Culture in the New South Africa: After Apartheid, Volume Two

Kwela Books (Roggebaai)

Robert Kriger and Abebe Zegeye
© 2001. Website: www.kwela.com

One of the many issues confronting post-apartheid South Africa is that the cultural expression of its citizens was severely limited by the structural inequalities brought about by the policies of the previous regime. The limitations have largely disappeared, but in building a new, democratic nation, many social, political and economic problems still need to be solved before a new sense of nationhood can develop.

This volume is a first step in rewriting the cultural history of the country. A wide range of South African forms of cultural expression is covered, among them language, the media and the intellectual climate, the theatre, rural wall decoration, literature, film, music, and the globally relevant phenomenon of biennales.

All the authors undertook their work with the recent, momentous history of South Africa as their background. Many of the analyses represent profoundly original work and new perspectives on old work. (From the cover notes.)