Declining interest in formal, written African-language fiction and the increase in the production and significance of other forms of artistic products in South Africa have encouraged the application of critical responses that, while seeking new ways to critique, also offer tools to appreciate emerging forms. This book takes the view that Barber's (1987, 1997, 2000) model is valuable when assessing Africanlanguage fiction as part of the African popular arts or popular culture. As a point of departure, the book argues that African narratives, old and new, share similar views and psychological outlooks. These views or discourses are generally found in the popular imagination of African society, the mainstay for creative compositions of any art form, and are generated and recycled in the society in numerous ways, taking into context the material conditions of the forms through which they are reproduced. The questions that arise relate to why new forms share allusive references with old ones and whether such repetitions will not yield to stagnation and reversion to old traditions, an aspect upon which the lack of development or under-development of Africa is blamed and for which the literary tradition is also lambasted. Another question might focus on issues of stylistic uniqueness which is observed in new art forms elsewhere.

A glance at the criticism produced in response to the Africanlanguage fiction crisis underlined, repeatedly, issues raised by these questions. None of this criticism has so far investigated the imperatives behind the continuation of discourses underpinning this literary tradition in the manner that Barber's model allows. Her insights into African art or African culture as a whole address the conundrum that has remained with the literary tradition for more than a hundred years. Her approach allows, for the first time in the context of the Africanlanguage literary tradition in South Africa, a conversation with other narrative and artistic forms in the continent and in the diaspora. It also allows for an exploration of how the products from these areas contribute in various ways in providing aesthetic tools for studying work produced by Africans or people of African descent.