Collective Amnesia by Koleka Putuma

Collective Amnesia by Koleka Putuma

R 120.00 ZAR
R 120.00 ZAR
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This highly-anticipated debut collection from one of the country's most acclaimed young voices marks a massive shift in South African poetry.Koleka Putuma's exploration of blackness, womxnhood and history in Collective Amnesia is fearless and unwavering. Her incendiary poems demand justice, insist on visibility and offer healing. In them, Putuma explodes the idea of authority in various spaces -- academia, religion, politics, relationships -- to ask what has been learnt and what must be unlearnt. Through grief and memory, pain and joy, sex and self-care, Collective Amnesia is a powerful appraisal, reminder and revelation of all that has been forgotten and ignored, both in South African society, and within ourselves.



Author Koleka Putuma
ISBN 0620735082, 9780620735087
Format Paperback
Pages 111p.

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M
Mbali
Life changing

I never really “got” poetry. I never “got it” in high school, I never “got it” when I did my first degree. It was like cool I see what you’re talking about but meh. That was until 2018 and I had to buy this anthology for my gender and literature class. This was a time when I was handing in 2-3 assignments every week and the thought of writing about something that involved analysing poetry had me a bit worried. I sat down with my cup of tea, opened the book and to my surprise I immediately “got it”. I don’t know maybe what I needed all this time was to see words like “umngqusho” and images that seemed like they were taken straight from my childhood. I needed to see some version of myself, I needed to be represented.

But enough about me 😂 - Koleka Putuma interrogates memory; the personal and political. And she does it in in a myriad of forms and structures. She speaks of oceans, blackness, family, childhood, community, Christianity, survival, sexuality and so much more.

I will always always always recommend Collective Amnesia.

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