Representing South Africa in the African Writers Series

Abstract

James Currey was the editor in charge of the African Writers Series at
Heinemann from 1967 to 1984. His colleagues were Aig Higo in Nigeria,
Henry Chakava in Kenya and Keith Sambrook in London. Between them
they published the first 270 titles in the Series. James Currey is working on a
book to be called Africa Writes Back about the first quarter century of the
African Writers Series. It will show how the Series attempted to reflect the
way that writing was developing in different countries throughout the
continent. He has been able to draw on the African Writers Series files
which Heinemann has lodged with the University of Reading library in their
renowned publishing archive. In his book he will also show the way that
publishing relationships developed with certain authors. His book will
include detailed accounts of working with the South African writers in exile
Alex la Guma, Dennis Brutus and Mazisi Kunene. His account of the vivid
correspondence with Bessie Head has recently been published in Wasafiri in
London.
This article shows the changing way in which writers from South Africa
were represented in the Heinemann series. By the seventies Heinemann had
editorial offices in Ibadan and Nairobi which took an active role in building
up the Series. There was no editorial office in South Africa. James Currey,
and his network of South African advisers, was keen to publish writers from
within South Africa. This article concentrates on Heinemann's efforts to find
unpublished writers within South Africa. In particular, it focuses on James
Currey's involvement with three novels of social reality: D. M. Zwelonke's
Robben Island, Modikwe Dikobe's The Marabi Dance and R. L. Peteni's
Hill of Fools.

English in Africa Vol. 34 (1) 2007: pp.5-20