by Luso on May 15th, 2012
By Aubrey Paton for The Times:
The Secret Chamber continues the misadventures of climber Lucca Matthews, hero of Woodhead’s The Cloud Maker.
The Secret Chamber, by Patrick Woodhead, Arrow, R119
Affected by the death of a friend, Lucca has lost his climbing nerve and works as a porter in the Himalayas until he is forced back into reality by a distress call from his godfather, sending him off to Africa in search of a childhood companion.
In the Congo’s Ituri Forest he meets his love interest, “Bear” Makuru, the half-French mining expert and pilot who is investigating explosions in the Coltan mines.
Cliches abound as our couple encounter “half-witted Boers” and evil Chinamen, youthful psychopaths from the Lord’s Resistance Army and despotic monomaniacs, with pimps, mercenaries, mysterious minerals and Rooivalk helicopters thrown in for good measure.
Many details are laughably incorrect. Yet, despite sloppy editing, sexism and racism, the story is gripping. The Secret Chamber is a book I hated to love but have to recommend to lovers of fast-paced and thought-provoking action.
Books brought to you in association with Exclusives.co.za
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by Lindsay on May 11th, 2012
Kenyan author Billy Kahora has been shortlisted for the 2012 Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story “Urban Zoning”, published in Vol. 37 of McSweeney’s. Kahora is up against Nigeria’s Rotimi Babatunde, Malawi’s Stanley Kenani, Zimbabwe’s Melissa Tandiwe Myambo and South Africa’s Constance Myburgh for the £10 000 prize, the winner of which will be announced on 2 July. Last week we featured shortlisted story, Babatunde’s “Bombay Republic”.
While you await the announcement of the award, we invite you to read “Urban Zoning”:
Outside on Tom Mboya Street, Kandle realized that he was truly in the Zone. The Zone was the calm, breathless place he found himself in after drinking for a minimum of three days straight. He had slept for less than fifteen hours, in strategic naps, had eaten just enough to avoid going crazy, and had drunk enough water to make a cow go belly-up. The two-hour baths of Hell’s Gate
hot-spring heat had also helped.
Kandle had discovered the Zone when he was seventeen. He had swapped vices by taking up alcohol after the pleasures of casual sex had waned. In a city–village rumor circuit full of outlandish tales of ministers’ sons who drove Benzes with trunks full of cash, of a character called Jimmy X who was unbeaten in about five hundred bar fights going back to the late ’80s; in a place where sixty-year-old tycoons bedded teenagers and kept their panties as souvenirs; in a town where the daughter of one of Kenya’s richest businessmen held parties that were so exclusive that Janet Jackson had flown down for her birthday—Kandle, self-styled master of The Art of Seventy-Two-Hour Drinking, had achieved a footnote.
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Photo courtesy the Caine Prize
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by Lindsay on May 10th, 2012
Alain Mabanckou, originally from the Republic of Congo and currently lecturing at the University of California, is the author of African Psycho, Memoirs of a Porcupine and several other acclaimed novels.
His books, written in French, are finally being translated into English for US audiences. The latest of these is Black Bazar, which will be published as Black Bazaar in July this year.
In a UCLA classroom one day not long ago, Alain Mabanckou was teaching a course in post-colonial African fiction, which he instructs in his French mother tongue, one of several languages he speaks.
With his easygoing yet focused manner, soccer player’s graceful body language and a way funkier fashion sense than the average college don, the 46-year-old Mabanckou kept his students’ attention, framing moral quandaries for them to consider and regaling them with technical explanations of an African army’s “technique de la terre brulee” (scorched earth policy).
Reed Johnson interviewed Mabanckou for the Los Angeles Times:
In a UCLA classroom one day not long ago, Alain Mabanckou was teaching a course in post-colonial African fiction, which he instructs in his French mother tongue, one of several languages he speaks.
With his easygoing yet focused manner, soccer player’s graceful body language and a way funkier fashion sense than the average college don, the 46-year-old Mabanckou kept his students’ attention, framing moral quandaries for them to consider and regaling them with technical explanations of an African army’s “technique de la terre brûlée” (scorched earth policy).
Mabanckou spoke to Daniel Boden of UCLA’s campus newspaper, The Daily Bruin, about Memoirs of a Porcupine:
The title character leaves his tribe of porcupines and becomes the spiritual double – part guardian, part accomplice – to a Congolese boy bound for a life of murder. The book is the porcupine’s firsthand account of doing his master’s bidding for decades until the latter dies, liberating the porcupine from his bondage.
“It translates the bonhomie and cruelty of the African continent combined in a very powerful folkloric figure, which is fictional and fantastic, obviously,” said Malina Stefanovska, professor and department chairwoman of French and Francophone studies at UCLA. “It speaks about politics and cruelty. It’s a very nasty narrator, a kind of animal which is nasty, but wonders at how nasty the humans are.”
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Photo courtesy Le Nouvel Observateur
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by Sophy on May 9th, 2012
The programme for the 2012 Wits Arts and Literature Experience is live on Wits University’s dedicated WALE page. WALE 5.0, which kicked off today at Wits Main Campus in Braamfontein and continues until 12 May, features an exciting mix of dance, drama, poetry, music and academic discussion, with an especially strong presence from Wits University Press.
Events to look forward to include the ambitious Shoe Shop Project, a performance from Jaimaican poet Kei Miller, and several book launches. A highlight of the “experience” is the inaugural Khabi Mngoma Memorial Lecture which will be delivered by Reuel Khoza, author of Attuned Leadership, on Friday 11 May. Entrance to all performances, exhibitions and screenings is free.
WALE Literature Programme
Wednesday 9 May
SWOP Seminar on Violence: Narratives on Trial: The Vaal Uprising as an Event and Discourse
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Humanities Grad Centre Seminar Room
Literary Readings
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Writing Centre
Panel Discussion and Public Debate: Reviewing the Arts in South Africa
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM: Pentz Bookshop
Book Launch: Nicoli Nattrass: The AIDS Conspiracy: Science fights back
6:15 PM – 8:00 PM: Humanities Grad Centre Seminar Room
Thursday 10 May
Poetry Reading: Hand me that beaker filled with dark Delight
– Prof Peter Horn
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Pentz Bookshop
Launch: Micampus Magazine
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Humanities Grad Centre Seminar Room
Wits School of the Arts Open Lecture Series: This Time for Africa? Continental Identification, National Belonging and Xenophobic Violence in the Shadow of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
– Speaker: Prof Eric Worby
1:15 PM – 2:15 PM: Apollonia Theatre
Humanities Graduate Centre Key Thinkers Lecture Series: Wang Hui: Thinking Western Modernity from Asia
– Speaker: Prof Dilip Menon.
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Humanities Grad Centre Seminar Room
Book Launch: Marie Jorritsma: Sonic Spaces of the Karoo
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Room 116 Wits School of Arts
Round-table: Women in Conflict: Democratic Republic of Congo
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Humanities Grad Centre
Friday 11 May
ITCH Magazine Showcase and Indaba
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Humanities Grad Centre Seminar Room
Saturday 12 May
Discussion: Finding contexts in Visual Century
– Nontobeko Ntombela, Nessa Leibhammer and Judy Seidman, chaired by Jillian Carman
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Humanities Grad Centre Seminar Room
Book Launch: Rethinking Eastern African Literary and Intellectual Landscapes
12:30 PM – 2:30 PM: Atrium
Press release:
WALE 5.0 promises to be an exciting and cutting-edge mix of all things artistic. Running for four days from 9 to 12 May 2012 at Wits University, this welcome addition to the Johannesburg arts calendar offers something for everyone.
A staggering variety of visual and performing arts awaits WALE festival-goers this year. From innovative dance by young choreographers to international performance poets, top jazz acts, classical music virtuosos, and ground-breaking drama and multimedia performances – there’s live entertainment to cater for every taste.
Furthermore, WALE 5.0 will also feature film screenings, exhibitions and a book fair – a celebration of literature, with poetry readings, book launches and lively debate.
As an appetiser to the stage shows, WALE 5.0 will kick off with a colourful carnival through streets of Braamfontein at 12pm, 9th May 2012.
Entrance to all WALE 5.0 performances, exhibitions and screenings is free!
WALE 5.0 takes place from 9 to 12 May 2012 at the Wits Main Campus in Braamfontein
Drama:
This year Wits students and alumni will wow audiences with the sheer variety and quality of drama performances on offer. The work on stage will explore contemporary issues such as xenophobia, the role of women, identity and obsession: with disease, war, food, sex and information. These stories will come to life through a range of theatrical expression, including dance, poetry, movement, music, one-man shows, a Japanese folk tale, interactive installations and multimedia. Audiences will be taken on a journey through the pure talent, diversity and innovation that embodies the drama on offer at WALE 5.0.
A drama highlight will be a new work, The Line, directed and written by Gina Shmukler with music by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder and starring Khutjo Green and Gabi Harris, with design by Niall Griffin. The Line is a play about people, about the nature of humanity and moments in time in South Africa.
Another must-see is I Remember … by the Drama for Life Theatre Company. The audience is invited to interact with visual art and performance craft, in what promises to be an extraordinary exploration of memory. It will be performed in the style of playback theatre, which is a powerful tool of improvisatory theatre that facilitates community dialogue and has been part of WALE since the festival’s inception.
Dance:
Jo’burg dance lovers are in for a treat. Esther Nasser, Artistic Director of the Tshwane Dance Theatre (TDT) , presents: 15 Minutes of Fame 2 as part of WALE 5.0. In 2011, Nasser asked choreographers to create a work lasting 15 minutes that would excite, stimulate, push the envelope and burst on to the stage in an eruption of visual pleasure, emotion, intelligence and joy.
Following the resounding success of 15 Minutes of Fame 1 in 2011, the second edition of this acclaimed initiative is a welcome addition to WALE 5.0. This new programme, like its predecessor, gives new choreographers exactly 15 minutes each to choreograph a work that will showcase the superb technical and artistic skills of the TDT. Three new works will be introduced:
• Yalla by choreographer Shelley Sheer
• Beauty Tips by choreographer Kristin Wilson
• Not Your Alpha, Just etc by choreographer Liyabuya Gongo
Music:
Wale 5.0 signifies a sheer tour de force for Wits Music. Audiences can bask in a variety of stellar performances by some of South Africa’s top musicians, ranging from the urban/traditional sounds of Kgafela le Marabele to the spontaneous freestyle chamber music of Carlo Mombelli and The Prisoners of Strange. There’s also the sublime melodies of Wits featured composer for 2012, Mokale Koapeng. Plus, the Music Masters Students Recital will give a platform to four Wits Masters students: pianists Belinda de Villiers and Peter Cartwright, as well as Viktor van Niekerk on 10-string guitar and Ziza Mhlongo on vocals. All these performers are accomplished and have achieved local and international praise for their musical prowess.
African musical heritage will come under the spotlight during the Khabi Mngoma Memorial Lecture. Professor Mngoma had a vast influence on African music throughout his extensive career as a leading academic and cultural activist in the service of music. Professor Mngoma is also the father of singer Sibongile Khumalo and musician Lindumuzi Mngoma.
WALE 5.0 Main Stage:
The Main Stage, outdoors in the Library Gardens, will form the heartbeat of WALE 2012. This stage will play host to the Opening and Closing Concerts, and the WALE 5.0 Parade will depart from there on Wednesday 9th May 2012 at 12pm.
The featured acts include Kei Miller, a Jamaican poet whose performance is made possible by The British Council. Miller currently divides his time between Jamaica and the United Kingdom, where he teaches creative writing at the University of Glasgow.
Also on the Main Stage will be Kgafela le Marabele, a group of artists who individually have a world of experience as performers. The outfit includes Tebogo “Bra Tebza” Tshotetsi, a gifted artist who plays indigenous instruments such as serankure and nkonwana; Makati Motshegwa, a versatile bass player; and Kgafela Magogodi, an international stand-up spoken-word artist, in collaboration with other talented musicians. Kgafela le Marebele are currently recording a spoken-word and music album, to be released in May 2012.
Shoe Shop Festival:
The Shoe Shop Festival is made possible by The Goethe Institute, in partnership with WALE 5.0. This festival comprises a series of events and project nodes that are arranged to reflect on, and prepare for, movement. The projects work independently and will be realised all over greater Johannesburg. They bring together existent collectives, young and established artists and various initiatives that share similar interests, with the aim to collaborate and provide a dense and fluid space for a critical reflection and approval of movement, mobility and migration.
The Shoe Shop Festival includes photographic installations in public spaces; the opening of a month-long pop-up space, the Shoe Shop; a photography workshop; a series of lectures/short presentations; artist walks and performances; a film programme and a film workshop. A publication will accompany the festival.
Ends
Book details
- Go Home or Die Here: Violence, Xenophobia and the Reinvention of Difference in South Africa edited by Tawana Kupe, Eric Worby, Shireen Hassim
EAN: 9781868144877
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- Visual Century: South African Art in Context 1907-2007 edited by Gavin Jantjes, Jillian Carman, Lize van Robbroeck, Mandisi Majavu, Mario Pissarra, Thembinkosi Goniwe
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EAN: 9781868145478
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by Sophy on May 4th, 2012
Nigerian author Rotimi Babatunde has been shortlisted for the 2012 Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story “Bombay’s Republic”, published in Vol. 3.9 of the Mirabilia Review. Babatunde is up against Kenya’s Billy Kahora, Malawi’s Stanley Kenani, Zimbabwe’s Melissa Tandiwe Myambo and South Africa’s Constance Myburgh for the £10 000 prize, the winner of which will be announced on 2 July.
While you await the announcement of the award, we invite you to read the shortlisted stories, beginning with “Bombay’s Republic”:
The old jailhouse on the hilltop had remained uninhabited for many decades, through the construction of the town’s first grammar school and the beginning of house-to-house harassment from the affliction called sanitary inspectors, through the laying of the railway tracks by navvies who likewise succeeded in laying pregnancies in the bellies of several lovestruck girls, but fortunes changed for the building with the return of Colour Sergeant Bombay, the veteran who went off with the recruitment officers to Hitler’s War as a man and came back a spotted leopard.
Before Bombay’s departure when everything in the world was locked in its individual box, he could not have believed such metamorphosis was possible. A man was still a man and a leopard a leopard while the old jailhouse was a forsaken place not fit for human habitation. A white man was the District Officer who went by in an impressive white jacket and a black man was the Native Police constable who saluted as the white man passed. This was how the world was and there was no reason to think it could be otherwise. But the war came and the bombs started falling, shattering things out of their imprisonment in boxes and jumbling them without logic into a protean mishmash. Without warning, everything became possible.
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Photo courtesy the Caine Prize for African Writing
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Verdict: a carrot for Mighty Be Our Powers and a stick for This Child Will Be Great
Apr
