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Barbara Boswell

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Associate Professor and Head of the Department of English Literary Studies, University of Cape Town

Diana Ferrus performing a poem. She proudly identified as Khoi and a descendant of the enslaved. Screengrab/YouTube/Lief Vir Suid Afrika

March 20, 2026

Diana Ferrus: the South African poet whose words reclaimed history

Barbara Boswell, University of Cape Town

Her poem I’ve Come to Take You Home was written into French law. It deals with the repatriation of the remains of Sarah Baartman.

Portrait of Miriam Tlali as part of Adrian Steirn’s 21 Icons South Africa project. Date: 15.10.2014. Adrian Steirn/Courtesy of 21 Icons South Africa

February 28, 2017

Rest in power, Miriam Tlali: author, enemy of apartheid and feminist

Barbara Boswell, University of the Witwatersrand

Author Miriam Tlali was an intersectional feminist long before this term was coined or its politics made fashionable in South Africa by student movements.

Portrait of Miriam Tlali as part of Adrian Steirn’s 21 Icons South Africa project. Date: 15.10.2014. Adrian Steirn/Courtesy of 21 Icons South Africa

July 13, 2016

Under the influence of … the Black Consciousness novel ‘Amandla’

Barbara Boswell, University of the Witwatersrand

A South African novel, published in 1980 and dealing with the Soweto student uprising four years earlier, still provides lessons for students today.

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Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
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Joined July 13, 2016