“…to remember is like starting to see”: South African life stories today

Abstract

South African autobiographies in English published over the past ten years are abundant and cover a wide social range: from writers to politicians and from journalists to activists; TRC commissioners and medical specialists; artists and those in religious orders have all contributed to building a considerable oeuvre of informative, indeed often fascinating texts recording participation from different angles in the South African social process. Sharing recollections with readers, they enrich our sense of the agonies of the past and the possibilities of the future.