Abrahams, Peter (1919– )
South African novelist. He was South Africa’s first prolific black writer, whose novels
are distinguished by a passionate anti-racism. Best known for the novel Mine Boy
(1946), Abrahams wrote all his fiction after going into exile in 1939. He spent the
next 20 years in Britain, before emigrating to Jamaica in 1959.
In early novels, such as Song of the City (1945), freedom of mind is put ahead ofpolitical freedom. In later novels, however, such as A Wreath for Udomo (1956) and
A Night of Their Own (1965), political change is seen as a requirement for freedom
of mind. The later phase of Abrahams’s fiction is marked by an increased interest in
colonialism, and in the role of the artist in relation to the people. Other works
include Return to Goli (1953), a documentary account of a return visit he made to
South Africa in 1952, his autobiography Tell Freedom (1954), and the novels The
Path of Thunder (1948), Wild Conquest (1951), and The View from Coyaba (1985).