ImageNations

Title: Mine Boy Author: Peter Abrahams Genre: Novel/Race/Love Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Year of Publication: 1946 (this edition, 1989) Country: South Africa For the Top 100 Books Challenge 'You say you understand,' Xuma said, 'but how can you? You are a white man. You do not carry a pass. You do not know how it feels to be stopped by a policeman in the street. You go where you like. You do not know how it feels when they say "Get out! White people only." Did your woman leave you because she is mad with wanting the same things the white man has? ... That is understanding. The understanding of the heart and the pain of understanding, not just the head and lips. I feel things! You want me to be your friend. How can I be your friend when your people do this to me and my people?' (Page 172)   And this serves as my summary of the novel Mine Boy, a story about love and race published two years before the official implementation of ap...

Title: Cry, the Beloved Country Author: Alan Paton Genre: Fiction/Racialism Publishers: Vintage Pages: 240 Year of First Publication: 1948 (this edition, 2002) Country: South Africa Alan Paton's famous work, Cry, the Beloved Country , address interracial prejudices that existed during pre-apartheid South Africa. Though the novel was published in the very year the National Party instituted apartheid, it tells of the problems which existed before apartheid. It could be taken as the 'events' that led to the institution of apartheid. In this novel we follow Stephen Kumalo whose brother (John Kumalo), sister (Gertrude) and son (Absalom Kumalo) had all left their home village of Ndotsheni to Johannesburg in search of employment. Earlier he had received a letter concerning the negative ways Gertrude had fallen into: brewing local alcohol and prostituting. Soon this simple search for a sister turns into a complex labyrinthine search for a son. In the big city...