LISTEN | Siphiwo Mahala discusses the 60th anniversary of William Bloke Modisane’s ‘Blame Me on History’
In this episode of Jonathan Ball Publishers' Pagecast podcast, News24 books editor Shaun de Waal is in conversation with author Siphiwo Mahala about the reprinting of William Bloke Modisane’s ‘Blame Me on History’
ABOUT THE BOOK
Feeling an exile in the country of his birth, the talented journalist and leading black intellectual William Bloke Modisane left South Africa in 1959. It was shortly after the apartheid government had bulldozed Sophiatown, the township of his childhood. His biting indictment of apartheid, Blame Me on History, was published in 1963, and banned soon after.
Modisane offers a harrowing account of the degradation and oppression faced daily by black South Africans. His penetrating observations and insightful commentary paint a vivid picture of what it meant to be black in apartheid South Africa. At the same time, his evocative writing transports the reader back to a time when Sophiatown teemed with life.
This 60th anniversary edition of Modisane’s autobiography serves as an example of passionate resistance to the scourge of racial discrimination in our country and is a reminder not to forget our recent past.
Listen to De Waal and Mahala’s conversation here: