English 235: Literature of Southern Africa
Summer 2005
Dr. Stan Galloway
Bowman 304, 828-5339
sgallowa@bridgewater.edu
http://www.bridgewater.edu/~sgallowa/eng235.html
Required texts:
Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions.
Fugard, Athol. Master Harold and the Boys.
Head, Bessie. Maru.
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country.
Schreiner, Olive. The Story of an African Farm.
Texts in campus library or from Dr. Galloway:
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.
Hirson, Denis, ed. The Lava of This Land: South African Poetry 1960-1996.
Hirson, Denis, and Martin Trump, eds. South African Short Stories.
Moore and Beier, eds. Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry
Mtshali, Oswald. Sounds of a Cowhide Drum
Smith, Pauline. The Little Karoo.
Soyinka, Wole, ed. Poems of Black Africa.
Wylie, Dan. Original Forest
Quizzes:
Multiple quizzes will 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 (30 quizzes at
1% each =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
May 31
Introduction to class. Discussion of geography.
June 1 Geography: Wylie: P, Q ; Stockenstrom “Africa Love” LL100; Mtshali
“At the Seashore” CD 46-47
History: Wylie: G, H, O; Cronin “’To Learn How to Speak’” LL163, Clouts “Prince
Henry the Navigator” PSAEP131 [p]
June 2 Animals/ plants: Wylie: F, I, K,L, M, N, P, R, T, X, Y, Z; Pretorius “The
Leopard,” Berold “Boubou” see web page, Cullinan “The First, Far Beat” (lizard)
Heart79, Dendy “Guavas” Heart102, Eppel “Jacaranda” Heart127, Schwartzman
“Hadedah” Heart258-259,] Pringle “The Honeybird and the Woodpecker”
PSAEP37-39 [p], Fairbridge “The Puff-Adder” PSAEP67 [p], Campbell “The
Mocking Bird” PSAEP82-83 [p], Miller “Penguin on the Beach” PSAEP123 [p] see
web page, Campbell “The Zebras.” [p]
View Percy Fitzpatrick’s Jock of the Bushveld.
June 3 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 [p], “Prayer to the Hunting Star, Canopus”
PSAEP140-141 [p], Wylie: U (caverns, bones), Haarhoff “San Song” PSAEP283
[p]
Bantu: Slater “Lament for a Dead Cow” PSAEP73 [p], 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 [p], Havemann
“Bloodsong” SASS37-47, “Ndela, Son of Sompisi” PBA324-25.
Colonial: Pringle “Afar in the Desert”, Brooks “Nature’s Logic” PSAEP40 [p],
Africaners/Voortrekkers: Ould “Voortrekkers” PSAEP76 [p], Celliers “Kruger”
AP15 [p], Smith “The Sinner” and “Sisters” (in The Little Karoo, see web pages),
Bosman “Seed” PSAEP92 [p]
June 6 Schreiner, Story of an African Farm,
Mines: Mtshali “The Miner” CD51, Brodrick “Epitaph on a Diamond Digger”
PSAEP55 [p], Plomer “Johannesburg” PSAEP88-89 [p], Haarhoff “Zacharias
Lewala” PSAEP282 [p]
Boer War: Grover “I Killed a Man at Graspan” PSAEP63-64 [p]
June 7 Racial tension before apartheid: Paton Cry, the Beloved Country,
June 8 Fugard Master Harold . . . and the Boys
June 9 Apartheid: Mtshali “Sounds of a Cowhide Drum” CD91-92, Yako “The
Contraction and Enclosure of the Land” LL24, Dlhomo “Because I’m Black”
PSAEP104 [p], 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 [p], Sepamla “To Whom It May Concern” PSAEP174 [p], Kgositsile
“Song for Ilva Mackay and Mongane” PMAP268 [p], Smit “I Take Back My
Country” SASS133-142, Mann “State of Emergency” PSAEP206-207 [p], Serote
“For Don M. – Banned” LL43, 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,
Berold “Dark City” LL231, Mtshali “This Kid Is No Goat” PSAEP159-161 [p],
Oliphant “Song of the Unemployed” LL191-192.
June 10 Prison: Mtshali “Handcuffs” CD75, Brutus “Cold” LL25-26, Mtshali
“Men in Chains” CD22, Cronin “Motho Ke Motho Ks Batho Babang” LL167,
“Walking on Air” LL168-176, Afrika “Shacklemates” Heart26-27, Bryer “Release,
February 1990” Heart55-56.
View Andre Brink's A Dry White Season.
Exile: Nortje “Waiting” LL27-28, Hirson “The Long-Distance South African”
Heart4-12, Driver “Somewhere Else” Heart103-104, Nortje “Dead Roots”
PSAEP136-137 [p]
June 13 Outside SA during Apartheid: Paton “Caprivi Lament” PSAEP108109 [p], Head, Maru, Sole “Poem from Botswana” LL236, Eppel “Waiting for the
Bus” Heart123-125,
June 14 Dangarembga Nervous Conditions,
June 15 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
June 16 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 “ online at
http://www.geocities.com/joopbersee/v.html; McGrane “The Puzzle” online at
http://www.wah.org.uk/wah1/MichelleMcGrane/MichellePoems.htm and “Some
Poems” online at http://www.geocities.com/joopbersee/mg10.html.