ing human activity. The tensions have peculiar significance for South
Africa which, in trying to turn from the oligarchy of apartheid, has begun
to engage in urgent debates about the character of the new nation and
the civil society. For those South Africans who desire new national
narratives, the literature of decolonisation may provide something of a
check on euphoria. For those who fear new national narratives, the
literature of decolonisation might just help dispel atavars. Although we
can categorise a 'literature of the nation' and a 'literature of the society',
the responsibility since independence has been to ask how the functioning
society should evaluate the expression of its own independent aspirations.
Given that the histories of anti-colonial struggle and nationhood have
not been identical in the several countries of the region, the questions
and responses will have distinctive 'national' contours.

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