African Literature and Intellectual Histories: Reflecting on Ntongela Masilela's Work

Ntongela Masilela (1948–2020) is perhaps best known for collecting, archiving, and expounding on the works of South African and other African intellectuals―most notably members of the New African Movement―who historically had been overlooked or forgotten. Busani Ngcaweni presents a selection of Masilela’s most important essays, prefacing each with an illuminating introduction that places the work in historical context and highlights its significance.

CONTENTS:
* Foreword--Chérif Keïta.
* Professor Ntongela Desmond Joseph Masilela--A Profile.
* Writing in the Latter Years of the "Interregnum Period" and in the "New South Africa" Era: An Introduction.
* Issues in the Historiography of South African Literature.
* Historical Problematics in Black South African Literature.
* Black South African Literature from the Sophiatown Renaissance to Black Mamba Rising Movement: Transformations and Variations from the 1950s to the 1980s.
* Language as a Cultural Issue in Africa Today.
* A Moment of Reflection on the Occasion of the Eleventh Commemoration of the June 1976 Uprising.
* The Political Forms and Cultural Processes of a Particular South African Exile.
* Umoja Centre as a Continuation of the Pan-Africanist Tradition in the Present Context.
* What Was the New African Movement? A Conversation with Sandile Ngidi.
* What Was the H.I.E. Dhlomo Centre for African Intellectual History? Mbukeni H. Mngubi Interviews Ntongela Masilela.
* The Return of Mazisi Kunene to South Africa: The End of an Intellectual Chapter in Our Literary History.
* Africa in America and America in Africa: The Politics of Cultural Reciprocity.
* The Transatlantic Connections of the New African Movement.
* A Cavalcade of Artistic Forms in Contemporary South Africa.
* A Fated Intellectual Snapshot of a Disappeared Literary Generation.
* The Historical Significance of China for South Africa in the Second Decade of the 21st Century.
* Foreshadowings in the Making of an "African Renaissance."