Social commitment in Ulaka Lwaba Nguni (by I.S. Kubheka)

Abstract

This paper was motivated by what was perceived as misguided and uniformed observations by a number of critics, especially the foreign based ones (Mphahlele, 1992; Kunene, D P, 1992 & 1994; Kunene. M., 1976 & 1991 and others), that all the literature in African languages published in South Africa during the apartheid period did not show any effort at commitment to, or at reflecting on the weighty social problems that civil society in South Africa had to bear. In response to such criticism, the paper highlights aspects of social commitment in the selected literary work. The element of commitment can be traced back on oral traditional literature, where it appears that the great preoccupation of the oral society was that none of the achievements of the human spirit gets lost. Ulaka Lwaba Nguni, is analysed to show the depth of the conflict between Africa and the west, between country and city life, between Western schooled and traditionally educated people.