CONTACT:
Daniel Kunene
2113 Kendall Ave., Madison, WI 53726
608-238-9584
dpkunene at wisc.edu
Daniel Kunene is available for talks in the Madison area. He will negotiate costs with you. Contact him directly to make arrangements. REGION:
Dane County, Southern WisconsinHUMANITIES EXPERTISE:
African Studies and Languages, Literature, Storytelling
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DANIEL KUNENE
Daniel Kunene is professor emeritus in the Department of African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his BA from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and his MA and PhD from the University of Cape Town. He has taught at University of Cape Town, University of London; U.C.L.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. In October 1999, Kunene was awarded the honorary degree of D.Litt. et Phil. by the University of South Africa.
Public Presentations:
The Living Word: The Living World—Stories from Southern Africa
In this presentation, Daniel Kunene shares his gift for storytelling by recounting traditional stories and myths of a particular group from the southern African region. This will be followed by questions and a discussion with the audience to explore the metaphors, allegories, and symbols that encode the stories' real messages. The goal of this discussion is to address the question: "how universal are the human concerns encoded in the stories?"
Apartheid's Violent Death: Literary Testimonies from the Black Townships
Daniel Kunene will begin this presentation with a brief historical background on apartheid and Nelson Mandela's release from prison in February 1990. This historic moment ushered in a period of negotiations leading toward the first universal nonracial elections for a democratic South Africa, with extremist white right-wing groups strenuously opposing this change. In the process, they engaged in acts of intimidation and violence involving mass killings in the townships, and in commuter trains to and from work. Audiences will learn how then-President F.W. de Klerk, who set the movement afoot by releasing Nelson Mandela while maintaining the public persona of a liberator, nonetheless secretly fanned the flames of the violence opposing that movement. The presentation will be built on exerpts from novels and short narratives by the black writers trapped in the living hell of fear and uncertainty of townships under siege.
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