Down Second Avenue: Growing Up in a South African Ghetto
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Es'kia Mphahlele's seminal memoir of life in apartheid South Africa—available for the first time in Penguin Classics
Nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1969, Es'kia Mphahlele is considered the Dean of African Letters and the father of black South African writing. Down Second Avenueis a landmark book that describes Mphahlele's experience growing up in segregated South Africa. Vivid, graceful, and unapologetic, it details a daily life of severe poverty and brutal police surveillance under the subjugation of an apartheid regime. Banned in South Africa after its original 1959 publication for its protest against apartheid, Down Second Avenueis a foundational work of literature that continues to inspire activists today.
Liked Down Second Avenue: Growing Up in a South African Ghetto? Here’s where I’d start.
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