Renewal Time: Stories and Essays

RENEWAL TIME marked the odyssey and return of Es'kia Mphahlele, a remarkable South African man of letters, at a remarkable moment in South African history. Exiled in the 1950s, he wrote the classic account of a black man's coming of age in South Africa, Down Second Avenue. Plays, novels, stories and essays followed. During his twenty years of travelling widely in Africa, Europe and the United States, Mphahlele also took a special role as a teacher and editor, identifying and fostering new African talent. His power as a storyteller remained constant. These stories can give readers outside Africa an appreciation of Mphahlele's range and talent, and his unchanging perception of both the tragedy and complexity of apartheid in his home country. In the two later essays that open and close this collection, the writer reflects on the thoughts and feelings that influenced his return to South Africa, where he took a pivotal role in the education and culture of the post-apartheid country we see today. Readers International re-issues this US edition marking thirty years since South Africa's first post-apartheid election in 1994.