ABSTRACT
In the process of contextualising Black texts, one must be aware — and ensure that the students are aware — that contexts need to be provided for all literary texts. The practice of using literature by black writers in schools and colleges because teachers think that the students can more easily ‘relate’ to it, as it mirrors their experience, still persists. As a result, the literature is still, by and large, ghettoised; it is used in schools where a significant number of the students are black. One of the reasons that the context becomes more important than the text itself is that readers and teachers do not experience a tradition of black literature. On the whole, black texts are read in entirely the opposite way. The writers re-create an oral storytelling style, in a conscious attempt to link the literature to black oral narrative traditions.
