Things Left Unsaid

Rosabelle Boswell

Description

In South Africa issues of identity remain a pressing concern and preoccupation. For some, the experience of feeling that one does not belong in South Africa, especially among Africans and African descendants, appears to be intensifying. In this first collection of poems, Rosabelle Boswell speaks of the many places in which ordinary Africans born outside of South Africa try to achieve belonging. They do so in the family context, the backyard, language, the meeting, familiar landscapes and dreams. The poems also foreground the tumult of emotions that rise from the experience of exclusion and the results of pressure when one must conform. There is panic and dislocation, desperation, fear and sense of marginality when one�s work and achievements are reduced to whether one is born in South Africa or not. According to the poet, in such a context, one can only achieve true freedom from the tyranny of belonging by psychologically walking away from the expectations of those in power and putting oneself in a �clearing� where flexibility, openness and newness reside. The forest of expectations remains, but we can achieve temporary respite from it by walking away now and again. The collection spans two years of writing identity in a different form, poetry.

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 06 décembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 55
• EAN13: 9789956551385
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

descendants, appears to be intensifying. In this first collection of

‘clearing’ where flexibility, openness and newness reside. The forest of

identity in a different form, poetry.

 Things Left Unsaid  Rosabelle Boswell

THINGS LEFT UNSAID Rosabelle Boswell L a ng a a R esea rch & P u blishing CIG Mankon, Bamenda

Publisher: LangaaRPCIG Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group P.O. Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Region Cameroon [e-mail] www.langaa-rpcig.net Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective [e-mail] www.africanbookscollective.com

ISBN-10: 9956-551-02-3

ISBN-13: 978-9956-551-02-6

©Rosabelle Boswell 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher The cover image is by Senzo Xulu, Nelson Mandela University. It is from the Faculty of Arts Project, entitled the Doek Project that offered a transcription of key arguments in doctoral theses written in isiXhosa into designer headscarves with motifs, words, symbols relating to the subject matter investigated.It speaks to the possibilities of border crossing in the intellectual and cultural senses, the reality of multi-modal and multiply-situated existence and expression.

About the Poet Rosabelle Boswell was born in Mauritius, grew up in Malawi and lives in South Africa. She is an anthropologist and author. She is author ofLe Malaise Creole: Ethnic Identity in Mauritius (Oxford: Berghahn),Representing Heritage in Zanzibar and Madagascar (Addis Ababa: Eclipse);Challengesto Identifying andManagingIntangible Cultural Heritagein Mauritius, Zanzibar and Seychelles(Dakar: Codesria) andPostcolonial African Anthropologies (coedited with F. Nyamnjoh Pretoria: HSRC Press). She has also authored academic articles on cultural identity and has done ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa, Mauritius, Zanzibar, Seychelles and Madagascar. In 2010, she served as a research team leader for the Mauritius Truth and Justice Commission, examining the legacies of slavery. From 2015-2019 she was a Dean of Arts at Mandela University in South Africa.