Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

Alex la Guma's
Politics and Aesthetics
Jabulani Mkhize
Alex la Gurna persistently reiterated his belief that the situation in South Africa was
bound to change and that lie would, liopefully be part of a 'post-apartheid South Afiica'.
Hi? socialist and natiot~alist 'post-apartheid' vision is suinmed up in the following
words taken from his last published article written under the pseudonym 'Gala":
Can we not look into the f'i~ture and sec the barriers fallen away under the
Iiammcr-blows of progress as our people. having emerged victorious over
racist tyranny. national oppression, etl~nic or community divisions,
conimence to build a new life? Can we not dare to bring within tlie
bo~~ndaries of our community Marx's and Engels's even longer-term view of
the world ofthe future? .... Flourishing under the warm sun of the equality of
all peoples, our culture. art and literature will intermingle as our liberated
peoplcsmill do, blossorning into a South African culture; we shall then read a
South African literature. not what is described today as merely literature
'from' South Africa or 'South African Writing' ('Gala' 1985:42).
Regrettably La Gu~na was not able to witness the realisation of his dream for a nonracial
and democratic South Africa, albeit achievednot through a I-evolution but by way
of anegotiated settlement. He died of a heart attack in Havana, Cuba, in 1985 at the age
of 60'. A sense of tlie contributioii he made to international and South African culture
and politics can be gauged from the Iionours he received before his death:
I
T am indebted to Brian Bunting who infornied me about La Guma's pseudonym, 'Gala',
which, he explained, was derived from the author's namc and surname. Using this information, 1
was able to deduce La Gunla's other pseudonym 'Arnold Adarns'.
Before his death he was contenrplating writing an autobiography and a travelogue on Cuba,
where hc had been a representative of the ANC since 1975 (Chandramoham 1992: 194).
According to Blanche la Guma. La Gu~na was also busy working on a novel to he called The
Cvoii~ns qflinttte or Zone ofF~i-e. Therc are conflicting accounts on this unpublished novel.
According to R1;tnche la Gunla. L.aGurna indicated to her shortly beforc liis deatli thatlic had 'all
liis ideas' on CTr,ori,li.c. q/'llct//le or Zone 0fI;'ir.i. 'in Iris head'. 'I-le dicd helhre lie started [writing]
the hook'. Mus la Guma wrote in a letter to tlie a~~tlios. On tl~c other hand, Cecil Abrallalns statcs
ill a letter to tl~c ai~tIlo~-(ciateil 6 Iune 1994) that, in the ciid. LaCiill-na abandoned tlrc idcaofzone
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Jabulani Mkhize
The Soviet Presidium awarded La Guma the Order of Friendship: the
Republic of Congo gave him the President Nguesso Literary Prize; the
French Ministry of Culture awarded him the much coveted title of Chevalier
des Arts et Lettres; and the Soviet WriLers Union set a special evening to pay
tribute to him and to celebrate the publication of a half amillion copies of his
selected works (Abrahams 1991 :vi).
This catalogue of achievements marks the recognition of La Guma's political and
cultural developnient and underlines the need for an In depth study of h ~s legacy.
There is a general agreement amongst critics on the existence of a close
relationship between Alex la Guma's politics and his fictional writing Yet there are
different opinions amongst them on whether this relationship strengthens or weakens
his work. Thus, on the one hand, there are commentators who have embraced La Guma
as a revolutionary writer whose works justifiably furthered the ideolog~cal ends of the
Movement while, on the other hand, there are those critlcs who have been sotnewhat
qceptical of the aesthetic inerlts of such politically lnformed Ilterature' The most
vociferous of the latter critics, Njabulo Ndebele (1 99 1 :85), who has In a number of
essays taken issue with South African literature that has 'located itself In the field of
politics', has, for example, aligned La Guma with what he calls 'the tradition of
spectacle'-the exponents of whtch he has accused of be~ng gutlty of 'the drarnatrc
politicisation of creat~ve writ~ng' Wdebele 1991 :40) It could, however, be argued that
in using La Guma as an exemplar of the spectacular tradition, Ndebele seeins to have
overlooked the fact that La Guma was 1nfo11ned by an equally s~gnlficant but rad~cally
different aesthctlc tradition from the largely (liberal) Arnoldian-one that seems to
infonn his own aesthet~cs of the ord~nary. It 1s prec~sely this alternat~ve tradlt~on wli~ch
La Guma represents tliat th~s essay attempts to recuperate
rediscovering a tradition
In apaperread at the First Pan-Cultural Festival in 1973, apaper which the exponents of
the African Renaissa~ice in present day South Africa might find useful, Alex la Ciu~na
ofFive. Kennetli Pal-ker ( I 980:9) corrohoratcs Ahl-aham's argument tliat at tire time of his dcalli
La CTu~nawas working on Cvoivrzs c$Bcrtfle and even goes liirthcs to indicate that tlic title comes
from tl~c lines: 'Let tlic herocs display proucily theil- crowns of hattlc' froin rlrc Ziil11 epic
Ew2pcr.or .Yhakci the tir-cat by Mazisi Kunene. Abrahan~s j 1992:225) cvplaisis clse\vhci-c lliat this
novel had bee17 .planned cutcnsivcly and two rougl~ cl~aptcrs had becii\\.ritteii'. 111 the saiilc Iciloi'
Ahraharn's indicatecl to me that 11c was working on tlic ~iniinishcd manuscripl ofthis work \\itti
the ainr of bringiug it out for publication (letter to the autlior). Mi-.;. I .a (iiinia does not. liowcvcr.
appeal. to he a\varc of tire manuscripl.
A good cxamplc oftlic con1lnc11tatol.s that c~nhl-acc 1.a Ci~~ina as a writel- oi'lllc ~Movcii~c~~t IS
Comrailc Mzala's (Jabulani Nx~umalo's) (1 986:89) 'T)catl-i of AIcv IaCiiiina: WI-iierand I~reecloni
Figllter'.