ENG2603 Assignment 3 (COMPLETE ANSWERS) 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
For assistance whatsapp +254702715801
, 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 languages to use
when writing African literature. Carefully consult and read Obiajunwa
Wali’s essay, The Dead end of African Literature? (2007) Ngugi wa
Thiongo essay, “The Language of African Literature” (2007), and Chinua
Achebe’s essay, “The African writer and African Language” In: Morning
Yet on Creation Day (1975) to understand this debate. Then, write an
essay of not more than three pages showing how Phaswane uses
language in Welcome to our Hillbrow. Your answer should incorporate
the views of the above scholars and you should indicate your position
regarding whether the use of a certain language but not another is still a
necessary debate in the 21st century.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:
For assistance whatsapp +254702715801
