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New Africa Books

WILL TO DIE by Can Themba

WILL TO DIE by Can Themba

R 175.00 ZAR
R 175.00 ZAR
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These stories and ‘reports’ of black Johannesburg in the late 1950s (‘banned’ in South Africa until August 1982) gather together the best writings of Can Themba, who died in Swaziland in 1968. Lewis Nkosi wrote in his preface: “He fused into the English language the township idiom and rejuvenated tired words with an extreme imagery deriving from a life of danger and violence… Can Themba’s most splendid moments of journalism were the celebration of township life, because for him the township – in his case Sophiatown – represented the strength and the will to survive of the African people, for in the township the moments of splendor were very splendid indeed, surpassing anything white Johannesburg could offer.”
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R
Rochelle Coetsee
WILL TO DIE by Can Themba

A Will To Die is a collection of 17 short tales and reports that was released after the author's death. The author tells us in flawless English about what it was like for Black people to live in apartheid-era South Africa in the late 1950s. The tales are poetically and elegantly told, and they come to life. The narrator expresses candid opinions about the Nationalist government, police, group areas act, racism, social scene, religion, alcohol, and public transportation without apology.

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