ILIFA
Athambile Masola

August 2021
78pp
200mm x 130mm
ISBN: 978-0-620-92815-1

Le ncwadi ibhalwe ngesiXhosa. This title is in isiXhosa.

Winner of the 2022 NIHSS Award for Best Poetry

Ndithini xa nditsarhwa?
Ndithini xa ndikhonyuluka?
Ndiginye?
Ndigabhe?

Ilifa yingqokolela yemibongo engumzame wokuzikisa nokuphonononga ubumnandi nobukrakra bobomi. Nangona uMasola esaziwa nje ngombhali wezincoko, apha kule mibongo usibonisa isakhono sakhe sokubhala iingcamango ngothando, ubumnandi bokuziphatha nokuziyolisa nangona ephila kwilizwe elinobungozi ngenxa yamadoda axhaphaza amanina. Le mibongo ijijisana nokugqwethwa kwenku- luleko ngenxa yentlupheko engathethisiyo. Ikhona nemibongo ethetha ngempiliso etyhilekayo xa sizinika ithuba lokuzimamela. Apha kule ncwadi isiXhosa sibhalwe njengokuba sithethwa. Nje ngomntu okhulele edolophini, isiXhosa sesasidol- ophini. Enye yendlela yokulondoloza isiXhosa kukubonisa indlela esiphila ngayo kwilixa lenkululeko ekhaphukhaphu.

uAthambile Masola, uMamGcina ozalwa nguMamBhele, ukhulele eMonti. Ungumbhali nomfundisi-ntsapho kwisebe lwezifundo zeMbali kwiYunivesithi yaseKapa. Unguqqirhalwazi wefilosofi kwizifundo zoncwadi ezibhalwe ngamanina amnyama. Umsebenzi wakhe kukuphanda imbali yamanina edelelekileyo nemyamalilisweyo. Izidanga zakhe eziphezulu uzifundele eRhodes University. Ngonyaka ka2010 wakhethwa ukuba abengomnye wabafundi abawongwa ngeMandela Rhodes Scholarship ukuze aqhubele phambili kwizifundo zakhe zeMasters kwezeMfundo. Ungumseki wequmrhu iAsinakuthula Collective ezimisele ukuphengulula imbali yamanina. Umsebenzi wakhe upapashiwe kwiijenali, kumaphephandaba nakwi-inthanethi. Le yincwadi yakhe yokuqala yemibongo yesiXhosa.

Although Athambile Masola is best known as a writer of essays, in her debut collection of poems she freely and fruitfully explores the realities of love, morality and pleasure in a dangerous world. Unabashedly modern in style and contemporary in her outlook, Masola looks with fresh eyes at the ways in which South Africans’ freedoms are still restricted by their circumstances – particularly by poverty and widespread abuse against women. Equally, however, these poems extol the possibility of healing through allowing one to listen to oneself. As such, in Ilifa, Masola gifts us with an isiXhosa that is written as it is spoken – as a language that is urban, alive, and a reflection of the time and place we live in; a society in which freedom continues to be conditional.

Athambile Masola, descended from amaGcina and amaBhele, grew up in East London. A Mandela Rhodes Scholar, Masola researches the literary careers of historically ignored black women writers. She is the founder of Asinakuthula Collective, as well as a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Cape Town. Her work has been published widely in journals, newspapers, and online. This is her first collection of poems.