South Africa: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions) [Paperback]

This collection was published in 2009 and contained 17 works by as many South African writers. There were 10 short stories, and excerpts from 5 novels, an extended essay, and a memoir. The book is part of the Whereabouts Press's traveler's literary companion series, a beautiful attempt to introduce a wide range of foreign writers and locations to English-language readers.

All the works in the South African anthology were written originally in English, except for one translation from Afrikaans, by Jan Rabie, and one that might have been translated from Xhosa, by A. C. Jordan. There was nothing translated from Zulu, Pedi, Tswana, Sotho or the other indigenous languages. Writers of European heritage included Olive Schreiner, Alan Paton, Nadine Gordimer, Ivan Vladislavic, Jan Rabie, J. M. Coetzee and H. C. Bosman. Those of black African heritage included A. C. Jordan, Es'kia Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, Gcina Mhlope, Modikwe Dikobe and Zachariah Rapola. A writer of multiracial heritage was Richard Rive. Those of Indian background included Ahmed Essop, Ronnie Govinder and Rustum Kozain.

The collection was divided into writing set in three geographical regions--Gauteng (including Johannesburg and Pretoria), KwaZulu-Natal (including Durban) and the Western Cape (including Cape Town)--plus one catch-all chapter for rural areas/the farm/the game park. One work, by Schreiner, dated to the first decade of the 20th century. The rest ranged from the 1940s (Mphahlele, Bosman, Paton) to the 2000s (Vladislavic, Rapola, Kozain). The few published after the end of apartheid didn't refer to the events leading up to 1994 and after, and focused on the downbeat. Two pieces, "1899" by Schreiner and "Mrs. Plum" by Mphahlele, both classics, comprised more than one-third of the anthology.

For this reader, the most interesting stories by far were "The Hajji" by Essop, which showed the dilemma faced by a Muslim Indian who sacrificed too much to try to keep his sense of dignity. And "The Rooinek" by Bosman, in which an Afrikaner narrator told of a horrific trek across a desert and mused on the conflict of English and Boer, with a memorable blend of humor and sadness. "The Turban" by Jordan, presented in the style of an oral tale said to be based on Xhosa narrative, also impressed. Schreiner's "1899," about the sacrifices of the Boers through several generations, was grim reading but ultimately moving, and showed well people's connection to the land.

Other stories focused on the early Dutch exploring the land (Rabie), the landscape and people's relation to it (Paton), strife and cooperation between the Zulus and Indians (Govender), a riot in a township (Coetzee), a young black woman forced to marry against her will (Mhlope), and the Afrikaners' oppression of blacks in the countryside (Dikobe). The excerpt from Vladislavic's essay described how security systems in today's South Africa isolated people. Some of the stories were too short (Nkosi, on a man in prison), unfocused (Rapola, on a man and a prostitute) or had points that escaped me (Kozain, Gordimer).

Examples of positive social change and cooperation in this collection were rare; from this collection alone, one could easily get the impression that apartheid hadn't ended. Of necessity, the focus of many stories set in the past was on people separated by race/ethnic group and by historical conflict.

Some authors and works that might've filled out the anthology, in my opinion, are "Bloodsong" by Ernst Havemann, about a white boy's tale of bonding with Zulu people in connection with an ancestral dance they performed. "I Take Back My Country" by Bartho Smit, about the uneasy relationship between a gifted black artist and a wealthy white man. And "Recognition" by David Medalie, in which the widow of an Afrikaner leader attended a reconciliation banquet held by a post-apartheid leader. Or works by the many multiracial writers left out, such as Peter Abrahams, Alex La Guma, James Matthews and Zoe Wicomb. Writers translated from Afrikaans were also missing, except for Rabie. More humor might've been added by something like Lewis Nkosi's "The Prisoner," in which a black maid kidnapped and manhandled her white boss.

Recent other anthologies include Encounters: An Anthology of South African Short Stories (1998), Running toward Us: New Writing from South Africa (2000), the 900-page Omnibus of a Century of South African Stories (2007), and the 600-page Captured in Time: Five Centuries of South African Writing (2010).

Earlier collections include Modern South African Stories (1980), The Penguin Book of Southern African Stories (1985), A Land Apart: A Contemporary South African Reader (1986), The Vita Anthology of New South African Short Fiction (1988), The Penguin Book of Contemporary South African Short Stories (1993) and The Heinemann Book of South African Short Stories from 1945 to the Present (1994).

I bought this to read on a recent trip to South Africa but not convinced it was the best choice for a holiday read.

The way in which the stories are set in different areas of the country was good - making it easy to start with those in places I was visiting. Many of the tales were very visual and did help bring a new vividness to certain places (i.e. District Six). But overall, it was unexpectedly downbeat with sad endings being almost de rigeur and with the main protaganists in the stories not having much expectation of anything more. Perhaps that tells a tale in itself but while there are a few in here that I'll go back and reread, I didn't recommend it to my travelling companions.