Wednesday, August 29, 2012

New Book about Bolaji

Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga, the well known Bloemfontein based essayist, Pan-Africanist, critic, esssayist and intellectual has published his first book, titled Omoseye Bolaji: A voyage around his literary work. The book is the latest in a number of book-length studies published on the fecund writer, Omoseye Bolaji. Soqaga told Mangaung Issue: “I am happy the book finally came out at last. Bolaji has inspired so many writers and built so many of us with his powerful, diverse books.”
Mr Soqaga also disclosed that he had been working on the book for up to five years. “The protagonist in question (Bolaji) has published so many books and it is not easy to comprehensively evaluate and criticise them all. In the end I focused on about five, six of the books; with a general Overview” Meanwhile, critics and pundits are already hailing this new study across the board, likening it to renowned international studies on African writers over the years published by the likes of Gerald Moore, Dr Adele King, and Robert Fraser. But Soqaga himself humbly refuses to get carried away with all the praise. “I do not think my attempts can be likened to works churned out by those illustrious writers and critics,” he says. “But I am very flattered to even be mentioned in the same breath as such people. The reviews of my book I have been reading on the internet have all been very positive so far,” Literary critic, Pule Lechesa expressed delight over the publication of the book. “It’s great to see a book of real quality again,” he said. “Soqaga’s new book definitely adds cubits to the corpus of African critical writings. He took his time over the work and it shows,” - Report by T Masakala. First published in Mangaung Issue, 29 August 2012 edition. Page 6

Monday, August 20, 2012

OMOSEYE BOLAJI: A Voyage around his literary work. A new book by Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga

Excerpts here: "Yes, unashamedly I am Pan- Africanist who believes in Pan- African ideology, if then our forefathers were fighting for liberty of life therefore I must assert my opinion very sharply without favour or fear. I am born of African descent being raised in the continent that once experienced unfairness of life and suppression from other races and creed. I am the descendant of Khoisan, Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu, Yoruba, Shona, Tswana, Berbe etc. I am African and I do believe that’s how I must be perceived! I discern it as a rather intricate exercise to write about the author of many books such as Mr. Omoseye Bolaji, son of the late Mr. Simon Labanji Bolaji who also was an excellent writer. Is it a coincidence to know how Bolaji is connected with black literature? Although a superb and scintillating writer, I know he does not really believe in segregating literature or writing generally; as can be seen from the magnificent mixture of Eurocentric and African writings in his international columns. For a long time, Bolaji the writer has been a literary catalyst, a champion of literature who is involved in spreading awareness. As I write this, I am so delighted that a film documentary has been made about the great man. As a matter of fact I have been researching Omoseye Bolaji for some years now; but it has not been easy. It was actually a complicated task for me because I didn’t have a clue where to start considering his versatility, and the copious studies already published on him. I started as early as 2007,and meanwhile, a young writer like Hector Kunene was able to put together a solid book on Bolaji (2010) (Omoseye Bolaji: a voyage around his literary work - is a new book by Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga)