St John Page Yako (1901 – 1977) was a Qokolweni-born Xhosa poet [1] and professor of Xhosa literature in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. A translation of one of his poems was published as "The Contraction and Enclosure of the Land" in The Lava of the Land, an anthology of South-African poetry edited by Denis Hirson. [2] "The Contraction and Enclosure" uses imagery from oral poetry to illustrate the consequences of race-based land legislation of South Africa in the 1950s that destroyed the traditional ways of life of many tribes. [3]
Bibliography
- Umtha Welenga ("Ray of the Sun", 1959)
- Ikwezi ("Poems", 1959)
References
- ^ Opland, Jeff (1998). Xhosa Poets and Poetry. New Africa Books. pp. 14, 63. ISBN 9780864864208.
- ^ Kalu, Anthonia C., ed. (2007). "The African Travels of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq". The Rienner Anthology of African Literature. Boulder: Lynn Rienner. pp. 293, 961, 976. ISBN 9781626375833.
- ^ Beningfield, Jennifer (2006). The Frightened Land: Land, Landscape and Politics in South Africa in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. pp. 145–46. ISBN 9781134213535.
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