Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. I. Introduction
4. Auto/biographical Identities: Placing Selves in Question 1
5. Auto/biographical Accounts in South Africa in Three Parts 10
6. Thematic and Theoretical Issues in Southern African Auto/biography: An Overview 38
7. Scope of the Collection 62
8. Bibliography 83
9. II. Singing the Praises, Performing the Persona
10. Versions of a Life in Poetry 117
11. People Feel No Event Is Complete without a Poet 132
12. Folk Music as Popular Culture: A Life-history Approach 148
13. III. Representing Silence
14. I. Speak Their Wordless Woe 153
15. Making History’s Silences Speak 160
16. IV. Relating the Self
17. Creating a Climate for Change 173
18. This Miracle of a Book . . . It’s Just Like the Bible to Me 186
19. Collaborators 200
20. The Making of Katie Makanya 205
21. V. Fact or Fiction
22. All Autobiography Is Autre-biography 213
23. We Would Write Very Dull Books If We Just Wrote about Ourselves 219
24. Writing Autobiography and Writing Fiction 231
25. VI. Subject to Metaphor
26. Aquifers and Auto/biography in Namibia 254
27. Reflections on Identity 269
28. Rhythmic Redoublings 277
29. VII. From Daughters to Mothers
30. “Mummy, the Coolie Doctor Is at the Door” 291
31. Why Do You Abandon Me? I Am Your Daughter. Re-presenting Dona Ermelinda 303
32. Every Secret Thing as Family Memoir 315
33. VIII. Disarming White Men
34. White Men with Weapons: Performing Autobiography 329
35. Reflections in a Cracked Mirror 345
36. IX. Commemoration, Confession, Conversion
37. These Two Autobiographical Books Are My Identity Document 357
38. Philosophical Reflections on Chronicles of Conversion 366
39. X. Confessing Sexualities
40. Speaking about Writing about Living a Life 379
41. Man-bitch: Poetry, Prose, and Prostitution 395
42. XI. Re-collecting the New Nation
43. Group Portrait: Self, Family, and Nation on Exhibit 409
44. Resituating Ourselves: Homelessness and Collective Testimony as Narrative Therapy 436
45. Glossary 451
46. Contributors 457
47. Index 469