Listening to Thomas Mofolo and Sesotho Orature
A Decolonial Approach to the African Novel and Comparative Literature
Ret’sepile Makamane
Click cover to enlarge Booksellers & libraries: | Studies In Comparative Literature 61 Legenda
ISBN: 978-1-839543-94-4 (hardback) • RRP £95, $120, €120 ISBN: 978-1-839543-95-1 (paperback, forthcoming) ISBN: 978-1-839543-96-8 (JSTOR ebook) Listening to Thomas Mofolo and Sesotho Orature is a comparative study of oral literature aesthetics as employed in the novel, from Global South contexts, using Africa-Africa comparisons that are at the same time informed by the European novel. The book examines the use of indigenous oral literature forms in the novels written between 1907 and 1992, in the Sesotho language, taking Lesotho’s first novelist Thomas Mofolo as its kernel, alongside novels by writers who came after Mofolo, in Lesotho: S. N. Majara, Makalo Khaketla and Chobokoane Chobokoane. It also examines Mofolo’s influence on other African writers who adapted his novel, Chaka, such as Wole Soyinka and Léopold Senghor. This book explores the decolonial and liberatory aesthetics of the African novel in its interplay with orature stylistics and in the interface of ideophones, metaphysics and African spirituality. Ret’sepile Makamane is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Her research focuses on the interplay between orality and writing in African literature, and the transmission of Thomas Mofolo’s fiction across Africa and Europe. Bibliography entry: Makamane, Ret’sepile, Listening to Thomas Mofolo and Sesotho Orature: A Decolonial Approach to the African Novel and Comparative Literature, Studies In Comparative Literature, 61 (Legenda, 2026) First footnote reference: 35 Ret’sepile Makamane, Listening to Thomas Mofolo and Sesotho Orature: A Decolonial Approach to the African Novel and Comparative Literature, Studies In Comparative Literature, 61 (Legenda, 2026), p. 21. Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Makamane, p. 47. (To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.) Bibliography entry: Makamane, Ret’sepile. 2026. Listening to Thomas Mofolo and Sesotho Orature: A Decolonial Approach to the African Novel and Comparative Literature, Studies In Comparative Literature, 61 (Legenda) Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Makamane 2026: 21). Example footnote reference: 35 Makamane 2026: 21. (To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.) This title is distributed on behalf of MHRA by Ingram’s. Booksellers and libraries can order direct from Ingram by setting up an ipage Account: click here for more. Permanent link to this title: www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Listening-to-Thomas-Mofolo-Sesotho-Orature www.mhra.org.uk/publications/sicl-61 |
6 July 2026