RAVAN, one of the stalwart anti-apartheid publishers of=20 the dark years of South Africa’s history, have started a=20 new series of titles called the Ravan Writers Series.=20
It was Ravan that first published JM Coetzee; that=20 published Mongane Wally Serote’s first (and thus far=20 only) novel. Many of their books were banned by the=20 white Nationalist government — and its founder Peter=20 Randall was restricted.=20
But, like so many other of the smaller local publishers,=20 Ravan had a hard time of it even when the threat of=20 repression had been lifted. While it continued to=20 produce important titles, their apperance was often=20 irregular — and finances were no rosier than they had=20 been in the Emergency years.=20
Recent manoeuvres linking them to XXXXXXX publishers=20 have given Ravan a new lease on life and the opportunity=20 to capitalise on a backlist that includes some of South=20 African literature’s most interesting and important=20
The Ravan Writers Series will also aim to attract and=20 encourage a range of new and established writers,=20 drawing them into the series.=20
The series has been launched with nine titles. They are:=20
* Yvonne Burgess’ Say a Little Mantra for Me, a=20 humorous picture of life in the confines of a South=20 African family.=20
* Waiting for Leila by Achmat Dangor, which won the=20 1979 Mofolo-Plomer Prize in conjunction with Mzala by=20 Mbulelo Mzamane, also in the Ravan Writers series. The=20 former tells the story of a man frantically searching=20 for a woman amid the destruction of District Six. The=20 latter is a version of the Jim-Comes-to-Jo’burg tale, a=20 humourous and penetrating view of township life.=20
* David Muller’s Whitey is a bleakly affecting novel=20 focusing on one weekend in the life of a footloose,=20 alcoholic sailor who finds himself in the depths of=20 District Six.=20
* Ahmed Essop’s novella The Emperor is a satire about a=20 egotistical and authoritarian headmaster.=20
* The Schoolmaster by Rose Moss presents the dilemmas=20 of a man who defies an oppressive system.=20
* The World of Nat Nakasa, edited by Essop Patel,=20 collects the work of one of South Africa’s key black=20 writers of the Fifties, showing off the “loud and=20 thunderous voice” with which he challenged inequality.=20
* Noni Jabavu’s The Ochre People is a delightfully=20 warm-hearted memoir of a return to South Africa in 1955=20 by a woman who had grown up in this country but left for=20 schooling in England at the age of 13.=20
* Native Life in South Africa is a great classic of=20 South African literature, a vital work by Sol T Plaatje,=20 one of the ANC’s founders and the first black person to=20 publish a novel in English. It details the horrible=20 results of the 1913 Land Act on the dispossessed people=20 of South Africa.=20