English 235: Literature of Southern Africa
Interterm 2007
Dr. Stan Galloway
Bowman 304, 828-5339
sgallowa@bridgewater.edu
http://www.bridgewater.edu/~sgallowa/eng235.html
Required texts:
Fugard, Athol. Sorrows and Rejoicings.
Gordimer, Nadine. July’s People.
Head, Bessie. Maru.
Maclennan, Don. Notes from a Rhenish Mission.
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country.
Schreiner, Olive. The Story of an African Farm.
Wylie, Dan. Original Forest
Texts on reserve in campus library:
Chapman, Michael. The Paperbook of South African English Poetry.
Couto, Mia. Every Man is a Race.
de Kock, Leon, and Ian Tromp, eds. The Heart in Exile: South African Poetry in
English, 1990-1995.
Gordimer, Nadine. Six Feet of the Country.
Grové, A.P. and C.J.D. Harvey, eds. Afrikaans poems with English translations
Hirson, Denis, ed. The Lava of This Land: South African Poetry 1960-1996.
Hirson, Denis, and Martin Trump, eds. South African Short Stories
McClain, Liz. Desert Detritus
Moore, Gerald, and Ulli Beier, eds. Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry
Mtshali, Oswald. Sounds of a Cowhide Drum
Smith, Pauline. The Little Karoo.
Sustar, Lee, and Aisha Karim, eds. Poetry and Protest
Quizzes:
Multiple quizzes may be given each day.
Two Papers:

A short paper (6 pages; 1500 words) investigating one or more of the
assigned readings before apartheid, using at least two critical sources.
 A short paper (6 pages; 1500 words) on one or more of the assigned readings
during or after apartheid, again using at least two critical sources.
Papers will be written in MLA style, with page numbering in the upper
right, with a cover page. These papers will be assessed on both the critical
content and the grammatical and mechanical presentation. Errors in common
usage will be considered. Sufficient evidence of critical history must be shown in
the paper, though the paper should address a larger issue than critical history.
Each paper is worth 200 points.
Evaluation:
The student will be evaluated on the basis of oral and written quizzes covering
reading content, historical background, and geographical concerns (quizzes will
account for 30%). The student will write 2 short essays of a critical and
evaluative nature (2 essays at 20% each =40%). The student will turn in an
evaluative log of daily insights (30%).
Reading Calendar
Jan 3
Introduction to class. Discussion of geography.
Jan 4 Geography: Wylie: P, Q ; Stockenstrom “Africa Love” LL100; Mtshali “At
the Seashore” CD 46-47 (see web page).
History: Wylie (see web page): G, H, O; Cronin “’To Learn How to Speak’”
LL163, Clouts “Prince Henry the Navigator” PSAEP131.
Animals/ plants: Pretorius “The Leopard,” Cullinan “The First, Far Beat” (lizard)
LL 147, Campbell “The Mocking Bird” PSAEP82-83 and “The Zebras.”
Jan 5 Wylie: F, I, K,L, M, N, P, R, T, X, Y, Z; Berold “Boubou” see web page,
Dendy “Guavas” Heart102, Eppel “Jacaranda” Heart127, Schwartzman
“Hadedah” Heart258-259, Pringle “The Honeybird and the Woodpecker”
PSAEP37-39, Fairbridge “The Puff-Adder,” Miller “Penguin on the Beach”
PSAEP123 see web page, McClain, Desert Detritus.
View Percy Fitzpatrick’s Jock of the Bushveld.
Jan 8 San: Watson “Song of the Broken String” LL3-4, “The Rain that Is Male”
LL6-7, “The Sound of the Stars” LL7, Clouts “Firebowl” LL10, Swift “Windvogel
Mountain” Heart281, Pringle “Song of the Wild Bushman”, Cope “Rock Painting”
PSAEP138 see web page, “Prayer to the Hunting Star, Canopus” PSAEP140141, Wylie: U (caverns, bones), Haarhoff “San Song” PSAEP283,
Bantu: Slater “Lament for a Dead Cow” PSAEP73, Mtshali “Inside My Zulu Hut”
CD23, Sitas “Six Sections from Slave Trades” LL276-281, “The Birth of Shaka”
CD26, Campbell “The Zulu Girl” PSAEP78-79, Havemann “Bloodsong” SASS3747.
Colonial: Pringle “Afar in the Desert”, Brooks “Nature’s Logic” PSAEP40,
Africaners/Voortrekkers: Ould “Voortrekkers” PSAEP76, Celliers “Kruger”
AP15, Smith “The Sinner” and “Sisters” (in The Little Karoo, see web pages),
Bosman “Seed” PSAEP92.
Jan 9 Schreiner, Story of an African Farm (see web page)
Mines: Mtshali “The Miner” CD51, Brodrick “Epitaph on a Diamond Digger”
PSAEP55, Haarhoff “Zacharias Lewala” PSAEP282, Plomer “Johannesburg”
PSAEP88-89.
Boer War: Grover “I Killed a Man at Graspan” PSAEP63-64, Hardy “Drummer
Hodge.”
Jan 10 Racial tension before apartheid: Paton Cry, the Beloved Country, see
web page
Jan 11 Apartheid: Mtshali “Sounds of a Cowhide Drum” CD91-92, Yako “The
Contraction and Enclosure of the Land” LL24, Dlhomo “Because I’m Black”
PSAEP104, Gordimer “Country Lovers”, “Six Feet of the Country,” Serote “City
Johannesburg” LL40-41, Mtshali “Always a Suspect” CD43, “The Detribalised”
CD64-67, Matthews “Living in This Land Is a Political Action” PSAEP162,
Sepamla “To Whom It May Concern,” Kgositsile “Song for Ilva Mackay and
Mongane” PMAP268.
View Athol Fugard’s ‘Master Harold’ and the boys.
First paper due
Jan 12 Smit “I Take Back My Country” SASS133-142, Mann “State of
Emergency” PSAEP206-207 [p], Serote “For Don M. – Banned” LL43 (see web
page), Mthimkulu “Nineteen Seventy-six” LL117-118, Krog, “Refused March at
Kroonstad Monday 23 October 1989” LL218, de Kok “Small Passing” LL195-197,
“Our Sharpeville” LL197-198, Jonker “The Child Who Was Shot Dead by Soldiers
in Nyanga” LL18-19, Brutus “Goree” Heart45 and “Sharpeville” P&P 95-96,
Berold “Dark City” LL231 (see web page), Mtshali “This Kid Is No Goat”
PSAEP159-161 [p], Oliphant “Song of the Unemployed” LL191-192.
View Andre Brink's A Dry White Season.
Jan 15 Prison: Mtshali “Handcuffs” CD75, Brutus “Cold” LL25-26 and “On the
Island” P&P 118-19, Mtshali “Men in Chains” CD22, Cronin “Motho Ke Motho Ks
Batho Babang” LL167 (see web page), “Walking on Air” LL168-176, Afrika
“Shacklemates” Heart26-27, Bryer “Release, February 1990” Heart55-56 (see
web page).
View Athol Fugard’s Boesman and Lena.
Exile: Brutus “Exile, exile” P&P 369, Nortje “Waiting” LL27-28, Hirson “The LongDistance South African,” Nortje “Dead Roots” PSAEP136-137
Jan 16 Gordimer, July’s People
Jan 17 Outside SA during Apartheid: Paton “Caprivi Lament” PSAEP108-109
(see web page), Head, Maru (see web page), Sole “Poem from Botswana”
LL236.
Jan 18 Civil war: Couto “The Private Apocalypse of Uncle Gegue” 10-24,
“Fisherman on Departure, Hero on Arrival” 114-116, Gordimer “Oral History”,
Rebelo “Poem” PMAP166-167, “Poem for a Militant” PMAP167
Jan 19 Post-apartheid: Clayton “South Africa: Memorial Wall” Heart65-66,
Mann “Where Is the Freedom for Which We Died?” Heart211-212, Zerbst
“Johannesburg” Heart 310, Berold “valley ,“ McGrane “The Puzzle” and “Some
Poems,” Brutus “picture of a young girl dying of aids” P&P 363 and “HIV/AIDS”
Jan 22 Athol Fugard, Sorrows and Rejoicings
Jan 23 Maclennan, Notes from a Rhenish Mission, “Poetry” and “An Open
Window”. Second paper due. Evaluation log due.