In the Fog of the Seasons' End

Last updated

In the Fog of the Seasons' End is a 1972 novel by South African novelist Alex La Guma. [1] Like many of La Guma's other novels, it is focused on challenging the social systems of apartheid in South Africa. [1] [2] The main character in the novel, Beukes, is an organizer of an anti-apartheid underground. [3] The novel was dedicated to Basil February and other resistance fighters who died in Zimbabwe in 1967. [3] The novel has been extensively explored as part of marxist literary criticism, while reflecting on La Guma's marxist political philosophy. [4]

The title comes from the last line of a poem from Conte Saidon Tidiany. [3] The novel was published with only 181 pages, with some critics describing it as merely a novella. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Biko</span> South African anti-apartheid activist (1946–1977)

Bantu Stephen Biko was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)</span> Restorative justice tribunal in post-apartheid South Africa

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid. Authorised by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Desmond Tutu, the commission invited witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations to give statements about their experiences, and selected some for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Communist Party</span> Political party in South Africa

The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing National Party under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950. The Communist Party was reconstituted underground and re-launched as the SACP in 1953, participating in the struggle to end the apartheid system. It is a member of the ruling Tripartite Alliance alongside the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and through this it influences the South African government. The party's Central Committee is the party's highest decision-making structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Callinicos</span> British political theorist (born 1950)

Alexander Theodore Callinicos is a Rhodesian-born British political theorist and activist. An adherent of Trotskyism, he is a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and serves as its International Secretary. He is also editor of International Socialism, the SWP's theoretical journal, and has published a number of books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">District Six</span> Former area of Cape Town, South Africa

District Six is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. Over 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed during the 1970s by the apartheid regime.

Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It contextualizes Christianity in an attempt to help those of African descent overcome oppression. It especially focuses on the injustices committed against African Americans and black South Africans during American segregation and apartheid, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apartheid</span> South African system of racial separation

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Indians and Coloureds, then black Africans. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day.

Alex La Guma was a South African novelist, leader of the South African Coloured People's Organisation (SACPO) and a defendant in the Treason Trial, whose works helped characterise the movement against the apartheid era in South Africa. La Guma's vivid style, distinctive dialogue, and realistic, sympathetic portrayal of oppressed groups have made him one of the most notable South African writers of the 20th century. La Guma was awarded the 1969 Lotus Prize for Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African literature</span> Literature of South Africa

South African literature is the literature of South Africa, which has 11 national languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Venda, Swazi, Tsonga and Ndebele.

Constructive engagement was the name given to the conciliatory foreign policy of the Reagan administration towards the apartheid regime in South Africa. Devised by Chester Crocker, Reagan's U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, the policy was promoted as an alternative to the economic sanctions and divestment from South Africa demanded by the UN General Assembly and the international anti-apartheid movement. Among other objectives, it sought to advance regional peace in Southern Africa by linking the end of South Africa's occupation of Namibia to the end of the Cuban presence in Angola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Africa–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

The United States and South Africa currently maintain bilateral relations with one another. The United States and South Africa have been economically linked to one another since the late 18th century which has continued into the 21st century. U.S. and South Africa relations faced periods of strain throughout the 20th century due to the segregationist, white minority rule in South Africa, from 1948 to 1994. Following the end of apartheid in South Africa, the U.S. and South Africa have developed a strategically, politically, and economically beneficial relationship with one another and currently enjoy "cordial relations" despite "occasional strains". South Africa remains the United States' largest trading partner in Africa as of 2019.

Richard Moore Rive was a South African writer and academic, who was from Cape Town.

Martin Legassick (1940–2016) was a South African historian and Marxist activist. He died on 1 March 2016 after a battle with cancer. He was one of the central figures in the "revisionist" school of South African historiography that, drawing on Marxism, revolutionised the study of the social formation of Apartheid by highlighting the importance of political economy, class contradictions and imperialism. He was also a key figure in the independent left in South Africa from the 1970s, and a critic, from the left, of many of the analytical and strategic positions taken by the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, as well as their understanding of South African history. The author of numerous books, mainly on the history of colonialism and capitalism, he collected many of his key political writings in his 2007 book Towards Socialist Democracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alf Wannenburgh</span> South African author, journalist, conservationist, and anti-apartheid activist

Alfred John WannenburghIII was a South African author, journalist, conservationist, and anti-apartheid activist from Cape Town. His early political writings which began in 1961/62 cemented his career as a left-wing protest writer in the radical pan-African literary scene and led him, Richard Rive, and Jan Hoogendyk to form what Grant Farred called the "Western Cape Protest School" constituted by Wannenburgh, Rive, Alex La Guma, and James Matthews—who occasionally met at Hoogendyk's Rondebosch home. Wannenburgh attended both Rondebosch Boys' Preparatory School and Rondebosch Boys' High School and received his undergraduate degree in Cultural Anthropology, African History, and Political Philosophy from the University of Cape Town (UCT). His career in journalism began in 1961 and ended in 2010. He worked for many years as a foreign correspondent or stringer for America's Associated Press and Britain's The Guardian. Domestically, he was also a columnist, feature writer, and sub-editor for the Cape Times, Weekend Argus, and Sunday Times in particular, from 1984 to 2010, while taking several research sabbaticals in-between.

George Hallett was a South African photographer known for images of South African exiles. His body of work captures much of the country's turbulent history through Apartheid and into the young democracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trafalgar High School (Cape Town)</span> Public school in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Trafalgar High School is a public English medium co-educational secondary school in District Six of Cape Town in South Africa. It was the first school built in Cape Town for coloured and black students. The school took a leading role in protesting against apartheid policies. It celebrated its centenary in 2012 and is still running.

And a Threefold Cord is a 1964 novel by South African novelist Alex la Guma. The novel is La Guma's second, and is not heavily reviewed by critics. The novel is set in the Cape Flats, an impoverished area near Cape Town.

The Stone-Country is a 1967 novel by South African novelist Alex La Guma. The novel is set in a prison, and explores how one prisoner inspires others to pursue anti-apartheid politics. It was the last novel La Guma was able to write before his exile from South Africa. The novel was later republished as part of the influential African Writers Series in 1974.

<i>A Soviet Journey</i>

A Soviet Journey is a 1978 travelogue by South African socialist Alex La Guma. Writing in the early 90s, critic Roger Field described the book as one of the under examined works from La Guma's corpus, because of his reputation as a fiction writer first, and the political nature of Western academics commenting on a book title "Soviet" during the Cold War.

<i>Time of the Butcherbird</i>

Time of the Butcherbird is the final novel by South African novelist Alex La Guma. The novel was first published in 1979.

References

  1. 1 2 Nwagbara, Uzoechi (March 2011). "Arresting Historical Violence: Revolutionary Aesthetics and Alex La Guma's Fiction". Journal of Pan African Studies. 4 (3). Archived from the original on 29 January 2014.
  2. Pushpa Naidu Parekh; Siga Fatima Jagne (1998). "ALex La Guma". Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 267–273. ISBN   978-0-313-29056-5.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Fritz Pointer (2001). "In the Fog of the Season's End: Image and Idea". A Passion to Liberate: La Guma's South Africa, Images of District Six. Africa World Press. pp. 177–225. ISBN   978-0-86543-818-7.
  4. Mkhize, Jabulani (1 December 2010). "Shades of Working-Class Writing: Realism and the Intertextual in La Guma's In the Fog of the Seasons' End". Journal of Southern African Studies. 36 (4): 913–922. doi:10.1080/03057070.2010.527644. ISSN   0305-7070. S2CID   144364111.