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It has often been said that South African literature is a literature of exile--written abroad, in gardens and waiting rooms, in immigration lounges and in planes, and not always in countries that welcome asylum seekers. This claim is borne out with the utmost sharpness in the writing of Es'kia Mphahlele, widely accepted as the elder statesman of black South African letters. The long contest over apartheid and its attendant evils he has fought with relentless energy and passion, and the love of his home country, sharpened inevitably by exile, has been the dominant theme of his work. Whether he is living in Nigeria, Paris, Kenya, Denver, Lusaka, or Philadelphia, and whether he is writing criticism, short stories, poetry, autobiography, novels, or letters, the core has remained constant: the struggle for human freedom and dignity, the lure of home, the urge to uplift his people and move South Africa toward sanity. The life and quest have never been easy, and the resultant literature is a record of ceaseless engagement with misfortune.
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