The Purple Violet Of Oshaantu

Author : Neshani Andreas
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 185 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2017-03-27
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781478635109

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The Purple Violet of Oshaantu by Neshani Andreas Pdf

Through the voice of Mee Ali, readers experience the rhythms and rituals of life in rural Namibia in interconnected stories. In Oshaantu, a place where women are the backbone of the home but are expected to submit to patriarchal dominance, Mee Ali is happily married. Her friend, Kauna, however, suffers at the hands of an abusive husband. When he is found dead at home, many of the villagers suspect her of poisoning him. Backtracking from that time, the novel, with its universal appeal, reveals the value of friendships, some of which are based on tradition while others grow out of strength of character, respect, and love.

Author : Neshani Andreas
Publisher : Heinemann
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0435912089

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The Purple Violet of Oshaantu by Neshani Andreas Pdf

Annotation Mee Ali has good reason to be thankful; she has a happy marriage. For some in her village, marriage turns out to be a loveless entrapment.

Author : Neshani Andreas
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2023-11-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781803288215

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The Purple Violet of Oshaantu by Neshani Andreas Pdf

The Purple Violet of Oshaantu is the moving story of two ordinary women living in rural Namibia. In exploring tales of their marriages to vastly different men, Neshani Andreas exposes the burdens they carry and the friendships they must forge in order to survive. When Ali arrives in the village of Oshaantu, she is met with a cold welcome. Only the young mother next door, Kauna, is willing to truly accept Ali's presence. Kind-hearted and married to an abusive husband, Kauna quickly becomes more than just a neighbour – she becomes a friend, daughter, and someone to mentor. Disaster strikes when Kauna's husband is suddenly found dead at home, causing the villagers to suspect her of poisoning him. What follows is an emotive account of Kauna's journey into widowhood and Ali's bittersweet reflections on the beliefs and customs of her village. Beautiful and thoughtfully written, Andreas paints a vibrant picture of friendship and sisterhood in traditional Namibian society. 'A gentle fighter for women's rights, who used her writing as a weapon.' Mariama Bâ 'One of Namibia's finest post-independence novels.' Erika von Weitersheim

Author : Daniel Mengara
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 133 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2023-12-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781803288338

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Mema by Daniel Mengara Pdf

In this debut novella, Daniel Mengara captures the incredible story of a Gabonese mother who resists the unjust pressures of her village. At its core, Mema is an unforgettable tale about resilience and a culture in transition. Told through the eyes of her son, Mema's story is an unforgettable one. A powerful woman in her village, her sharp tongue and stubborn principles frequently provoke outrage. So when the unthinkable happens and her husband turns violent, her neighbours choose to blame her. Matters take a turn for the worse when her husband is unexpectedly found dead – and Mema is the main suspect. It quickly becomes clear that she must fight to be believed or she risks losing custody over her children for good. In this profound and touching tale, Daniel Mengara brings to life the changing customs and beliefs of a rural Gabonese village, interweaving prose with traditional oral storytelling.

Author : Sifiso Nyati
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 130 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : African fiction (English)
ISBN : STANFORD:36105132903738

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The Other Presence by Sifiso Nyati Pdf

"The other presence is a novel that depicts and portrays beliefs, attitudes and viewpoints of African village people on the concept of death. The underlying belief is that, in African traditional set-ups, there is no death that occurs innocently. Behind every death, there is some form of mysterious work by either a sorcerer or a spell. Even in the situation where a Western clinic diagnoses a patient as a HIV carrier, the cause of the death of that person would have to be interrogated. The book illustrates how elder Sinvula, battles with the insinuations and accusations that he is responsible for the death of his nephew, Akapelwa. Ma Simanga, the bereaved mother has vowed not to leave a stone unturned. This time, she would stretch her trip to East Africa where answers would be given about the cause of her son's death. As in other deaths in her family, the pension payout from the deceased's contributions would be used to pay the seers."--Page 4 of cover

Author : Bessie Head
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2013-09-23
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781478611677

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When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head Pdf

Rural Botswana is the backdrop for When Rain Clouds Gather, the first novel published by one of Africa’s leading woman writers in English, Bessie Head (1937–1986). Inspired by her own traumatic life experiences as an outcast in Apartheid South African society and as a refugee living at the Bamangwato Development Association Farm in Botswana, Head’s tough and telling classic work is set in the poverty-stricken village of Golema Mmidi, a haven to exiles. A South African political refugee and an Englishman join forces to revolutionize the villagers’ traditional farming methods, but their task is fraught with hazards as the pressures of tradition, opposition from the local chief, and the unrelenting climate threaten to divide and devastate the fragile community. Head’s layered, compelling story confronts the complexities of such topics as social and political change, conflict between science and traditional ways, tribalism, the role of traditional African chiefs, religion, race relations, and male–female relations.

Author : Bessie Head
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 113 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2013-09-16
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781478611615

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Maru by Bessie Head Pdf

Read worldwide for her wisdom, authenticity, and skillful prose, South African–born Bessie Head (1937–1986) offers a moving and magical tale of an orphaned girl, Margaret Cadmore, who goes to teach in a remote village in Botswana where her own people are kept as slaves. Her presence polarizes a community that does not see her people as human, and condemns her to the lonely life of an outcast. In the love story and intrigue that follows, Head brilliantly combines a portrait of loneliness with a rich affirmation of the mystery and spirituality of life. The core of this otherworldly, rhapsodic work is a plot about racial injustice and prejudice with a lesson in how traditional intolerance may render whole sections of a society untouchable.

Author : Sol T. Plaatje
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2024-02-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781803288963

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Mhudi by Sol T. Plaatje Pdf

An epic historical romance, Mhudi is the first novel in English to be written by a black South African writer and renowned as one of Africa's most important literary works. After witnessing the genocide of her tribe, Mhudi wanders the land terrified of encountering enemy warriors until she is suddenly struck by a fear even worse than death; that she is now completely alone. Upon crossing paths with the tribe's only other known survivor, she finds herself at the centre of an extraordinary story of love, war, and unexpected allies. Writing in the early twentieth century, Sol T. Plaatje offers an incredible retelling of South Africa's history that refuses to justify the injustice that was endured. 'More than a classic; there is just no other book on earth like it. All the stature and grandeur of the author are in it.' Bessie Head 'Some of the most compelling and celebrated accounts of the early days of apartheid.' Trevor Noah, New York Times 'One of the most remarkable books on Africa by one of the continent's most remarkable writers.' Neil Parsons

Author : Angèle Rawiri
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2014-07-07
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780813936048

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The Fury and Cries of Women by Angèle Rawiri Pdf

Gabon’s first female novelist, Angèle Rawiri probed deeper into the issues that writers a generation before her—Mariama Bâ and Aminata Sow Fall—had begun to address. Translated by Sara Hanaburgh, this third novel of the three Rawiri published is considered the richest of her fictional prose. It offers a gripping account of a modern woman, Emilienne, who questions traditional values and seeks emancipation from them. Emilienne’s active search for feminism on her own terms is tangled up with cultural expectations and taboos of motherhood, marriage, polygamy, divorce, and passion. She completes her university studies in Paris; marries a man from another ethnic group; becomes a leader in women’s liberation; enjoys professional success, even earning more than her husband; and eventually takes a female lover. Yet still she remains unsatisfied. Those closest to her, and even she herself, constantly question her role as woman, wife, mother, and lover. The tragic death of her only child—her daughter Rékia—accentuates Emilienne’s anguish, all the more so because of her subsequent barrenness and the pressure that she concede to her husband’s taking a second wife. In her forceful portrayal of one woman’s life in Central Africa in the late 1980s, Rawiri prompts us not only to reconsider our notions of African feminism and the canon of francophone African women’s writing but also to expand our awareness of the issues women face across the world today in the workforce, in the bedroom, and among family and peers.

Author : Mariama Bâ
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 113 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2012-05-06
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781478611233

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So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ Pdf

Written by award-winning African novelist Mariama Bâ and translated from the original French, So Long a Letter has been recognized as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The brief narrative, written as an extended letter, is a sequence of reminiscences —some wistful, some bitter—recounted by recently widowed Senegalese schoolteacher Ramatoulaye Fall. Addressed to a lifelong friend, Aissatou, it is a record of Ramatoulaye’s emotional struggle for survival after her husband betrayed their marriage by taking a second wife. This semi-autobiographical account is a perceptive testimony to the plight of educated and articulate Muslim women. Angered by the traditions that allow polygyny, they inhabit a social milieu dominated by attitudes and values that deny them status equal to men. Ramatoulaye hopes for a world where the best of old customs and new freedom can be combined. Considered a classic of contemporary African women’s literature, So Long a Letter is a must-read for anyone interested in African literature and the passage from colonialism to modernism in a Muslim country. Winner of the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

Author : Alifa Rifaat
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 127 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2014-01-16
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781478615491

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Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories by Alifa Rifaat Pdf

“More convincingly than any other woman writing in Arabic today, Alifa Rifaat lifts the veil on what it means to be a woman living within a traditional Muslim society.” So states the translator’s foreword to this collection of the Egyptian author’s best short stories. Rifaat (1930–1996) did not go to university, spoke only Arabic, and seldom traveled abroad. This virtual immunity from Western influence lends a special authenticity to her direct yet sincere accounts of death, sexual fulfillment, the lives of women in purdah, and the frustrations of everyday life in a male-dominated Islamic environment. Translated from the Arabic by Denys Johnson-Davies, the collection admits the reader into a hidden private world, regulated by the call of the mosque, but often full of profound anguish and personal isolation. Badriyya’s despairing anger at her deceitful husband, for example, or the haunting melancholy of “At the Time of the Jasmine,” are treated with a sensitivity to the discipline and order of Islam.

Author : Flora Nwapa
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 223 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2013-10-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781478613275

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Efuru by Flora Nwapa Pdf

Appearing in 1966, Efuru was the first internationally published book, in English, by a Nigerian woman. Flora Nwapa (1931–1993) sets her story in a small village in colonial West Africa as she describes the youth, marriage, motherhood, and eventual personal epiphany of a young woman in rural Nigeria. The respected and beautiful protagonist, an independent-minded Ibo woman named Efuru, wishes to be a mother. Her eventual tragedy is that she is not able to marry or raise children successfully. Alone and childless, Efuru realizes she surely must have a higher calling and goes to the lake goddess of her tribe, Uhamiri, to discover the path she must follow. The work, a rich exploration of Nigerian village life and values, offers a realistic picture of gender issues in a patriarchal society as well as the struggles of a nation exploited by colonialism.

Author : Binwell Sinyangwe
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 158 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2023-12-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781803288741

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A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe Pdf

A Cowrie of Hope is the moving tale of a mother's pledge to give her daughter an education in 1990s Zambia. Nasula craves independence from the men around her. Offered no choice over her marriage or any power after the wedding, her husband's unexpected death is a sudden chance for liberation. Yet, under the strain of a changing and impoverished nation, Nasula struggles to provide for her family. Rising to the challenges of living as a widow in rural Zambia, Nasula sees her daughter as a symbol of hope for the next generation. Through relentless strength and determination, she promises to fight for her daughter's right to education – and a brighter future. Binwell Sinyangwe creates a beautiful story about the plight of women in late-twentieth-century Zambia, capturing a stirring tale of courage, dignity, and monumental resilience.

Author : Valerie Tagwira
Publisher : Jacana Media
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Zimbabwe
ISBN : 9781770095410

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The Uncertainty of Hope by Valerie Tagwira Pdf

Author : Myriam Warner-Vieyra
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 109 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2014-05-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781478622666

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Juletane by Myriam Warner-Vieyra Pdf

In this powerful and moving novel, Myriam Warner-Vieyra sensitively portrays the complexities of cross-cultural relationships and, in particular, the female predicament. When Helene, a self-reliant career woman, is packing her belongings for a move and imminent marriage for which she is reluctant, she unearths a faded old book. It is the diary of young Juletane, a confused, sheltered West Indian woman struggling to find herself. Written over three weeks, it records her short life: childhood in France, marriage to an African student, and an eager return with him to Africa, the land of her ancestors. It is Juletane’s diary that brings her and Helene together. Juletane does not fit into her husband’s traditional African family, especially the Muslim cultural demands of polygamy. Full of gentle ironies, Juletane is a story about alienation, madness, shattered dreams: the disillusioned West Indian outsider’s disenchantment with Africa. Myriam Warner-Vieyra looks at women’s lives, at the paths they have taken, at the possibilities open to women in the Caribbean, in Africa, in life. She forces readers, through the double narrative of Juletane and Helene, to reexamine easy assumptions, to look again at safe generalizations. Includes valuable Introduction 2014 by the translator.