Es'kia (review)

This collection of forty essays, the majority of which have never been published, covers about forty years of the writings of Es'kia Mphahlele (1919-) one of the doyens of South Africa's literary world. He wrote as Ezekiel Mphahlele until 1979, and this name change occurred after twenty years of exile on alien soil when he left South Africa in 1957, an exile that took him to teaching posts in Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, France, and the United States of America—where he obtained his PhD at the University of Denver—and his eventual return back home in 1977.

The editors of this volume, James Ogude, Sam Raditlhalo, Ndavhe Ramakuela, Marcus Ramogale, and Peter N. Thuynsma (all of whom served under Mphahlele in some form or the other) state, "It is not merely the exile on alien soil that dominates his work, but also the exile from ancestral soil" (453). One traces this evaluation in this volume, which is just the tip of the iceberg of his writings that spans two autobiographies, three novels, more than twenty-five short stories, two verse plays, two edited anthologies, essay collections, and more than one hundred sixty single essays. Most of these are listed in the "Select Biography" of Es'kia.

The editors are to be commended for putting together these writings of Mphahlele as most of these are out of print or banned by the previous apartheid government censorship laws. Fortunately, as learned in a personal communiqué from Mphahlele to this reviewer, a second volume of his essays is being put together for publication.

The present book has a foreword by renowned South African writer Don Mattera, and the editors have divided this study into four categories. These are "Education," "African Humanism and Culture," "Social Consciousness," and "Literary Appreciation." "Education" deals with the transformation of society and for the whole person while "African Humanism and Culture" covers themes such as Africa in exile, African humanism and the corporate world, and reflections on Es'kia's distrust of organized religion. The "Literary Appreciation" section has the most number of essays (fifteen) in which Es'kia reflects on the role of literature and its need to serve a social function, be a literature of storytelling, of lyricism, of dramatic enactment, and finally, the empowerment of the human mind. Mphahlele the political and cultural activist comes to the fore in the section "Social Consciousness" such as in his essay on the African South African middle class, its lack of sustainable collective identity, and the matter of how the European and African traditional society viewed class in different terms. Other essays in this section cover his views on nation building and his criticism of tribalism in postapartheid South Africa.

Each essay has a synopsis written by the various editors and the analytical biographical sketch of Es'kia and his works are essential reading material for the student of Es'kia. The study has a select bibliography; a notable absence is Ruth Obee's Es'kia Mphahlele: Themes of Alienation and African Humanism (Athens: Ohio UP, 1999) and Bury Me at the Marketplace: Selected Letters of Es'kia Mphahlele 1943-1980, edited by N. C. Manganyi (Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1984). There is also a general and people index. The Es'kia Institute (www.eskiaonline.com) and its directors, Stainbank and Associates, are to be commended for putting this collection together.