What is Slavery to Me?. Pumla Dineo Gqola

       ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      My birth family, who have always supported and loved me, are truly Qamata’s greatest gift. My parents, Dambile and Thato, insisted that intellectual independence, generosity and living with integrity are standards worth living by. Lebohang, Vuyokazi and Melisizwe, my siblings, are ‘my constant’: they celebrate my triumphs, apparently know ‘everything’ about me and teach me humility. Graham Huggan, my doctoral supervisor, read several drafts in this book’s earlier lives. I am grateful for his humour, time and vision. Graham and Stephan Klasen provided fine intellectual leadership at the first International Interdisciplinary Postcolonial Studies Graduirtenkolleg, which allowed for exchanges that would not have happened otherwise. Desirée Lewis and David Dabydeen inspire me and broaden my world in more than a million ways. The financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Bavarian government is hereby acknowledged for enabling the original study. Antje Schuhmann, Rumana Hashem, Fatmata Lovetta Sesay, Nina Engelhard, Thulani Khanyile, Tirop Simatei, Helene Strauss, Zine Magubane, Zimitri Erasmus, Yvette Abrahams, Vanessa Ludwig all went well beyond the call of collegiality, friendship and kinship. They shared their own work, time and much more. Marion and Peter Schuhmann became my family in Munich, and I owe Antje a debt of gratitude I can never repay for sharing them with me. Angelo Fick, Christopheros Campbell, Pandora Ndungane, Putuma Patrice Gqamana and Kaizer Nkosi allowed me to feel connected to something bigger and more beautiful all the time. Oya and Ajda Ataman, Kimberley Yates, Jane Poyner, Michele Barzey and Jo-Anne Strauss offered much needed diversions. This book benefited tremendously from Thembinkosi Goniwe’s and Gabeba Baderoon’s insights, comments and criticism, without which this would be a much poorer book. Its weaknesses are all mine. I am grateful to my teachers who affirmed that literature is not a luxury, that language always matters and that women should own their minds. They were the kinds of thinkers, teachers and women I wanted to grow up and be like: Nomntu Mali, Fatima Dada and Carli Coetzee. Angelo Fick, Nomboniso Gasa and Gail Smith, thank you for everything: your breathtaking courage, unwavering support, the gift of letting me share in your own work, your generosity, and telling me when I am wrong. Thank you to Ncumisa Mnyani, Barbara Keitumetse Mashope, Nokuthula Mazibuko, Jaysveree Louw, Chijioke Uwah, Derilene Marco, Ange Khumalo, Nthabiseng Motsemme, Dina Ligaga and Sarah Chiumbu for things too numerous to mention. The wonderful Berni Searle gave permission for her work to be used on the cover of this book, which gave me additional pleasure, given my analysis of her work within its pages. I am most thrilled to have a Searle artwork on the second cover of my work, the first having been a journal special issue I edited in 2005. My colleagues at the University of the Free State offered stimulating conversations and growth opportunities on an unpredictable university campus. This is especially true of Engela Pretorius, Susan Brokensha and Mariza Brooks. Other colleagues in the Department of English and Classical Culture took on larger duties during my stints at the Universities of Warwick and Munich: Pat Minaar, Patsy Fourie, Willfred Greyling, Humaira Ahmed, Margaret Raftery and Arlys van Wyk. Team Wits University Press have been incredible. Thank you especially to Veronica Klipp and Julie Miller. Melanie Pequeux and her production team were available for extended consultations over the book’s positioning. Lee Smith has been the kind of editor that writers dream about: attentive, graceful and patient.

      Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to Thembinkosi who has had to live with the many lives of this project, whose artistic genius and intellect are a great gift for me to witness daily. The joy, encouragement and laughter he and Yethu bring to my life are the magical beat in my spirit. With them, I grow, play and love.

      Earlier versions of chapters appeared in various guises, and appear in revised form in this book. Gqola (2005) contained parts of Chapter 5; an earlier version of Chapter 2 was published as Gqola (2008); ‘ “Slaves don’t have opinions”: Inscriptions of slave bodies and the denial of agency in Rayda Jacobs’ The Slave Book’, in Zimitri Erasmus (2001c), has an early exposition of some of the ideas in Chapter 4.

ACRONYMS