Book launch: Our words, Our worlds - writing on black South African women poets, 2000-2018

The Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), the Governing Intimacies project and UKZN Press will host this book launch.

Our Words, Our Worlds: Writing on Black South African Women Poets, 2000-2018 is a multi-genre anthology answers the question: what did the literary landscape look like in South Africa at the start of the twenty-first century? It documents a slice of this landscape by bringing together the writings of over twenty contributors through literary critique, personal essays and interviews. The book tells the story of the seismic shift that transformed national culture through poetry and is the first of its kind to explore the history and impact of poetry by Black women, in their own voices. It straddles disciplines: literary theory, feminism, history of the book and politics – thus decolonising literary culture.

The collective contributions are a testimony to the power of creativity and centrality of poetry in a changing society. This book is an assertion of Black women’s intellectual prowess and – as Gabeba Baderoon puts it – black women’s visions of ‘a world made whole by their presence’.    

Makhosazana Xaba (Research Associate at WiSER and a Governing Intimacies Project Fellow ) will be discussion with Nedine Moonsamy (Senior Lecturer, English Literature at the University of Pretoria and Editorial Assistant Nordic Journal of African Studies) and Moshibudi Motemele (Sessional lecturer and PhD candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand with a Master’s degree in Political Studies). Books will be on sale, at a Special Launch prize of R250

The event will be chaired by Sinethemba Makanya (WiSER Medical Humanities Doctoral Fellow).

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