Inyathi ibuzwa kwabaphambili

I discovered a whole new world of literature in my 3rd year at Rhodes.The irony however is that I had been studying English literature as a major since my first year but it was only in my 3rd year when I took isiXhosa 1 that I realised that there was a history of prodigious writers from the Eastern Cape writing in isiXhosa.Apart from the challenge of this new course, I was ashamed at my ignorance of this knowledge and partly angered by the formal education I had received that had successfully ommitted such a rich heritage from my curriculum while I was in school, in the Eastern Cape nogal.

Ever since this course I have been re-educating myself on the history of the Eastern Cape and the writers and intellectuals.Yes,it's part of my existential crises of making peace with my legacy and education but it is mostly a realisation that when we talk of developing African language literature we are not operating in a vacuum,we stand on the shoulders of giants, inyathi ibuzwa kwabaphambili.

We have our(I mean black African here) own Shakespeare and Chaucer and Milton when we talk of SEK Mqhayi, AC Jordan and Nontsizi Mgqwetho. The article in this link elaborates on these thoughts after I had attended a conference last year commemorating one of the intellectuals from the Eastern Cape, SEK Mqhayi...

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