“Three generations of white South African men were bound together at that table. Vermuelen was the first generation. He defined Africa, made it safe for Basson to defile. I was the last generation, the last to grow up in segregated neighborhoods. Between us was the silent photograph of Wouter Basson. Like a distant father, Basson was absent at the dining table.” – Henk Rossouw (Hole in the White ‘Hood). Also Mahmood Mamdani on Bantu Education at UCT, Gael Reagon on sisterhood, Binyavanga Wainaina on dis-covering Kenya, Gaston Zossou on African intellectuals and more…
Cover:
Strange Fruit by Lewis Allen
Bhlawa’s Inconsolable Spirits by Mxolisi Nyezwa (Deep South, 2023)
Inconsolable Spirits is startling, often humorous, always graphic. Determined to understand everything, the young Nyezwa turns to writing to “train himself to see”.
In Nyezwa’s vision no boundaries exist between imagination, day-to-day survival, spiritual reality, and economic violence: “What everyone saw up there at night in Bhlawa, and called the moon, was just the hungry face of God.”