Foundational African Writers: Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi & Es'kia Mphahlele

HUMA Book Launch

Panel discussion with co-editor Khwezi Mkhize (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)  

Introduction: Foundational African Writers: Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi & Es'kia Mphahlele commemorates the lives and work of Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi and Es'kia Mphahlele, all born in 1919. Alternatively referred to as the centenarians project by its editors and chapter contributors, it was initiated by the late Professor Bhekizizwe Peterson, who felt that, aside from the usual and fleeting salutary tributes that would surface in 2019, the best way to celebrate these figures was through substantial scholarly engagement with their work. The centenarians all lived long and rich lives spanning the interwar period, the advent of apartheid, decolonisation and the early twenty-first century. Foundational African Writers explores these figures' multifarious and multifaceted lives and works while imaging and debating their continued relevance for the humanities. 

See the book: Foundational African Writers: Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi & Es'kia Mphahlele, Eds Bhekizizwe Peterson, Makhosazana Xaba & Khwezi Mkhize (Wits Press, 2022). 
 

About the co-editor: Khwezi Mkhize is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand and a co-editor of the journal African Studies.

Panel discussion participants

Jill Bradbury is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand and a principal investigator in the Narrative Enquiry for Social Transformation programme.
 

Christopher EW Ouma is a joint Associate Professor in the Departments of English Literary Studies and African Studies at the University of Cape Town and a research affiliate of NEST (Narrative Enquiry for Social Transformation).
 

Crain Soudien is the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and former Chief Executive Officer of the Human Sciences Research Council. He is an Honorary Professor at the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy, Nelson Mandela University.

Athambile Masola teaches in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town. Together with Makhosazana Xaba they have compiled and republished Noni Jabavu's 1977 Daily Dispatch columns, published as A stranger at Home (Tafelberg, 2022)