ENG2603 Assignment 3
2024 - DUE 13
September 2024
[Company address]
, ENG2603 Assignment 3 2024 - DUE 13 September 2024
In Welcome to Our Hilbrow, Refentše is depicted as a creative writer who notes a
problem with the suppression of writing literature in African languages. In one of the
passages in the novel Refentše is addressing Refilwe about the difficulties of writing in a
language NOT of one’s own. Refentše says: She did not know that writing in an Afri-can
language in South Africa could be such a curse. She had not anticipated that the
publishers’ reviewers would brand her novel vulgar. Calling shit and genitalia by their
cor-rect names in Sepedi was apparently regarded as vulgar by these reviewers, who
had for a long time been reviewing works of fiction for educational publishers, and who
were deter-mined to ensure that such works did not of-fend the systems that they
served. These systems were very inconsistent in their attitudes to education. They
considered it fine, for instance, to call genitalia by their cor-rect names in English and
Afrikaans biology books—even gave these names graphic pic-tures as escorts—yet in
all other languages, they criminalised such linguistic honesty. . . . In 1995, despite the
so-called new dispensa-tion, nothing had really changed. The leg-acy of Apartheid
censors still shackled those who dreamed of writing freely in an African The leg-acy of
Apartheid censors still shackled those who dreamed of writing freely in an African
language. Publishers, scared of being found to be on the financially dangerous side of
the censorship border, still rejected manuscripts that too realistically called things by
their proper names—names that people of Tirag-along and Hillbrow and everywhere in
the world used every day. (Welcome to Our Hillbrow, 56, 57) Assignment Task Read
the above passage and consider its significance in the African writers’ debates on which
2024 - DUE 13
September 2024
[Company address]
, ENG2603 Assignment 3 2024 - DUE 13 September 2024
In Welcome to Our Hilbrow, Refentše is depicted as a creative writer who notes a
problem with the suppression of writing literature in African languages. In one of the
passages in the novel Refentše is addressing Refilwe about the difficulties of writing in a
language NOT of one’s own. Refentše says: She did not know that writing in an Afri-can
language in South Africa could be such a curse. She had not anticipated that the
publishers’ reviewers would brand her novel vulgar. Calling shit and genitalia by their
cor-rect names in Sepedi was apparently regarded as vulgar by these reviewers, who
had for a long time been reviewing works of fiction for educational publishers, and who
were deter-mined to ensure that such works did not of-fend the systems that they
served. These systems were very inconsistent in their attitudes to education. They
considered it fine, for instance, to call genitalia by their cor-rect names in English and
Afrikaans biology books—even gave these names graphic pic-tures as escorts—yet in
all other languages, they criminalised such linguistic honesty. . . . In 1995, despite the
so-called new dispensa-tion, nothing had really changed. The leg-acy of Apartheid
censors still shackled those who dreamed of writing freely in an African The leg-acy of
Apartheid censors still shackled those who dreamed of writing freely in an African
language. Publishers, scared of being found to be on the financially dangerous side of
the censorship border, still rejected manuscripts that too realistically called things by
their proper names—names that people of Tirag-along and Hillbrow and everywhere in
the world used every day. (Welcome to Our Hillbrow, 56, 57) Assignment Task Read
the above passage and consider its significance in the African writers’ debates on which
