Reviews for To kill a man's pride, and other stories from Southern Africa

The average rating for To kill a man's pride, and other stories from Southern Africa based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-31 00:00:00 Jeffrey Norman Like many of my counterparts in the black middle class, we are attracted to old African literature. We sat the other day in the library and picked out 28 copies of the Heineman African Writers Series from various eras. The majority of the books in the collection are extremly dark. They speak truth, yes, a truth of a certain time, a painful time in the black man's life, but it remains the truth of then. We find it problematic when we engage this literature with oorklappe over our eyes. When we use a context of the 1970's to refer to 2016. We end up adopting an attitude pf a different time. Just as that kid who claimed to hate white people for what they had done to black people, right after we watched 12 years a slave back in 2014. That isn't reason, it is ignorant escapism. This is one of two short story collections I own compiled by Norman Hodge, I've also read House Next Door to Africa by him. Obviously passionate about this land, and the role of stories in providing context, he writes this, "In its cultural diversity, the clashes and attempts at reconciliation, in the glories and horrors of the land and its social, economic and political histories, in the evolution and transition of its society. Southern Africa has proved fertile ground for literary imagination." The stories in this collection are anything short of beautiful. All of them dealing with the death of manhood in one or other form. I picked it up because of Can Themba's The Suit, and was not disappointed. I read it slowly, carefully, with heart, because I'm very interested in understanding the psychology of the black man's mind. There was never a point where I finished a story and would not pause for reflection, many times in shock, many times with a broken heart. The stories with the piccanins touched me most. From the grandmother who's heart cannot handle the loss of her future. To the children who refuse to live their mother's dream. The child who only ever wanted a mother. The little beggers who follow the little baas home... I read the Dog Killers last, and that left me with a bleeding heart. One story stood out above all else, Es'kia Mphahlele's Man Must Live. And live we must.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-11-08 00:00:00 Penny Smith Lake Oswego Public Library