Preface to “FOOLS” AND OTHER STORIES - A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - University of Denver - March 1983

Aug 29, 2026

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The preface frames five stories as part of a long creative project exploring life in the South African community the author grew up in. The first part focuses on early childhood and adolescence in Charterston, a township near Nigel, shaped by a mix of urban and rural mentalities and a sense of smallness and isolation. The author explains the decision to write from outside metropolitan settings that dominant literary traditions treat as “valid,” and connects fiction to the political conditions of South Africa, where art becomes an act with social effects, limited by pervasive power and controlled daily life.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

The five stories as part of a long project

Charterston, Nigel, and the community perspective

Writing outside metropolitan literary traditions

Art and politics in South Africa

Limited creative horizons under oppression

Preface to “FOOLS” AND OTHER STORIES A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences University of Denver In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele March 1983 These five stories are part of a long project in which I am attempting to explore imaginatively various aspects of life in the community I grew up in South Africa. The first part, which these five stories cover, deals with the themes of early childhood and adolescence. In the second part I hope to explore adult life up to old age; lastly, I want to imaginatively study the movement of social change. I have had this project in mind for many years. The more I think about it, the more it seems to grow and to subject itself to so many diverse influences that it seems to be one of those things that will take a lifetime to complete. Charterston, where all but one of the stories in the first part are set, is a township of Nigel, a small city about thirty miles east of Johannesburg. The city stands at the eastern periphery of the Witwatersrand industrial complex. Although Nigel has a lot more industry now, when I was growing up there, we were surrounded by much farmland. As a result, I have found there an interesting mixture of urban and rural mentalities. This mixture, together with the geographical position of the city in relation to the metropolis, has contributed to the community’s sense of its own smallness and isolation. As far as I am aware, these stories represent the first sustained, serious efforts at written fiction to have ever come out of that small community. If the stories ever do get published together as they appear here, whatever their quality, they might represent a major literary event in the history of the Charterston community. My awareness of this possibility means that in writing these stories, I have been constantly alert to the presence of an attendant mixture of exhilaration and anxiety resulting from the sense of my being something of a pioneer. The decision, and that is what it was, to write about life in a small, rather parochial community, was not an easy one to make. It is as if in all the years the project has been in my mind, I was trying to convince myself of its validity. The reason for this is that much of South African fiction is set in the big metropolitan centres of Johannesburg, Durban, or Cape Town. Where small rural or semi-urban communities provide the setting, the protagonists, very early in the story, are quickly whisked away to the cities. Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country is the famous example of the latter kind. Many similar examples are to be found in Sizulu, Sixhosa, and Sesotho literatures. The result of this kind of literary tradition, so lacking in variety, is that it tended to exercise a tremendous tyrannical hold on my imagination, especially since, when I began to write, I had no extensive experience of life in the big cities. It was as if there were an unwritten law which stipulated that nothing outside of the metropolitan cities was valid for artistic treatment. In other words history, in the word’s broadest meaning, seemed to exist only in the large urban centres. So, being“outside’ history, I instinctively tried to turn away from and to suppress the local richness of my upbringing, one which had nurtured my imagination, and struggled to adopt a new, often imaginary sense of place. Thus, the economic, political, and cultural dominance of metropolitan over rural or semi-urban life could also be exerted over the creative imagination in terms of the availability of“valid” artistic choices. This is the case particularly with regard to content and theme. One of the aims of my project, therefore, is to deliberately work against such a tendency. But although my stories are not situated in rural communities as such, I have made a move away from the metropolis. When I had made my decision, I then became

FAQs

What does the author say the five stories are trying to explore?

The author presents the five stories as part of a long project imaginatively examining aspects of life in the community he grew up in. The first part addresses early childhood and adolescence, with later intent to explore adult life through old age and the movement of social change.

Why is Charterston (near Nigel) important to the stories?

Charterston is described as a township where the stories in the first part are set. Its location and the blend of urban and rural mentalities contribute to the community’s sense of smallness and isolation, and the author frames the work as among the first serious sustained written fiction from that small community.

How does the author justify writing about small communities instead of major cities?

The author argues that South African fiction often centers on major metropolitan areas, with protagonists moved quickly to cities. He describes an “unwritten law” that metropolitan settings are treated as valid for artistic treatment, and states his aim is to work against that tendency.

Aug 29, 2026

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