Familiarity is the kingdom of the lost, or, Tshotsholoza / by Dugmore Boetie ; edited by Vusumuzi R. Kumalo and Benjamin N. Lawrance ; foreword by Nadine Gordimer ; introduction by Benjamin N. Lawrence and Vusumuzi R. Kumalo; afterword by Barney Simon.
"First published by Barrie & Rockliff, the Cresset Press, London, 1969"--title page verso. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Foreword / by Nadine Gordimer -- Note on Names and Terminology -- Editors' Introduction / by Benjamin N. Lawrance and Vusumuzi R. Kumalo Acknowledgments -- Familiarity Is the Kingdom of the Lost, or Tshotsholoza / by Dugmore Boetie -- Afterword / by Barney Simon -- "Soweto Funeral" / by Lionel Abrahams -- Notes.
Summary:
"The picaresque hero of this novel, Duggie, is a dispossessed black street kid turned con man. Duggie's response to being confined to the lowest level of South Africa's oppressive and humiliating racial hierarchy is to one-up its absurdity with his own glib logic and preposterous schemes. Duggie's story, as one critic puts it, offers "an encyclopedic catalogue of rip-offs, swindles, and hoaxes" that regularly land him in jail and rely on his white targets' refusal to admit a black man is capable of outsmarting them. Duggie exploits South Africa's bureaucratic pass laws and leverages his artificial leg every chance he gets. As "a worthless embarrassment to the authorities and a bad example to the convicts," Duggie even manages to get himself thrown out of jail. From Duggie's Depression-era childhood in urban Johannesburg to World War II and the rise of the white supremacist apartheid regime to his final, bitter triumph, Boetie's narrative celebrates humanity's relentless drive to survive at any cost. This new edition of Boetie's out-of-print classic features a recently discovered photograph of the author, an introduction replete with previously unpublished research, numerous annotations, and is accompanied by Lionel Abrahams' haunting poem, "Soweto Funeral," composed after attending Boetie's interment, all of which render the text accessible to a new generation of readers"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.