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The year 2006 will mark the one hundredth anniversary of the births of B.W. Vilakazi and A.C. Jordan, two significant figures in the history and development of Black South African literature during the twentieth century. The proposed work will be an edited collection of scholarly
articles and essays, published by Wits University Press, that examines the literary works, academic and political activities, and legacies of these prominent South African scholars.
Benedict Wallet Vilakazi was born at Groutville mission near KwaDukuza in Natal, studied and taught at Mariannhill, received his bachelor's degree from Unisa, and in 1935 was appointed as the first African lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where he subsequently earned his Masters and Doctorate degrees. Between 1933
and 1945, he wrote three novels and is best known for his collections of poetry in Zulu, Inkondlo kaZulu (Zulu Songs) and Amal' eZulu (Zulu Horizons), published by Wits University Press in 1935 and 1945, respectively, as part of its Bantu Treasury Series. Vilakazi was also a member of the African National Congress, working with activists such as Nobel laureate Albert Luthuli, John L. Dube, A.W.G. Champion, and A.B. Xuma. He died in 1947, a year after completing his doctorate.
Archibald Campbell Jordan was born in Mbokotwana in the Transkei, studied at Lovedale and Fort Hare, and taught at the Bantu High School in Kroonstad for a number of years before being appointed as the first African lecturer at the University of Cape Town in 1946. His novel Ingqumbo yeMinyanya (The Wrath of the Ancestors), published by Lovedale Press in 1940, has been hailed as "the perfect Xhosa novel written in perfect Xhosa." Jordan received his doctorate from the University of Cape Town in 1956, and was active in the Non-European Unity Movement. His outspoken criticism of the 1953 Bantu Education Act and 1959 Extension of Higher Education Act resulted in the denial of his application for a passport in order to take up a research grant from the Carnegie Foundation to study methods of teaching African languages in the United States and Britain. Consequently, he went into exile in 1961 and taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the United States until his death in 1968.
Manuscripts may address any aspect of the literary, linguistic, and/or critical work of either or both authors, their political activism, or other aspects of their careers, including their legacies. The editors invite the submission of abstracts of 300-500 words and a brief CV
(maximum two pages) from prospective authors. Abstracts must be received via e-mail no later than October 15, 2005, but preference of review will be given to those received by October 1, 2005. Completed manuscripts selected for the collection must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words and received by December 1, 2005.
Submit abstracts to:
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