South African Special Issue Now Published

Issue 32 of Illuminations, which has just been published, is a special South African issue guest-edited by award-winning South African poet Kobus Moolman. The issue includes work by South Africa’s leading English-language poets, including Ingrid de Kok, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Vonani Bila, Kelwyn Sole, Joan Metelerkamp, Mkhosazana Xaba, Angifi Dladla, Julia Martin, Gabeba Baderoon, and many more. There are interviews with poet Lesego Rampolokeng and artist Witty Nyide, as well as three lino-cuts by Ms Nyide. Moolman’s concise introduction gives a very clear overview of contemporary South African poetry. 

The cover of Illuminations 32 features a lino-cut by South African artist Witty Nyide.

Illuminations has had a long-standing interest in South African poetry. Almost 30 years ago in the dying (and deadly) days of the apartheid regime, Illuminations published its first South African special issue. The magazine was based at that time (1988-9) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, so editing the issue involved contributors sending material via proxies in the UK, and seeking permission to reprint from other recently published anthologies. The result was a powerful collection of voices, including an anthemic lead-off poem by Don Mattera insisting that “This land, the whole land/ the best and beautiful land/ WILL be freed.” Mattera was a banned person at the time, and his work had had to be sent to the magazine by way of Nadine Gordimer in South Africa and Bernard O’Keeffe in England.

Ten years later, a second South African special appeared. By then Illuminations had re-located to Charleston, South Carolina, the revolutionary technology of the World Wide Web had transformed communication globally, and the ANC was four years into its post-apartheid ascendancy. The 1998 South African special issue of the magazine featured another spectacular range of writers and artists, from Tatamkhulu Afrika and Lionel Abrahams to Marlene van Niekerk and Ivan Vladislavic.

Over the years the magazine maintained its connections with many South African writers, notably the exiled Dennis Brutus, and 2004 saw a further special issue — this time in honor of Brutus’s 80th birthday. This “Double-Nobel” issue featured tributes from Desmond Tutu and Nadine Gordimer as well as a host of other South African and non-South African writers paying tribute to the veteran, and indefatigable, poet-activist.

Almost by accident these special issues thus created a decade-by-decade record of South African poetry, so it is particularly exciting to be able to introduce this current special issue, guest-edited by Kobus Moolman. Kobus was one of the few poets from the 1989 issue whose work also appears in the current one (Kelwyn Sole and Robert Berold also share that distinction). The notes on contributors in Illuminations 8 describe Kobus as a “newspaper sub-editor and freelance writer.” He has since gone on to become an award-winning poet, influential editor, and inspiring teacher, recently moving from Natal to the University of the Western Cape. As a result of Kobus’s assiduous solicitation of work from almost all of the most significant English-language poets currently operating in South Africa, and of his judicious editing, this new collection is a comprehensive anthology, revealing the remarkable range and extraordinary talent of the contemporary South African literary scene, even when limited just to the output in English. Aesthetically varied, intellectually satisfying, and emotionally affecting, this special issue of Illuminations cannot fail to excite.

For information on how to purchase a copy or subscribe to Illuminations, please e-mail me at lewiss@cofc.edu.

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