Dance of life and death

July 14, 2014 12:27 PM

On Sunday, July 13th 2014, Africa's Nobel Laureates in Literature balanced the eternal dance of life and death. On that day, Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka celebrated his 80th birthday with Presidents and paeans, even as South African author Nadine Gordimer passed away that night at age 90. Each, in their own way with words, took on the challenge of race and colour.
posted by infini (14 comments total)

These words are not enough.

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posted by infini at 12:28 PM on July 14, 2014

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posted by Iridic at 12:28 PM on July 14, 2014

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posted by Cash4Lead at 12:54 PM on July 14, 2014

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posted by bjrn at 1:39 PM on July 14, 2014

I just want to point out that Africa has had another recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature: J. M. Coetzee.
posted by bjrn at 1:49 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

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posted by Jesse the K at 2:01 PM on July 14, 2014

I was introduced to Nadine Gordimer through the New Yorker fiction podcast. I really recommend it. I can't believe that came out two years ago as I still think about it often.
posted by carolr at 2:13 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

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posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 3:23 PM on July 14, 2014

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posted by Monsieur Caution at 4:33 PM on July 14, 2014

Margaret Atwood: ... underneath all her work is the question posed in Ursula K LeGuin's well-known story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas: if you know that the beautiful manner of living you yourself enjoy is built on a foundation of misery deliberately imposed on innocents, can you in conscience do nothing? Her own answer was always no.
posted by Rumple at 6:38 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

• she was one of the greats.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:32 PM on July 14, 2014

Oh wow :( didn't see anything about this.

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posted by Iteki at 8:13 AM on July 15, 2014

My hero Nadine Gordimer: reflections by Gillian Slovo, Jim Coetzee, and others.
posted by Rumple at 1:26 AM on July 19, 2014

My first introduction to Comrade Nadine was through her writing during my student activist days in the mid-1970s and later when I was serving five years on Robben Island as a political prisoner from 1979 to 1984. Her writing struck me so powerfully as it spoke of the lived experiences of people like me fighting the everyday trauma of the inequities and horror of apartheid. Alongside the writings of Karl Marx, Rosa Luxembourg, Samora Machel, Fidel Castro, Mariama Ba, Chinua Achebe and countless other revolutionary authors and thinkers, Comrade Nadine’s work occupied a pride of place in the reading and study menu of Robben Island prisoners and activists in the streets of townships, rural villages, exiled freedom fighters, or university lecture halls.

posted by infini at 8:04 AM on July 19, 2014