South African Literature Online
This collection is part of the research project “What is New about ‘New South Africa’? Literary and Cultural Developments of the 20th and 21st Centuries”, conducted by Dr Ellen Grünkemeier and Henning Marquardt
Annotated Texts
Abrahams, Peter: Tell Freedom (1954)
Abrahams’s autobiography, Tell Freedom, published in 1954, covers this first period of his life from his first childhood memories shortly before his father’s death to the time when he leaves South Africa in 1939. In a chronological sequence of episodes, the reader follows the protagonist on his journey through large parts of the country, from Johannesburg to Cape Town and, finally, to Durban where he boards a ship to England.
Full Text (external link)
Bosman, Herman Charles: Cold Stone Jug (1949)
At the age of 21 Herman Charles Bosman was sentenced to death for the murder of his stepbrother. However, he was granted a reprieve and served a term of four years in Pretoria Central Prison. Twenty years later the South African writer and journalist came to terms with this dark period of his life and wrote an autobiographical account of his prison experience, Cold Stone Jug, which was published in 1949.
Full Text (external link)
Alphabetical List of Links to Full Texts
(external links)
- Barker, Mary Anne: A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa (1877) (accessible via German university libraries)
- Blackburn, Douglas: Leaven – A Black and White Story (1908)
- Blackburn, Douglas: Prinsloo of Prinsloosdorp (1908)
- Blackburn, Douglas: Richard Hartley, Prospector (1905)
- Bokwe, John Knox: Ntsikana – The Story of an African Convert (1914) (accessible via German university libraries)
- Brandt, Johanna: Petticoat Commando (1913)
- Dhlomo, R.R.R.: An African Tragedy (1928) (accessible via German university libraries)
- Fitzpatrick, James Percy: Jock of the Bushveld (1907)
- Fitzpatrick, James Percy: The Outspan – Tales of South Africa (1897)
- Fitzpatrick, James Percy: The Transvaal from Within (1899)
- Gibbon, Perceval: African Items – A Volume of Verse (1903)
- Gibbon, Perceval: Souls in Bondage (1904)
- Gibbon, Perceval: Those Who Smiled and Other Stories (1920)
- Gibbon, Perceval: Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases (1906)
- Henty, George Alfred: With Roberts to Pretoria – A Tale of the South African War (1902) (accessible via German university libraries)
- Millin, Sarah Gertrude: The Dark River (1920)
- Mphahlele, Es'kia: African Image (1962)
- Paton, Alan: Hope for South Africa (1959)
- Plaatje, Solomon T.: Mhudi – An Epic of South African Native Life (1930, Lovedale Edition) (accessible via German university libraries)
- Plaatje, Solomon T.: Native Life in South Africa (1914)
- Plaatje, Solomon T.: A Sechuana Reader (1916)
- Rosenthal, Eric: General de Wet
- Schreiner, Olive: Dreams (1890)
- Schreiner, Olive: Dream Life and Real Life (1893)
- Schreiner, Olive: An English-South African View of the Situation (1899)
- Schreiner, Olive: The Political Situation in Cape Colony (1895)
- Schreiner, Olive: So Here Then are Dreams (1901)
- Schreiner, Olive: The South African Question (1899)
- Schreiner, Olive: Stories, Dreams and Allegories (1922)
- Schreiner, Olive: Story of an African Farm (1883)
- Schreiner, Olive: Thoughts on South Africa (1923)
- Schreiner, Olive: Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland (1897)
- Schreiner, Olive: Woman and Labour (1911)
- Viljoen, Ben: My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War (1902)
- Waters, Marry W.: Cameos from the Kraal (1926)