‘Eenheid and Apartheid’

Abstract

Abstract This chapter reads the short stories by Mtutuzeli Matshoba—Call Me Not a Man (1979)—and by Ahmed Essop—The Hajji and Other Stories (1978) and Noorjehan and Other Stories (1990)—focusing on the formal tension between unity and difference inherent in the genre of the short-story cycle. The chapter challenges and complicates the polarized readings of the two authors—both influenced by Black Consciousness—without erasing the difference between their short stories, which represent the Black and Indian communities of South Africa respectively. It also considers the new publishing scene in South Africa, in particular the birth of independent publishing houses such as Ravan Press and its influential magazine Staffrider. Disrupting linear chronology, this chapter finally discusses Essop’s two post-apartheid short-story cycles, The King of Hearts and Other Stories (1997) and Narcissus  and Other Stories (2002), which point to new ethical and aesthetical concerns in South African writing.