THE DAYS OF POWER: DEPICTIONS OF POLITICS AND COMMUNITY IN FOUR RECENT SOUTH AFRICAN NOVELS.

This article focuses on depictions of politics and community in South African novels. Following the renewal of black cultural activity around drama and poetry in South Africa since the early 1970s, a resurgence of the use of prose fiction has recently begun to take place. Events of 16 June 1976 marked the onset of a period of massive and ongoing political confrontation in South Africa and several of novels, appeared in the recent years, deal directly or indirectly with this event. The three novels which deal directly with June 1976 are "Amandla," by Miriam Tlali; "The Children of Soweto," by Mbuleio Mzamane and "A Ride on the Whirlwind," by Sipho Sepamla. One more novel related to this event is "To Every Birth Its Blood," by Mongane Serote.