In 2021, Athambile Masola burst onto the South African poetry scene with her groundbreaking, now celebrated, debut collection, written in her home language of isiXhosa. Writing from a storied literary tradition, Masola’s breezy love poems and historical re-imaginings boldly question the meaning of freedom in a society that is hostile to women, and where apartheid has been replaced by other ominous oppressions. These daring, contemporary and inventive poems are now in English, translated by the poet, and presented here alongside the original text.
Inheritance is a window into the lives of Black women in South Africa right now – a deft dance between self-care and recrimination, between free love and social safety, and between the shadows of the past and the dim light of a just-as-complicated present.
This edition is for sale in South Africa.
“Fluent in multiple aesthetic traditions, stylistically mobile, conceptually daring ... A breakthrough in South African literary and feminist writing.”
– Pumla Dineo Gqola
“A deliberate act of resisting erasure and a love letter to both the present and future self.”
– vangile gantsho
"Completely unpretentious, [Masola] showcases the need to write in our languages, [...] to exercise and increase the collective power and voice of one’s own people."
– Sizwe Mqalo
