Stranger at Home. Ashlee Neser

       Acknowledgements

      Acentral purpose of this book is to engage with, and respond to, Jeff Opland’s considerable work in the field of Xhosa literature. As well as writing definitively and richly about oral poetry and publication in the Xhosa tradition, Jeff has recorded a wealth of original material which warrants extensive study. I am greatly indebted to his scholarship both for what it has taught me and for the extraordinary texts it has made available. I am extremely grateful to Jeff for having invited me to work on the poetry of David Manisi, for having hosted the visit during which I consulted the Opland Collection of Xhosa Poetry, and for permitting me to quote at length in this book from his translations of David Manisi’s poetry. For many discussions and clarifications, for the example of his work, and for his kind generosity to me, my sincere thanks.

      UKZN Press published The Dassie and the Hunter: A South African Meeting, Jeff’s memoir of his work with David Manisi. I thank the Press for formal permission to quote poems and extracts from the book.

      The first life of this project was as a doctoral dissertation, supervised by Graham Furniss at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and examined by Mpalive Msiska and Karin Barber. To Graham I owe the warmest thanks for his advice, for his own instructive writing, and for his unfailing kindness to me. Karin’s exceptional scholarship – always sophisticated, inspiring and supremely elegant – has taught me how to think about textuality. I am deeply grateful also for her kindness, generosity and support.

      I would like to thank Patrick Lenta for having read and commented insightfully on the dissertation out of which this book grew, and for his support and companionship in the course of its writing.

      Many warm thanks are due to Duncan Brown, who has taught me a great deal about oral literature and about being a teacher and a writer. For his friendship, outstanding work, and generosity to me over the years, I am deeply thankful.

      At the University of KwaZulu-Natal, I had many talented teachers whose influences are everywhere apparent in this book. In particular, for what they conveyed to me about life lived with literature, my thanks to Johan Jacobs, Margaret Lenta, Margaret Daymond, Sally-Ann Murray, Jack Kearney, David Newmarch, and Itamar Avin.

      Isabel Hofmeyr’s work has been a fine example to me for many years, one to which I hope this book pays tribute in its way. For her advice and friendship, and for preventing me from abandoning academia, my warmest thanks.

      The University Research Committee of the University of the Witwatersrand gave me the publication award which enabled the appearance of this book; my very great thanks. Experienced, professional and kind, the staff of Wits University Press have been a delight to work with. My thanks to Veronica Klipp and Julie Miller and especially to Melanie Pequeux who managed with great patience and equanimity the project of seeing this book to publication. Lee Smith edited the manuscript with meticulous care for which I am most grateful. Peer reviewers of the manuscript were extremely helpful to me when it came to making revisions – thank you sincerely for your anonymous and generous acts of academic citizenship.

      I would like to thank my colleagues at Wits University; many of the books and papers which appear in the bibliography have emerged out of the excellent scholarship at this university, where I am so fortunate to work.

      Irma du Plessis encouraged me to apply for the URC prize; I would not have done so had she not suggested it. My colleagues at WISER were very supportive of the project and I thank them all warmly.

      Having expressed gratitude to so many scholars for the example and influence of their work, as well as editors for their attention to the