Novel · A way to begin
Born of the Sun
Joseph Diescho · 1988
Synopsis
Muronga, a young man from a remote village in northern Namibia, sees German Catholic missionaries upend the traditional life of his people; with his wife he attends catechism in order to marry in church, and becomes a father. When the colonial taxes become unbearable, he leaves to work in the gold mines of South Africa to feed his family. There, exploitation and racial discrimination gradually open his eyes to colonial oppression, and his political awakening begins.
Context
The book appeared in 1988 in New York from Friendship Press, in three hundred and thirteen pages, under the full title Born of the Sun : A Namibian Novel. It is regarded as the first novel published by an author born in Namibia. It is a novel of apprenticeship, following step by step the passage of a villager with a narrow horizon to political awareness, from the missions and the tax to the mines of the South. The author published a second novel, Troubled Waters, in 1993.
Who it is for
A coming-of-age novel in English, easy to read; it sheds light on the migrant labour of Namibians under South African administration.
Prizes and reception
It is presented as the first Namibian novel, which makes its author a founding figure of the country's literature.
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