To Speak of the Land

Questions of identity, belonging and place are crucial issues in South Africa today. To Speak of this Land explores these issues in a way that is academically rigorous but refreshingly accessible. The author's focus is South Africa - spanning Bushman storytelling, rock painting, and aboriginal land claims; African-Christian identity formations; Mazisi Kunene's Emperor Shaka the Great; Ronnie Govender's Cato Manor stories; the poetry of Douglas Livingstone; and the rap music of Prophets of da City - but he draws on comparative material from elsewhere in the world, as well as stressing the 'global' aspects of 'local' identities. 'If this is your land, where are your stories?' is the question put by a Native Canadian community to a group of government foresters who were mapping and claiming jurisdiction over an area of woodlands in north-west Canada. To speak of this land offers thought-provoking answers for a South African context to this internationally challenging question.