The Bones Of The Ancestors Are Shaking

‘In The Bones of The Ancestors Are Shaking, Russell Kaschula provides an ample introduction to the subject of oral poetry, both drawing on earlier accounts and presenting his own material, much of which has hitherto been unavailable in book form. Kaschula presents rich texts and translations of the Xhosa praise poetry for which southern Africa has long been famous, not only in the context of studies of African oral literature, but also among comparative scholars of world literature. The texts and translations in this book are a valuable and attractive addition to the record, ranging as they do from nineteenth-century examples to late twentieth-century praises for Joe Slovo, F.W. de Klerk, the South African soccer squad or Nelson Mandela, the latter being a special focus of the volume.’ — Professor Ruth Finnegan, The Open University, UK

From an array of prominent activists including Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko to renowned performers and oral poets such as Johnny Dyani and Samuel Mqhayi, the Eastern Cape region plays a unique role in the history of South African protest politics and creativity. The Spirit of Resistance in Music and Spoken Word of South Africa's Eastern Cape concentrates on the Eastern Cape's contribution to the larger narrative of the connection between creativity, mass movements, and the forging of a modern African identity and focuses largely on the amaXhosa population. Lindsay Michie explores Eastern Cape performance artists, activists, organizations, and movements that used inventive and historical means to raise awareness of their plight and brought pressure to bear on the authorities and systems that caused it, all the while exhibiting the depth, originality, and inspiration of their culture.

This book continues exploring the experiences, trials and tribulations of both the Journalist Romano known here as the First Man Adam and his Celestial Guide Zarathustra while they travel to the remaining Limboland Arenas and Inferno witnessing the horror of the after-world with the contemptuous Devil and his swaggering Three Crown Princes in their secret Offices in the lowest Infernal Ring. Here the disenchanted souls still struggle to survive with the interference of the narcissistic Devil and without the influence of God’s help. The remaining Limboland Arenas include the Black Afrikan; the Primitives Mini-Limboland; the Russian Marxists; the Conspiracy Theorists; the Persians; the Ottoman Turks; the Filipino Mini-Limboland and the Limbo-Limbo Lands through the Gates of Hades. The draconian Devil’s Inferno sites include Ring One as the De-Militarized Zone; the Jungleland Inner Sanctum; Ring Two as Carnality; Ring Three as Gluttony; Ring Four as Greed & Avarice; a Culinary Intermezzo Between Greed & Anger; Ring Five of the Anger & Wrathful & Sullen; Ring Six of Heresy; Ring Seven of Violence; Ring Eight of the Evil Pouches; Ring Nine of the Traitors & Fraud; and Ring Ten of Lucifer’s Demonic Cabaret. Not to be captured or outdone by the Devil the duo finally arrange Getting Out of Hell while the last scenes include The Devil’s Last Hurrah and Lilith Gets the Last Laugh; Infernus Not.

The re-conceptualization of South Africa as a democracy in 1994 has influenced the production and reception of texts in this nation and around the globe. The literature emerging after 1994 provides a vision for reconciling the fragmented past produced by the brutality of apartheid policies and consequently shifting social relations from a traumatized past to a reconstructed future. The purpose of the essays in this anthology is to explore, within the literary imagination and cultural production of a post-apartheid nation and its people, how the trauma and violence of the past are reconciled through textual strategies. What role does memory play for the remembering subject working through the trauma of a violent past?

It has been written that woven webs of spiders are symbolic of fate "...similar to us humans who get caught up in the web of illusion of the physical world, and never see beyond the horizon into other dimensions..." It may also be said that the common web also represents that polarity of human life in which we all are woven into and are caught up in its good, evil, ugliness and beauty. Yet we need not be victimized prey in this web of humanity but enlightened beings working prolifically to weave the evil and ugliness into good and beauty. Thus is the nature of the enlighten illumination of the webbed words of these selected poems and short stories. Enjoy the many imaging allegorical messages herein woven in this publication.

It has been said that the poet is the conscience and voice of the poet’s people. In this collection the griot-style poet renders a wide range of poems employing the imaging of metaphoric inspirational and allegorical messaging poetry of the survival story of African American generations. Theme focus is on those generations who survived the Middle Passage of the triangular slave trade; the nearly 5 centuries of slavery itself; post- emancipation Jim Crow America with its centuries of lynch-style oppression; the Civil Rights Movement; and those who are still here surviving present-day American racisms that still remain, despite the generational gains that have been made. As in the words of the poet himself, “This collection is indeed a poetic saga of ourstory in American history; designed to enlighten and inspire actions to bring reality to those ideals the founding fathers penned in the preamble and constitution of the American nation.” Come and journey with the poet over the many “middle passages” of the wrinkled historical ocean of “navel” people sojourning to the shores of complete liberation in an America whose founding ideal was that of being a nation in which all of God’s people were created equal and deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Copper Woman and Other Poems is a collection of poems that announces a humanistic vision, dealing with such themes as rebirth (physical and symbolic), mythology, memory, bondage, blood, family, identities in flux, migration, politics and flights of fancy. The contents move back and forth between the past and the present, and project into the future, envisioning a new world/a new creation. The message that we are our brothers and our sisters keepers and that the earth is our home – a home that we must protect and keep safe if we are to survive – resonates throughout. Copper Woman is a call to arms against apathy and all forms of tyranny. It is liberatory dub poetics that say equality and equity are possible and within reach. It invites its readers to cast off their chains and shackles and proclaim their freedom. It invites us all to grasp a greater vision of our world. Jamaican-born Dr. Afua Cooper has achieved considerable success as a dub poet and as the author of a children’s book, a collection of poetry and as co-author of The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! Dr. Cooper is a recent recipient of the Harry Jerome Award for Professional Excellence.