Es'kia Mphahlele

thumb|Bust of Es'kia Mphahlele by sculptor Angus Taylor, displayed in the Es'kia Mphahlele community library, Sammy Marks Center, Pretoria Es'kia Mphahlele (17 December 1919 – 27 October 2008) was a South African writer, educationist, artist and activist celebrated as the Father of African Humanism and one of the founding figures of modern African literature. Quotes Down Second Avenue (1959) The Black man must enter the white man’s house through the back door. The Black man does most of the dirty work… Black man cleans the streets but mustn’t walk freely on the pavement; Black man must build houses for the white man but cannot live in them; Black man cooks the white man’s food but eats what is left over. Eseki on the story he heard about about the black man and white man. Page 6 We’d never really known father before. And now living close to him and seeing him at close quarters, I realised that his face was unlikeable. Page 14 You’ll come back and be able to look after yourself and the two you’re leaving behind. Page 113 The Black man must enter the white man’s house through the back door. The Black man does most of the dirty work… When they were not working they had children without being able to secure a man they could really call a husband. You’ll come back and be able to look after yourself and the two you’re leaving behind. Afrikans, let us find ourselves happening to events, instead of always responding to events happening to us. In Southern Africa, the black writer talks best about the ghetto life he knows; the white writer best about his own ghetto life. We see each other, black and white, as it were through a keyhole. The African sage says nothing belongs to you except what you have eaten: that is the only thing you can be sure of. Common suffering unites. But when suffering becomes intolerably acute, when it reduces people to abject, dehumanising poverty and insecurity, suffering disunites. I am an irrepressible teacher, and will teach anywhere I am invited to, as long as I am not asked to play the role of a token nigger. Mphahlele, 1988. A powerful statement about education, dignity and tokenism About eight out of every ten educated Africans, most of whom are also professed Christians, still believe firmly in the spirits of their ancestors. Mphahlele on discussing the persistence of African spirituality beneath education and spirituality External links Category:Anthologists Category:Autobiographers from South Africa Category:Educators from South Africa Category:Academics from South Africa Category:Novelists from South Africa Category:Short story writers from South Africa Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Category:1919 births Category:2008 deaths