Thursday
June 4
2026

Viewpoint: The Heart of The South African Film Industry

By Tsogo Kupa

In Njabulo S. Ndebele’s essay “The Rediscovery of the Ordinary,” Ndebele observes that South Africa’s “overwhelmingly oppressive” social formation prompted a school of literature that orientated itself towards spectacle. From coast to coast, the absurdity of colonialism and apartheid created a fractured and cratered landscape of a country, and any attempt to reconcile these fragments into a coherent narrative work inevitably found itself in the realm of sensationalism. The true measure of any South African storyteller isn’t to out-sensationalize a country spoiled rotten with it, but to rummage through the noise and find the tender root of how South Africans live and relate to themselves.

Photo courtesy of Nevels Media.

Source: Africa is a Country (link opens in a new window)

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