Amazwi’s library does not just collect works by South African writers locally. We also collect literature written and published by South Africans who have emigrated elsewhere or left the country for exile. Amazwi has over the years made every effort to collect and document this literature.
Malibongwe: ANC Women: Poetry is their Weapon [1981] edited by Sono Molefe is an anthology of poems written by women who left the country to serve the African National Congress (ANC) in exile. Many of the writers in this volume wrote anonymously or used pseudonyms to protect their identities. As the ANC was banned in this country, its publications were not easily circulated. Amazwi’s copy is one of handful of copies extant in South Africa. When it was published, this volume would have been one of the largest anthologies containing poems by black South African women. In 2020, this volume was re-published under the title
Malibongwe: Poems from the Struggle by ANC Women, with a new introduction that reveals the interesting history behind this volume.