Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  • Cited by 6
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
December 2020
Print publication year:
2021
Online ISBN:
9781108642736
Series:
Elements in Publishing and Book Culture

Book description

In many parts of the world, oppositional publishing has emerged in contexts of state oppression. In South Africa, censorship laws were enacted in the 1960s, and the next decade saw increased pressure on freedom of speech and publishing. With growing restrictions on information, activist publishing emerged. These highly politicised publishers had a social responsibility, to contribute to social change. In spite of their cultural, political and social importance, no academic study of their history has yet been undertaken. This Element aims to fill that gap by examining the history of the most vocal and arguably the most radical of this group, Ravan Press. Using archival material, interviews and the books themselves, this Element examines what the history of Ravan reveals about the role of oppositional print culture.

Reviews

‘… sheds light on the roots, development, influence and legacy of the legendary Ravan Press.’

Raphaël Thierry Source: Publishing Research Quarterly

Bibliography

Acknowledgements: This work is based on research supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Number 103730) and the British Academy’s Newton Mobility Grant. Thanks to all the archivists and those who agreed to be interviewed for this research.

Archives

Ravan Press collection, 1998.8. NELM (Amazwi) Archives, Grahamstown/Makhanda, South Africa.
Ravan Press collection, Pan Macmillan Archives, Johannesburg, South Africa. (Uncatalogued)

Secondary Sources

Africa Legal Assistance Project. (1974). Interim Report. Washington, DC: ALAP.
Albert, Michael. (2008). Interview: Alternative publishing and its problems. ZNet, 18 February.
Alvarez-Pereyre, Jacques. (1984). The Poetry of Commitment in South Africa. Johannesburg: Heinemann.
American Library Association. (1980). Alternatives in Print. New York: Neal-Schuman.
Banoobhai, Shabbir. Online: http://veilsoflight.com/about/.
Barnett, Ursula. (1983). A Vision of Order. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Benjamin, Walter. (1973). The storyteller. In Polletta, Gregory, ed., Issues in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
Booth-Yudelman, Gillian. (1997). South African political prison-literature between 1948 and 1990. Diss., Unisa.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (1985). The Market of Symbolic Goods. Poetics 14(1/2): 1344.
Bozzoli, Belinda. (1983). Town and Countryside in the Transvaal. History Workshop 2 (Wits University).
Bozzoli, Belinda. (1990). Intellectuals, Audiences and Histories. Radical History Review, 4647: 237–63.
Breckenridge, Keith. (2015). Hopeless Entanglement: The Short History of the Academic Humanities in South Africa. American Historical Review, 120(4): 1253–66.
Brummer, William. (1990). Violence Processing: Fighting Words and South Africa. Processed World, 25 (Fall).
Bryer, Lynne. (1982). Publishing in the wake of Soweto. The Bookseller, 15 July: 129.
Callinicos, Luli. (1990). Popular History in the Eighties. Radical History Review, 46(7): 285–97.
Chapman, Michael. (1981). South Africa: The Year That Was. Kunapipi, 3(1).
Chapman, Michael. (1982). South Africa: The Year That Was. Kunapipi, 4(1).
Chisholm, Linda. (2013). The Textbook Saga and Corruption in Education. Southern African Review of Education 19(1): 722.
Cloete, Dick. (2000). Alternative Publishing in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. In Evans, Nicholas & Seeber, Monica (eds), The Politics of Publishing in South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Connor, Bernard. (1986). Remembering the Freedom Charter. Grace & Truth, 3: 112.
Davis, Geoffrey. (2003). Voices of Justice and Reason. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
De Lange, Margreet. (1997). The Muzzled Muse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
De Waal, Shaun. (1996). Ravan will NOT close. Mail & Guardian, 8 November.
Douyère, David & Pinhas, Luc. (2008). L’accès à la parole: la publication politique des éditeurs indépendants. Communication & langages, 156 (June): 7589.
Downing, John. (1984). The Political Experience of Alternative Communication. Boston: South End Press.
Downing, John. (2001). Radical Media: Rebellious Communication and Social Movements. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Driver, Dorothy. (1987). Appendix II: South Africa. Journal of Commonwealth Literature: 170–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/002198948802300211
Driver, Dorothy. (1989/90). Appendix II: South Africa. Journal of Commonwealth Literature: 168213. https://doi.org/10.1177/002198948802300211
Dubow, Saul. (2014). Apartheid 1948–1994. New York: Oxford University Press.
Efrat, Z. (1996). New ownership scramble. Natal Witness, 27 November: 8.
Egan, Anthony. (1990). Perspectives of the future. The Cape Argus, 26 February.
Enzensberger, Hans. (1976). Raids and Reconstructions: Essays on Politics, Crime and Culture. London: Pluto Press.
Essery, Isabel. (2005). The impact of politics on indigenous independent publishers from 1970–2004. Diss., Oxford Brookes University.
Frederikse, Julie. (2015). Author’s reflections: Southern African mashups. Online: www.saha.org.za/nonracialism/authors_reflections_september_2015.htm
Gqola, Pumla Dineo. (2001). In Search of Female Staffriders: Authority, Gender and Audience, 1978–1982, Current Writing 13(2): 3141.
Gray, Stephen. (1980). Southern Africa: The Year That Was. Kunapipi, 2(1).
Greyling, L.-M. (2003). Redefining the dialogue of criticism. MA Diss., University of Pretoria.
Gwala, Mafika. (1984). Writing as a Cultural Weapon. In Daymond, M.J., Jacobs, J.U. & Lenta, Margaret (eds). Momentum: On Recent South African Writing. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 3753.
Hacksley, Malcolm. (2007). An Oppositional Publisher under a Repressive Regime. Paper presented at A World Elsewhere conference, Cape Town.
Hadfield, Leslie Anne. (2016). Liberation and Development. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
Hall, Stuart. (1973/1980). Encoding/Decoding. In Hall, Stuart, Hobson, Dorothy, Lowe, Andrew & Willis, Paul (eds). Culture, Media, Language. London: Hutchinson.
Hayes, Graham. (2016). Chabani Manganyi: Black intellectual and psychologist. Psychology in Society, 52, 73-9.
Hill, Shannen. (2015). The Iconography of Black Consciousness: Biko’s Ghost. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Hofmeyr, Isabel. (1992). Review. Weekly Mail, October 30 to November 5.
Horn, Peter. (1994). Writing My Reading: Essays on Literary Politics in South Africa. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Hotz, Paul. (1991). Publishers’ problems bad news for writers. The Daily News, 26 September: 22.
International Commission of Jurists. (1975). The Trial of Beyers Naudé. London: Search Press.
Ireland, Philippa. (2013). Laying the Foundations: New Beacon Books, Bogle L’Ouverture Press and the Politics of Black British Publishing. E-rea 11(1).
Isaacson, Maureen. (1996). A quirky, subversive voice in local literature. Saturday Star, 1 June.
Kannemeyer, J.C. (2012). J.M. Coetzee, A Life in Writing. London: Scribe.
Kantey, Mike. (1990). Foreword: Publishing in South Africa. In Africa Bibliography 1989. London: International African Institute.
Kantey, Mike. (1992). The provision of textbooks in South Africa. National Education Policy Investigation working paper.
Keaney, Matthew. (2010). From the Sophiatown Shebeens to the Streets of Soweto on the pages of Drum, The Classic, New Classic, and Staffrider. Diss., George Mason University.
Kellner, Clive & Gonzalez, Sergio-Albio, eds. (2009). Thami Mnyele + Medu. Johannesburg: Jacana.
Khan, Shafa. (1989). Who reads what’s written to be watched? Weekly Mail, 23–30 March.
Khoapa, Bennie. (1973). Black Review. Durban: Spro-cas Black Community Programme.
Kirkwood, Mike. (1976). The Colonizer: A Critique of the English South African Cultural Theory. In Poetry South Africa. Johannesburg: Ad Donker.
Kirkwood, Mike. (1979). Banning of Book Angers Africans. The Argus, 14 November.
Kirkwood, Mike. (1980). Staffrider: An informal discussion. English in Africa 7(2).
Kirkwood, Mike. (1983). Reflections on PEN. Sesame, 3 (Summer): 22–6.
Kirkwood, Mike. (1987). Literature and Popular Culture in South Africa. Third World Quarterly 9(2).
Kleinschmidt, Horst. (2013). Roots and journeys linking the Christian Institute and wider community to the re-ignition of resistance to apartheid in the early 70’s. Unpublished document.
Kleyn, Leti & Marais, Johann Lodewyk. (2009). Wopko Jensma en die sensuurwetgewing van die jare sewentig. Tydskrif vir Nederlands en Afrikaans 16(20): 3752.
Kunene, Daniel. (1981). Ideas under Arrest: Censorship in South Africa. Research in African Literatures 12(4).
Le Roux, Elizabeth. (2018). Miriam Tlali and Ravan Press: Politics and Power in Literary Publishing during the Apartheid Period. Journal of Southern African Studies, 44(3): 431–44.
Lewis, Simon. (2000). Review of Ravan Twenty-Five Years, H-Net.
MacKenzie, Craig. (1990). Njabulo Ndebele and the Challenge of the New. Language Projects Review 5(3).
Matshoba, Mtutuzeli. (1981). Disbandment of PEN. Staffrider 4(1).
Matteau, Rachel. (2007). The readership for banned literature and its underground networks in apartheid South Africa. Innovation 35(1).
Maués, Flamarion. (2014). Livros, editoras e oposição à ditadura. Estudos avançados 28(80): 91104.
McClintock, Anne. (1987). Azikwelwa: Politics and Value in Black South African Poetry. Critical Inquiry 13 (Spring): 597623.
McDonald, Peter. (2009). The Literature Police. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McGuinness, Patrick. (2015). Poetry and Radical Politics in Fin de Siècle France. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McLaughlin, Robert. (1996). Oppositional Aesthetics/Oppositional Ideologies: A Brief Cultural History of Alternative Publishing in the United States. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 37(3).
McMillian, John. (2011). Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Medeiros, Nuno. (2015). Action, Reaction and Protest by Publishers in 1960s Portugal. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 16(2–3).
Mitchell, James. (1992). Top of the list in the publishing stakes. The Star, 12 August.
Mofokeng, Boitumelo. (1989). Where Are the Women? Ten Years of Staffrider. Current Writing 1(1): 41–3.
Morphet, Tony. (1978). Introduction. In Turner, R., ed., The Eye of the Needle. Johannesburg: Ravan.
Morphet, Tony. (1996). Ravan: Child of a special time. Mail & Guardian, 1–7 November.
Moss, Glenn. (1993a). Educational Publishing in South Africa. African Publishing Review.
Moss, Glenn. (1993b). The Life and Changing Times of an Independent Publisher in South Africa. Logos 4(3).
Moss, Glenn. (1994). The Life and Times of Ravan. African Publishing Review (May/June).
Moss, Glenn. (1997). Ringing the Changes: Twenty-Five Years of Ravan Press. In de Villiers, Gerald, ed., Ravan Twenty-five Years. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Mpe, Phaswane & Seeber, Monica. (2000). The Politics of Book Publishing in South Africa. In Evans, Nicholas & Seeber, Monica, eds., The Politics of Publishing in South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Mtshali, Oswald. (1980). Ravan: Pressing for change … . Tribune, 19 August.
Mzamane, Mbulelo, ed. (1986). Hungry Flames and Other Black South African Short Stories. Harlow: Longman.
Mzamane, Mbulelo, (1991). The Impact of Black Consciousness on Culture. In Pityana, N.B., Ramphele, M., Mpumlwana, M. & Wilson, L., eds., Bounds of Possibility: The Legacy of Steve Biko and Black Consciousness. London: Zed.
Ndebele, Njabulo. (1983). Life-Sustaining Poetry of a Fghting People. Staffrider 5(3): 44–5.
Ndebele, Njabulo. (1989). The Writers’ Movement in South Africa. Research in African Literatures, 20(3): 412–21.
Nicol, Mike. (1975). Ravan flies out of the red. To the Point, 8 August.
Nicol, Mike. (2009). A chat with Wessel Ebersohn. CrimeBeat. http://crimebeat.bookslive.co.za/blog/2009/08/25/a-chat-with-wessel-ebersohn/
Nkosi, Lewis. (1994). Constructing the ‘Cross-Border’ Reader. In Boehmer, E., Chrisman, L. & Parker, K., eds., Altered State? Writing and South Africa. Aarhus: Dangaroo Press, 4546.
O’Toole, Sean. (2017). Uncommon Criticism: Reading Ivan Vladislavić’s Collected Work as Art Criticism. Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 52(1): 1126.
Oliphant, Andries. (1990). Staffrider Magazine and Popular History. Radical History Review 46/47.
Oliphant, Andries. (1991). South African Publishers, Social Transformation and the Democratisation of Communication. Communicatio 17(1).
Oliphant, Andries. (1998). Celebrating Nadine Gordimer. New York: Viking.
Oliphant, Andries. (2000). From Colonialism to Democracy: Writers and Publishing in South Africa. In de Villiers, Gerald, ed. The Politics of Publishing in South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Oliphant, Andries. (2001). Forums and Forces. In Petersen, Kirsten Holst & Rutherford, Anna, eds. On Shifting Sands. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Omond, Roger. (1985). Battle of the books. The Guardian, 17 May.
Penfold, Thomas. (2013). Black Consciousness and the Politics of Writing the Nation in South Africa. Diss., University of Birmingham.
Philip, David. (1991). Book Publishing Under and After Apartheid. In Book Publishing in South Africa for the 1990s. Cape Town: National Library of South Africa.
Povey, John. (1985). Review. African Book Publishing Record, 11(2).
Powell, Rose. (1980). Writing Is Part of the Struggle. Index on Censorship 9(6): 10.
Prabhakaran, S. (1998). Crisis hits educational publishers. Mail & Guardian, 17–23 April.
Pretorius, William. (1994). Local publishers in flux. Mail & Guardian, 27 May–2 June: 38.
Randall, Peter. (1970). Anatomy of Apartheid. Johannesburg: Spro-cas.
Randall, Peter. (1973a). A Taste of Power. Johannesburg: Spro-cas.
Randall, Peter. (1973b). Spro-Cas: Motivations and Assumptions. Pro Veritate, 5.
Randall, Peter. (1974). Spro-Cas: Some Publishing Problems. Africa Today 21(2): 7578.
Randall, Peter. (1975). Minority Publishing in South Africa. African Book Publishing Record 1(3): 219–22.
Randall, Peter. (1976). The Banning of Confused Mhlaba. Index on Censorship 5(4): 69.
Randall, Peter. (1997). The Beginnings of Ravan Press: A Memoir. In de Villiers, G.E., ed. Ravan Twenty-Five Years. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Rantete, Johannes. (1985). ‘The Third Day of September’. Index on Censorship 14(3): 3742.
Rich, Paul. (1993). Hope and Despair: English-Speaking Intellectuals and South African Politics, 1896–1976. London: British Academic Press.
Rive, Richard. (1979/2002). Interview. In Lindfors, Bernth, ed. Africa Talks Back. Trenton, NJ: African World Press.
Roberts, Ronald Suresh. (2005). No Cold Kitchen. Johannesburg: STE Publishers.
Schiffrin, André. (2001). The Business of Books. London: Verso.
Schreiber, Rachael, ed. (2013). Modern Print Activism in the United States. Abingdon: Ashgate.
Schwartz, Pat. (1981). Ravan: Letting the cats out of the bag. Rand Daily Mail, 13 November: 11.
Schwartz, Pat. (1984). Books putting black views into words. The Star.
Schweitzer, Janina. (2008). The Marketing Strategies and the Generation of Publishing Plans in Spanish Publishing Houses with a View to the Censorship and Economic Policy Employed during Francoism (1939–1975). Alles Buch, XXVII.
Seeber, Monica. (1996). An Appeal by Ravan Press. African Book Publishing Record 22(3).
Segal, Aaron. (1985). Review. African Book Publishing Record 11.
Sepamla, Sipho. (1976). The Black Writer in South Africa Today: Problems and Dilemmas. New Classic 3.
Sepamla, Sipho. (1980). A Note on New Classic and S’Ketsh. English in Africa, 7(2).
Seroke, Jaki. (1984). The Voice of the Voiceless. African Book Publishing Record 10(4): 201–6.
Sheik, Ayub. (2002). ‘I feel like hollerin but the town is too small’: A Biographical Study of Wopko Jensma. Alternation, 9(2): 236–76.
Smaldone, Joseph. (1991). Review. African Book Publishing Record.
Sole, Kelwyn. (2001). Political Fiction, Representation and the Canon. English in Africa 28(2).
Stadler, Alf. (1975). Anxious Radicals: SPRO‐CAS and the Apartheid Society. Journal of Southern African Studies 2(1).
Suttie, M.-L. (2005). The Formative Years of the University of South Africa Library, 1946 to 1976. Mousaion, 23(1).
Trimbur, John. (2009). Popular Literacy and the Resources of Print Culture. College Composition and Communication, 61(1): 85108.
Van Slambrouck, Paul. (1984). Black South African Writers ‘Break Free,’ Publish Own Books. Christian Science Monitor, 16 April.
Van Wyk, Chris. (1988). Staffrider and the Politics of Culture. In de Villiers, Gerald, ed. Ravan Twenty-Five Years. Johannesburg: Ravan.
Vaughan, Michael. (1984). Staffrider and Directions within Contemporary South African Literature. In White, Landeg & Couzens, Tim, eds. Literature and Society in South Africa. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.
Vladislavic, Ivan. (2008). Staffrider. Chimurenga (March). Online: https://chimurengachronic.co.za/staffrider.
Vladislavic, Ivan. (2014). A vivid voice. Sunday Times, 12 October.
Vladislavic, Ivan & Oliphant, Andries. (1988). Prologue. In Ten Years of Staffrider, 1978–1988. Johannesburg: Ravan.
Watts, Jane. (1989). Black Writers from South Africa: Towards a Discourse of Liberation. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Wessels, E.M. (1988). The challenge and the crisis facing the educational publishing industry in the dissemination of information in South Africa. MA Diss, University of Pretoria.
Wittenberg, Hermann. (2008). The Taint of the Censor. English in Africa, 35(2): 133–50.
Young, John K. (2006). Black Writers, White Publishers. Oxford: University of Mississippi Press.
Zwi, Rose. (2006). In conversation with Mothobi Mutloatse. LitNet. Online: https://argief.litnet.co.za/article.php?news_id=2943.

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.