The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena by Elsa Joubert

The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena (First English Edition in Dust Jacket, 1980)

Elsa Joubert's Landmark Apartheid-Era Novel of One Woman's Forty-Year Struggle, in the Author's Own English Translation

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena
• Author: Elsa Joubert
• Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers in association with Hodder and Stoughton, Johannesburg
• Publication Date: 1980
• ISBN-10: 034025047X
• Edition Details: First Edition (English translation), 1980. Translated by the author from the Afrikaans original.
• Binding: Publisher's hardcover boards in dark cloth, with printed pictorial dust jacket in orange with cream title lettering.
• Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), standard hardcover, approximately 220 x 140 mm.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Boards: The boards, corners and edges are protected beneath the dust jacket and are dark in colour. The jacket spine is glossy and clean, with a slight fray at the head.
• Interior: The title page and copyright page are clean and bright, with no foxing. The binding is tight. A handwritten owner's note in pen appears on a flyleaf.
• Provenance: Handwritten pen inscription on a flyleaf: "DP Steyn, Niel & Lynne # 9 Haven Village". An owner's inscription, not an author's signature.
• The Dust Jacket: Present, in a protective Mylar sleeve. The orange pictorial jacket is glossy and bright overall. There is a tear or chip to the top edge of the front panel, with a piece of tape across the top of the author's name, and slight fraying at the spine head. The back panel with the author's portrait is clean.

Synopsis & Historical Value

The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena, published in Johannesburg in 1980 by Jonathan Ball in association with Hodder and Stoughton, is the English version of Elsa Joubert's celebrated Afrikaans novel, translated by the author herself. The Afrikaans original became an immediate bestseller in South Africa, was at the centre of political controversy, and won three literary prizes.

The novel follows Poppie, a Xhosa woman, through some forty years of apartheid-era hardship, from a country childhood to Cape Town and forced resettlement. Struggling under the pass laws and the constant threat of removal, she tries to hold her family together while the Sharpeville, Soweto and Cape Town unrest unfolds around her.

Critics have ranked it among the most important novels to emerge from the African continent. It is based on the life of a real woman, though its claims to authenticity have been debated, and it remains essential reading for anyone studying how apartheid was lived and written about. This is a collectible copy of the first English edition in its original dust jacket.

Author Profile: Elsa Joubert

Elsa Joubert (1922-2020) was born in Paarl and studied at Stellenbosch and Cape Town. She taught in Cradock and worked as an editor for Die Huisgenoot from 1946 to 1948, before establishing herself as one of the most distinguished Afrikaans novelists. Her debut novel, translated as We're Waiting on the Captain, appeared in 1963, and she won the Eugène Marais Prize for Ons wag op die kaptein in 1964.

Her other notable works include Bonga (1971) and Die reise van Isobelle, which earned the Hertzog Prize. Poppie Nongena became her best-known work and was adapted into a film in 2019. She died in Cape Town at the age of 97.

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