Some problems of writing historiography in Southern Africa

Abstract

In this article, the author has come to the conclusion that the established literary definitions no longer serve to define the nature of the South African literary system, and that current literary criteria are no longer functional in determining the merit of a South African literary text. Not only do the traditional categories of Afrikaans, White English, and Black English texts have to be reconsidered, but the concept of the “true” South African writer has to be revaluated. Historiography, therefore, is not a science that demands rigid adherence to fixed categories or rules, but an art that needs to address the structural imbalance that plagues our literary system today.