Fine Lines From The Box

From the beginniong Fine Lines from the Box traces a journey of the mind and an ongoing exercise of reading and writing by one of South Africa's most incisive commentators. Taken with Njabulo Ndebele's earlier Rediscovery of the Ordinary, this collection challenges, entreats, cajoles and prods one into understanding a range of issues - the loss of innocence in achieving a ' new South Africa', the President and the AIDS question, higher education and the liberal tradition, the place of English in modern South Africa, that African icon Brenda Fassie, the vagaries of journalism, and the time in the life of a country when the oppressed must free the oppressor. Covering a span of eighteen years from 1987 to 2006 these pieces cut to the nation's quick. They provide a sane view of our recent past and explain much about what often seems to a baffling present.

This collection ranges far and wide, as befits the personality and accomplishments of the dedicatee, Geoffrey V. Davis, German studies and exile literature scholar, postcolonialist (if there are ‘specialties’, then Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, Black Britain), journal and book series editor.... Themes covered include publishing in Africa, charisma in African drama, the rediscovery of apartheid-era South African literature, Truth and Reconciliation commissions, South African cinema, children’s theatre in England and Eritrea, and the Third Chimurenga in literary anthologies. Surveyed are texts from Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Writers discussed (or interviewed: Angela Makholwa) include Ayi Kwei Armah, Seydou Badian, J.M. Coetzee, Chielo Zona Eze, Ruth First, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Bessie Head, Ian Holding, Kavevangua Kahengua, Njabulo Ndebele, Lara Foot Newton, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o/Micere Githae Mugo, Sol Plaatje, Ken Saro–Wiwa, Mongane Wally Serote, Wole Soyinka, and Ed¬gar Wallace, together with essays on the artist Sokari Douglas Camp and the filmmaker Rayda Jacobs. Because Geoff’s commitment to literature has always been ‘hands-on’, the book closes with a selection of poems and an entertaining travelogue/memoir.

This book examines the work of Sindiwe Magona, one of South Africa’s most prolific and groundbreaking writers, widely recognized for highlighting the everyday experiences of women and the domestic side of apartheid. A pioneer among black African women writers, she is equally respected as storyteller, advocate for children’s education, activist for HIV/AIDS awareness, and champion of indigenous languages. In this book, Renée Schatteman contends that Magona’s most important contribution comes through her refusal to choose sides in the contentious debates that have polarized public discourse following apartheid. By straddling two (or more) sides of a controversy and challenging any who do harm to others (and to the nation), regardless of their position, she blurs distinctions that are assumed to be absolute, opens new avenues of understanding, and inspires alternative visions for the future. By occupying the space of paradox, she undermines the closed epistemological structures inherited from apartheid and champions the need for interdependence, truth-telling, and dialogue. Covering her creative production over three decades (which includes novels, autobiographies and biographies, short story collections, children’s books, and literature about HIV/AIDS), this book is an essential read for Magona enthusiasts as well as for researchers of African literature and postcolonial South Africa.

"The definitive rock art book on Painted Bluff, Alabama"--

Learn how to capture the beauty of nature in pencil, pen and watercolour with this inspiring guide from award-winning botanical artist Jill Winch. The first half of the book shows you how to capture the shape, form and texture of a wide range of flowers and their leaves in pencil and in pen and wash. The second part shows how to work in watercolour, the medium of choice for most botanical artists, to create exquisite colour artworks. Drawing and Painting Flowers is packed with examples and exercises across the full floral range, from simple structures, such as tulips, to more complex configurations, such as sunflowers, and compositions involving groups of flowers. It also gives advice on practical considerations such as how best to position flowers when drawing or painting, how to prevent them wilting and how to use a microscope to understand their structure.