Between freedom and self-subjection: the dilemma of writing in an African language

• Main Author: N. Maake
• Format: Article
• Language: Afrikaans
• Published: AOSIS 2006-07-01
• Series: Literator
• Subjects: African Literature; Choice Of Language; Overcoming The Parochialism Of Literary Traditions; Sotho-Literature; Representations Of The Other; Travel Writing
• Online Access: https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/183

This article is an analysis of the dilemmas that confront an author who chooses to write in an African language. (Language choice remains a particularly vexing issue in African literature.) On the one hand a language that he is a master of gives him the freedom to assert himself and oppose the imperial way of thinking, which is liberating. On the other hand choice of language confines his work to a specific audience and a particular set of literary canons. Sometimes certain influential gatekeepers overtly prescribe boundaries and limit the possibilities of transcending them. On the other hand, as a case study of Sesotho literature shows, the literature itself manifests generic and thematic propensities that limit the freedom of literary expression. From the subjective and privileged position of being a writer in Sesotho himself the author in the end makes a number of suggestions on how to overcome this stifling status quo.