Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 ‘A man in an ordinary cloth cap’
- 2 ‘Brown Sons of Africa’
- 3 ‘The honey of a satirical philosophy’
- 4 ‘This is the time for practical politics’
- 5 ‘Maybe he thought it was a disgrace too’
- 6 ‘The clouds pregnant with moisture’
- 7 ‘Well, I'll just start again, won't I’
- 8 ‘You had to be contented with history’
- 9 ‘Y eso, lo tenemos aquí en Cuba!’
- 10 Coming Home
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - ‘This is the time for practical politics’
Election controversies, satire & the art of treason
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 ‘A man in an ordinary cloth cap’
- 2 ‘Brown Sons of Africa’
- 3 ‘The honey of a satirical philosophy’
- 4 ‘This is the time for practical politics’
- 5 ‘Maybe he thought it was a disgrace too’
- 6 ‘The clouds pregnant with moisture’
- 7 ‘Well, I'll just start again, won't I’
- 8 ‘You had to be contented with history’
- 9 ‘Y eso, lo tenemos aquí en Cuba!’
- 10 Coming Home
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Between 1955 and 1961, La Guma worked in several media. This chapter examines La Guma's journalism, drawings and comics of this period – many of which were created during the Treason Trial – in the context of his role in the 1958 elections and his developing ideas on the political aspects of coloured identity. The two-year overlap with the previous chapter reminds us that there were no ‘epistemological breaks’ or shifts from one discrete stage of thought or writing to the next, only a series of transitions in which a variety of discourses and positions existed simultaneously. Greater state repression, stronger and more determined resistance from the Congress Alliance, including the South African Coloured People's Organisation (SACPO) and its successor, the Coloured People's Congress (CPC), provided the conditions for new forms of expression and experimentation in genre, language and style. La Guma's explicit comparison in 1960 between South Africa and the USA demonstrated his view that racism and capitalism were inextricably linked, but provided no clue about how to overcome them. For part of the answer to that question I examine changes in SACPO's thinking and strategy during the Treason Trial, to which La Guma, as a SACPO office bearer, contributed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Alex la GumaA Literary and Political Biography, pp. 70 - 96Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010