Narrative
Blame Me on History
William Bloke Modisane · 1963
Synopsis
Life story of a man who grew up in Sophiatown, a Johannesburg suburb where communities mingled. The demolition of the neighbourhood frames the book, and from there the narrator looks back on a childhood in which death and fear were the rule, on the death of his father, on the illegal drinking dens, the cheap cinemas, the dark alleys, the street-corner debates and the gang wars. He also says what apartheid does to the self-esteem of an educated Black man, his anger, his ties across the colour line and the need to flee.
Context
The book appeared in London in 1963 from Thames and Hudson, and a Dutch translation followed in 1965. Banned in South Africa in 1966, it reappeared there in 1986 from Ad. Donker, then in 2024 from Jonathan Ball for its sixtieth anniversary. Richard Rive praised its portrait of a Sophiatown “razed into oblivion” while judging some passages sentimental; the journal Tribune compared it to James Baldwin. The historian Robin Crigler notes that it is cited far more than it is read.
Who it is for
An autobiography in English of about three hundred pages, often harsh, which presupposes some knowledge of apartheid; not translated into French.
Prizes and reception
The author's only book; hailed in 1963 as a powerful and original autobiography, and regarded by Britannica as a passionate documentation of oppression.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.