In 1995, a South African journalist informed Frank Wilderson, one of only two American members of the African National Congress (ANC), that President Nelson Mandela considered him "a threat to national security." Wilderson was asked to comment. Incognegro is that "comment." It is also his response to a question posed five years later in a California university classroom: "How come you came back?" Although Wilderson recollects his turbulent life as an expatriate during the furious last gasps of apartheid, Incognegro is at heart a quintessentially American story. During South Africa's transition, Wilderson taught at universities in Johannesburg and Soweto by day. By night, he helped the ANC coordinate clandestine propaganda, launch psychological warfare, and more. In this mesmerizing political memoir, Wilderson's lyrical prose flows from unspeakable dilemmas in the red dust and ruin of South Africa to his return to political battles raging quietly on US campuses and in his intimate life. Readers will find themselves suddenly overtaken by the subtle but resolute force of Wilderson's biting wit, rare vulnerability, and insistence on bearing witness to history no matter the cost.

‘Tears Hope and Restoration’ is a story of victory over formidable odds. It is the personification of perseverance and the benefits of steadfastness. It is the testimony to the old adage, ‘What the enemy had intended for evil, God has turned into a blessing.’ The tears of the innocent are often the oil that lubricates the wheels of their train to destiny. As the oracle from old once uttered, ‘Do not oppress the vulnerable and feeble, for when their cries resonate through the corridors of heaven, the avenger’s feet are quickened to their cause.’

The monograph explores the linguistic impact of the colonial and postcolonial situations in South Africa on language policy, on literary production and especially on the stylistics of fiction by indigenous South Africans writing in English. A secondary concern is to investigate the present place of English in the multilingual spectrum of South African languages and to see how this worldly English relates to Global English, in the South African context. The introduction presents a socio-linguistic overview of South Africa from pre-historic times until the present, including language planning policies during and after the colonial era and a cursory review of how the difficulties encountered in implementing the Language Plan, provided for by the new South African constitution, impinge on the development of black South African English. Six chapters track the course of English in South Africa since the arrival of the British in 1795, considered from the point of view of the indigenous African population. The study focuses on ways in which indigenous authors 'indigenize' their writing, innovating and subverting stylistic conventions, including those of African orature, in order to bend language and genre towards their own culture and objectives. Each chapter corresponds to a briefly outlined historical period that is largely reflected in linguistic and literary developments. A small number of significant works for each period are discussed, one of which is selected for a case-study at the end of each chapter, where it is subjected to detailed stylistic analysis and appraised for the degree of indigenization or other linguistic or socio-historic influences on style. The methodology adopted is a linguistic approach to stylistics, focusing on indigenization of English, inspired by the work of Chantal Zabus in her book, The African Palimpsest: Indigenization of Language in the West African Europhone Novel (2007, (1991)). The conclusion reappraises the original hypothesis - that the specific characteristics of South African literary production, including styles of writing, can be related to the political, social and economic context - in the light of many fresh insights; and discusses the place occupied by English in the cultural struggle of the formerly colonized peoples of South Africa.

A collection from writers: poets, playwrights, novelists, print journalists, radio journalists, TV scriptwriters who either edited English Alive or were originally published in English Alive.

Dark night babe toss and turn the clouds above you make the sober go drunk come in from the cold warm you up sink down our throat the clouds above mountains so high sink babe sink sink a shaft move slowly down the mountain down our throats toss and turn babe sink on me all night dark clouds above you make the sober go drunk sink babe sink sink it smooth sink a shaft