“Telling freedom” or “telling the spades back home how to behave”? re-examining Peter Abrahams’s writing in London

Abstract

This article considers the notable dearth of recent scholarship on Peter Abrahams’s writing in the context of his exile and his complex, shifting ideological self-positioning throughout his career. To attempt to address this lacuna in South African literary criticism, and to partially explain why Abrahams has been under-researched, I look at key moments during his early career, including the publication of Dark Testament (1942), Song of the City (1945) and Return to Goli (1953). By focusing on texts by Abrahams that were published during his time in London, I also wish to address the significance of the city in the history of South African literature, and in African anti-colonial and anti-racist thinking more broadly.

Keywords: Peter Abrahams, London, Black Atlantic, transnationalism, anti-colonialism, Pan-Africanism, liberal humanism