TRACING THE TERRAIN: RELIGION AND WRITING IN SOUTH AFRICA

This essay argues that a religious perspective on South African writing (the term is defined as including any cultural artefact, spoken or written, which uses language (s) as its main means of communication) is both fruitful and long overdue. The essay traces, or outlines, the general situation and lists some areas in which religious concerns, such as transformation, suffering and hope, poverty and marginality, can contribute to debates on South African writing. Some of these are further discussed. South Africa's history has been moulded by the terrain of this country and by questions of its ownership and control. Much South African writing (the term is used in a broad sense to refer to any cultural artefact, spoken or written, which uses language(s) as its main means of communication), has dealt implicitly or explicitly with the physical, emotional and intellectual boundaries which have resulted. Some writers have remained within those borders, but many have crossed them. On the whole, writing in this country has a courageous history of opposition to the status quo; but, in being oppositional, writers have tended to become inward. I would argue that a religious perspective has a great deal to contribute towards a picture which is more whole. Issues such as transformation, transcendence, prophecy (as truth telling), suffering and hope, possession and dispossession, sexuality and identity, poverty and marginality, and—above all— a patient awareness of processes unfolding are hallmarks of religion which are fruitful in discussing writing from South Africa. It is not that one stands on a high mountain, judging the situation, but rather that one walks across the field full of folk, to use Langland's phrase, and participates in the human situation. All that I intend to offer in the compass of a brief article is a tracing, or notes towards the long overdue map of South African writing from a religious point of view.3 Transcendence may be understood as the act of going beyond a situation, in this case one of borders internal and external, and is perhaps the central tenet of most religions, whether it is seen as redemption from sin, the attainment of © Oxford University Press 1999 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.138 on Tue, 19 Apr 2016 04:33:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 276 RELIGION AND WRITING IN SOUTH AFRICA nirvana, or unification with God, the gods, or the cosmos. Often one finds the prophets of a society, not necessarily in the religious sense, indicating areas where transcendence is necessary. They boldly speak the truth and transgress the norms of their society in search of a deeper truth. Sometimes, as in the South Africa of the past, the transcendence sought has been that of political liberation. Yet the process should not stop there. Writers are well placed to reflect prophetically on society and perhaps sometimes to help bring liberation about, and some South African writers have indeed been in the forefront of the struggle. But now that political liberation, at least, has been achieved, what is their role? In order to answer this query, one should point out that a variety of projects are underway in South Africa at present. Two examples follow, one from culture and one from history. Firstly, Afrikaans literature and culture, long the dominant Establishment in this country, are busy redefining themselves as an alternative discourse.4 This redefinition is not necessarily political (fascist traces are sometimes noticeable), but nonetheless represents a rebellion against traditional Afrikaner mores and displays an openness to other identities such as the gay/lesbian movement. Secondly, a major source of reflection and introspection is the centenary of the South African ('Anglo-Boer') War, which is being observed, along with the putative millennium about to dawn, in a major conference later this year. Issues of colonialism and transition are amongst those to be discussed. However, black people and women are still marginalised because the pre-conference material implies that the war took place between white males, and one may be forgiven for wondering if anything has really been transcended. Most other conferences this year also pay lip-service (at least) to the idea of the millennium. The recent democratic election, the inauguration of a new and businesslike President for whom issues of tangible transformation are paramount, and even the millennium hype are also signs of a momentous transition which cannot be ignored or wished away. The ferment in writing, culture and society is genuine, and is accompanied by much enthusiasm and zeal. Nevertheless, certain things are not happening. Certain boundaries are still firmly in place. Jean-Philippe Wade has called for a disclosure of this nation,5 but it is the purpose of this essay not so much to disclose the nation (which after all is in process of becoming), as to point to the continued existence of such boundaries and suggest what the future might hold. Wade's call for a 'vibrant theoretical experimentalism impatient with all dogmatism' is attractive because it opens up a lively place in which, by asking unusual questions, one can elicit answers which are not the standard ones. Of necessity these responses will be provisional. The role of this essay is to pose some of these more uncommon questions, impressionistically, rather than to impose answers which are monolithic. Let us see what directions emerge from this article and from the debate which will follow. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.138 on Tue, 19 Apr 2016 04:33:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms