Es kia mphahlele poems for kids
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The JRB presents an extract from Like Family: Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature, by Ena Jansen.
Like Family: Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature
Ena Jansen
Wits University Press, 2019
In the excerpt, taken from the chapter ‘Domestic Workers in Personal Accounts’, Jansen recounts Es’kia Mphahlele’s memories of growing up with a mother who was a domestic worker, mainly taken from his memoir Down Second Avenue (1959), one of the earliest autobiographies by a black South African.
Like Family also contains a number of reproductions of artworks, by artists such as David Goldblatt, Zanele Muholi, Marlene Dumas, Anton Kannemeyer and Mary Sibande.
Read the excerpt:
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Mother/Eva, Aunt Dora—Pretoria, 1920s and 1930s
‘Mummy, the washing Kaffir has come.’
Down Second Avenue (1959) by Ezekiel Mphahlele (1919–2008) is one of the earliest autobiographies by a black South African
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Es'kia Mphahlele
South African writer and publisher (1919–2008)
Es'kia Mphahlele | |
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His bust in the Es'kia Mphahlele | |
| Born | Ezekiel Mphahlele (1919-12-17)17 December 1919 Marabastad, Pretoria, Union of South Africa |
| Died | 27 October 2008(2008-10-27) (aged 88) Lebowakgomo, Limpopo, South Africa |
| Occupation | Writer, educationist, philosopher |
| Language | SePedi, SeTswana, SeSotho, IsiZulu, English, Afrikaans |
| Genre | Drama, fiction, poetry, |
Es'kia Mphahlele (17 December 1919 – 27 October 2008) was a South African writer, educationist, artist and activist celebrated as the Father of African Humanism and one of the founding figures of modern African literature.
He was given the name Ezekiel Mphahlele at birth but changed his name to Es'kia in 1977. His journey from a childhood in the slums of Pretoria to a literary icon was an odyssey both intellectually and politically. As a writer, he brought his own experiences in and
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Es’kia Mphahlele
Extract from media statement on the passing of Dr. Es’kia Mphahlele (1919 - 2008): By Minister of culture & society, Dr Z. Pallo Jordan
Es'kia [Ezekiel] Mphahlele, doyen of African letters, passed away in Lebowakgomo, Limpopo, on the evening of 27th October, 2008 at the ripe age of eighty-eight.
Mphahlele was the illustrious author of two autobiographies, more than thirty short stories, two verse plays and a fair number of poems.
“Add to these, two anthologies edited, essay collections, innumerable single essays, addresses, awards and a Nobel Prize nomination for literature and what emerges is to many the Dean of African Letters,” writes Peter Thuynsma, a leading Mphahlele scholar, in Perspectives on South African English Literature (1992: 221).
A self-made man, Mphahlele received a BA degree in 1949, followed in 1956 by a BA Honours degree and in 1957 by an MA degree (with distinction). He studied for his three degrees by correspondence with the