Overview

The BA Honours in African Literature offers an advanced study of African and diasporic writing, thought, and cultural production. The programme invites students to think critically about the intellectual place of Africa in the world and to engage the diverse traditions through which African writers, artists, and thinkers have shaped modern knowledge.

African Literature at Wits is the only department of its kind in South Africa. For more than three decades, it has trained writers, scholars, and cultural practitioners whose work continues to shape research, publishing, journalism, and the creative industries across the continent and beyond.

Our courses examine how African literature and other cultural forms—oral, written, visual, and digital— travel across languages, regions, and disciplines. 足球竞彩app排名s engage texts that traverse the continent and the diaspora, exploring how African intellectual and aesthetic practices grapple with questions of history, form, gender, race, affect, and belonging.

The programme encourages a grounded approach to African literary and cultural studies, one that takes seriously our location in southern Africa while addressing the global resonances of African thought.

Teaching combines close reading with theoretical and historical analysis, emphasising literature as both an archive of experience and a mode of critical inquiry.

The programme requires students to complete four courses (each worth 23 credits, NQF 8) and a Research Essay (30 credits, NQF 8).

Compulsory Course: AFRT4009A – Critical Approaches to African Literature

Electives: Choose three from the following (offered subject to availability):AFRT4005A – African Popular Media and the Novel

• AFRT4006A – Canonical Writers and the Postcolonial Experience
• AFRT4012A – Memory, Violence and Representation in Africa
• AFRT4008A – Contemporary Trends in African Literature
• AFRT4028A – Sentiment, Sensation and Feeling

足球竞彩app排名s are advised to confirm elective availability at registration and to select courses that best support their research and intellectual interests.

Plan Code: AFAAFRT40 

Entry Requirements

Applicants must hold a Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification with:

• a minimum overall average of 70% in their final-year major in literature, media, or a cognate
• humanities field; and
• at least an upper-second (2A) pass in the final undergraduate course of that major.

Applicants who have not previously studied African Literature may submit a letter of motivation outlining their academic preparation and intellectual interests relevant to the field.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Applicants who do not meet the formal entry requirements but can demonstrate relevant professional, creative, or research experience may apply under the RPL policy, in accordance with University regulations.

Required Documents

When applying, please upload:

• Certified copies of degree certificate(s) and academic transcript(s)
• SAQA Certificate of Evaluation (SCoE) or proof of application for evaluation (required for
• international applicants and for South African applicants who obtained a qualification abroad).
• SAQA verifies the awarding institution and maps your qualification to the South African National
• Qualifications Framework (NQF). Begin this process early, as evaluations may take several weeks to
• months.
• Proof of English language proficiency (IEL TS/TOEFL) if the medium of prior study was not English

Additional Information

Joint Programmes: 足球竞彩app排名s applying for joint Honours programmes (e.g. African Literature and Publishing, Media Studies, or English Literary Studies) follow the same process. The research essay must be registered in the department of supervision.

University Application Process

University Fees and Funding

Click here to see the current average tuition fees. The Fees site also provides information about the payment of fees and closing dates for fees payments. Once you have applied you will be able to access the fees estimator on the student self-service portal.

For information about postgraduate funding opportunities, including the postgraduate merit award, click here. The University's Postgraduate Funding portal is a database of scholarships, bursaries and other funding opportunities available to Wits postgraduate students. Please also check your School website for bursary opportunities. NRF bursaries: The National Research Foundation (NRF) offers a wide range of opportunities in terms of bursaries and fellowships to students pursuing postgraduate studies. External bursaries portal: The Bursaries South Africa website provides a comprehensive list of bursaries in South Africa.