Litnet

"The strength of Pitt’s writing is her rare ability to repudiate without judgement or condemnation. Her arguments, worn with artistic lightness, go beyond mere politicising."

"Only those with selfish private economic income would think that a federal arrangement of our provinces makes sense, when the majority of our provinces are poor and rural, without many economic prospects. The rest of us know the drab reality of how the majority of our people are dependent on the state for the bare minimum of their living income."

"If anything, the book carries the pain it narrates with graceful eloquence, even though, by necessity of our state’s disrepair, its tone is often tinged with melancholy."

"In this era of historical revisions by both white conservatives and radically woke activists who’re obsessed with trying to use history as another weapon of politics, perhaps this recalling of our lived experiences beyond mere ideologies is what will free us from these demagogues."

"I find that stories often have their own objectives, which I only discover while writing, or sometimes after writing."

"The value in my books comes from writing about those things people don’t want to talk about. My intent is to get people talking as opposed to measuring. We need to start having robust conversations around those topics that make us uncomfortable."

"The provision of reliable energy is at the centre of South Africa's ability to solve the scourge of poverty, unemployment, inequality, violent crime ..." | "Yiyo kuphela indlela enokukwazi ukusikhupha kula manyundululu orhwaphilizo kulungiswe eli ziko uEskom aphuhlise isizwe, azise impilo engcono kwabo babetheka kakhulu yintlupheko nokulamba."

"The inaugural Gauteng International Book Festival, held in Soweto on the 11th of December 2022, surpassed all expectations. It became a resounding success with its director, Lorraine Sithole, calling it 'a positive beginning'."

"From Fanon to Robert Sobukwe and Biko, these are prototypes of what Richard Wright called his 'split position' and 'double vision', which a Western-educated black man born in the Anglo-American-oppressive zeitgeist has to deal with."

"I have seen the returning MK soldiers, how disappointed they are in what is happening in our country."

On Sunday, 4 December 2022, an international team of authors discussed the topic, "Who is an African?" They also asked: Who is allowed to write from an African experience? Why do African authors get boxed into certain kinds of story?

"Ukufunda ngelwimi lakhe lwemveli limenza umfundi anqakule msinyane, kwaye azive enegugu nomdla kulento ayifundiswayo." | "Learning in their mother tongue or vernicular makes a pupil sharp in absorbing the lesson, it also entices their sense of pride in the their own identity."

"This book can be categorised as a dictionary of Xhosa Weltanschauung, a comprehensive conception and apprehension of a mode of life that has been transferred by experience through the centuries from the ancient of times."

Mphuthumi Ntabeni is one of six authors currently in residence in Somerset East, courtesy of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation and PEN South Africa. His novel The wanderers is on the long list for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize.

In this episode of his monthly podcast David Attwell talks to Mphuthumi Ntabeni about his tour de force, The Wanderers (2021). Ntabeni’s first novel, The Broken River Tent (2017) won the UJ Prize for debut fiction.