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This paper reviews the role of black experience in worldwide literature, focusing primarily on particular texts from the viewpoint of colonial whites in South Africa. Black people were represented as savages, comic buffoons, or faithful servants and slaves; all three representations dehumanized, rationalized, and justified the oppression of black people. For each new generation, the same set of social perceptions and attitudes were passed down. The late 1960s, however, saw the emergence of a new generation of children's books writers, both white and black, who broke free from the colonial tradition. Poetry has been an extremely important medium for the expression of this black experience. Although some of the poetry is finally finding its way into mainstream publishing, more is needed. (Contains 45 references.) (NAV) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are 'he best that can be made from the original document. tRepresentations of Black Experience in Literature fo