The South-African literature has a rather various history. Many black authors were informed by the missionaries Anglicans and the majority of them wrote, either in English, or in Afrikaans. One of the first novels known written by a black author in a African language is Mhudi of Solomon Plaatje (1930). The single company of its political history and South Africa allowed the emergence of many writers whose topics now exceed apartheid to be interested in the life of the population in the current society.

Anglophone writers

It is only at the beginning of the 20th century that develops really the South-African literature. Initially, it is the rural life of Afrikaners which is described by authors resulting from communautée the German Anglophone or E like Olive Shreiner (1855 - 1920), raised in the middle of South Africa. This sympathizer of Boers is then caught of it with the dominating cynicism of the British imperialist Cecil Rhodos but also with the rigidity of the social system afrikaner ( the story off year african farm ).

Alan Paton published the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (my beloved country Cries) in 1948. It is the tale of a black priest who comes from Johannesburg to find his son. This book was a best-seller.

During the Fifties, Nadine Gordimer started to publish its first stories. Its novel more known, July' S People , was published in 1981.

In the category of the popular novels, since 1964, the writer Wilbur Smith reports the history of the Southern Africa through the fictionalized history of the fictitious dynasty of Courtney and that of Ballantyne.

Writers and novelists afrikaners

In 1907, the Afrikaner S obtain a literary company ( Afrikaanse Taalvereniging ) then in 1909 of an Academy of Science and arts ( Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie to vir WetensKap in Kuns ) and in 1914 of a literary prize for works with language Afrikaans (the Hertzog price).

It is under the feather of Eugene Marais (1871 - 1936), Louis Leipoldt (1880 - 1947) and Jan Celliers (1865 - 1940) that develops the Poésie in language Afrikaans. These writers are initially inspired by the fatal consequences of the Guerre of Boers and by the sufferings endured by the latter in the Concentration camps British. They are also inspired by beautée of the South-African landscapes, the pioneer spirit of Boers, the Religion and the faith in a world with the image of God, expressing in their poems and accounts their attachment with the Western country culture, the Christian world and its benefits. It is the period known as of the Plaas Roman . In 1927, a Lyric Poem in Afrikaans of Cornelius Jacob Langenhoven, Die Stem van Suid Afrika, describing the vastness of the veld and the allegiance of the pioneers towards their country, becomes the National anthem of South Africa while Totius, poet and professor of Théologie, takes as a starting point the Calvinisme to propose a religious reading of the history of Afrikaners of which the sufferings would be the proof of their divine election.

At the end of the Twenties, the topics devoted to the war, the Martyr of the children boers died in the English camps grow blurred to yield the place to a writing plus intimist. Toon van der Heever and Eugene Marais wonders in particular about the destiny of Afrikaners whereas D.F. Malherbe takes as a starting point the history of the pioneers boers to propose a news Morale to be followed to the uprooted young generations of Afrikaners. During this time, one of the dominant topics of the literature Afrikaans is the description of the tearing of Afrikaners between cities and campaigns and the exaltation of individual freedom and the border.

In the Thirties and Forties, the movement of the " Dertigters" , whose leaders are N.P. Van Wyk Louw, Dirk Opperman and Uys Krige, wonders about the direction of the life and testifies to the concern of people in the search of his reference marks. The intellectual elite afrikaner is thus firmly mobilized to fight against the massification and for the defense of its values and its culture.

In a register less marked by their origins, the afrikaners Charles Bosman and Laurens van der Post, write in English and know a true international notoriety. From the Sixties, a certain number of writers, the Sestigers , the anguishes and modern conflicts of Afrikaners translate. They tackle the questions of sex, dispute the any power of the reformed church, its morals and apartheid. These young authors resulting from the intellectual elite of the large South-African universities often remained in Europe and noted the abyss separating South-African and European mentalities pushing some of them in despair and death following the example Ingrid Jonker (1933 - 1965). Others like Etienne Leroux but especially Andre Brink and Breyten Breytenbach call into question apartheid by the means of their literary production ( One season white and dries ,…). Thus André Brink was the first writer afrikaner with being prohibited by the government after having published has Dry White Season , the history of South-African which discovers the truth on a black friend killed by the police force while Breyten Breytenbach was imprisoned for its engagement in the fight against the Apartheid. Others a contrario as Frans Venter treat racial question by the means of the Paternalisme ( Die Swart Pelgrims ) and well are accommodated by the governmental press of language Afrikaans.

In only one book, the journalist afrikaner Rian Malan expresses with the whole world the identity and sedentary anguishes of his people in his Best seller published in 1991 " My heart of traitre". In this book, the author expresses the physical attachment which binds it to its country and its doubts of Afrikaner progressist, opposed to the Racial segregation, vis-a-vis the advent at the same time hoped and dreaded of a government with black majority with the direction of the country.

After 1994, the politically less committed figures of John Maxwell Coetzee and Karel Shoeman replace old the sestigers. Whereas Karel Schoeman concentrates on the past attempting to illustrate splendors of its native soil ( In strange country ), Coetzee describes the " loneliness of the man blanc" ( While waiting for the Barbarians ) and them anguishes of its country ( Disgrace ). In 2003, it receives the Nobel Prize of literature.

A new generation also emerges proposing a new glance on the nation afrikaner. Thus, in its in its book “Triomf”, Marlene Van Niekerk considers the misery of the white before the advent of the multiracial government. In " Die Reuk van Appels" (" odor of the pommes"), the anglo-afrikaner Mark Behr describes mentality afrikaner and apartheid through the eyes of a 10 year old child, wire of a high-graded soldier.

Writers of colors

During the Fifties, Drum Magazine became a hearth for the political satire, the fiction and the tests and gave a voice to the black urban culture.

Several black poets were important in the Seventies: Mongane Wally Serote, whose work celebrates No Baby Must Weep , gives a vision of the daily life of the Blacks under apartheid. Another black novelist celebrates Zakes Mda wrote poetry, parts then novels. Its novel The Heart off Redness gained in 2001 the the Commonwealth Writers Prize and belonged to the school program in South Africa.

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