“Mandela was not the only head of state taken in by Koagne. Le king kept snapshots of himself with many a man of power, among them Mobutu Sese Seko and Denis Sassou Nguesso […] He took Mobutu for 15 million dollars. Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso lost 40 million to him. Sassou, Etienne Eyadéma of Togo, several high officials of Gabon, Tanzania and Kenya, a member of the Spanish government and an ex-operative of the Israeli Mossad were bamboozled as well.” – Dominique Malaquais (Blood Money: A Douala Chronicle).
Bantu Serenade by Ntone Edjabe (featuring Nah-ee-lah) (read excerpt)
Santu Mofokeng: Trajectory of a street photographer (part1) (read excerpt)
Binyavanga Wainaina: Hell In Bed With Mrs Peprah (read excerpt)
Dominique Malaquais: Lindela (the winnie suite) (read excerpt)
Boubacar Boris Diop: Myriem (read excerpt)
Cover:
Neo Muyanga
Botsotso 20: The Dramas of Life (Botsotso, 2019)
Botsotso 20: Drama. The Dramas of Life is an anthology of eight South African plays drawn from the last decade (2008 -18) and engages with personal dilemmas and social realities.
The themes reflect the general unravelling of the 1994 political settlement as racism, poverty and inequality, patriarchy, violence against women and LGBT people, the failure to provide quality education and high levels of corruption, expose widening fault lines. They display great energy and dramatic virtuosity in their exploration of these and other themes and create vivid characters who transcend the rhetorical.
The plays included are “Isithunzi” by Sipho Zakwe; “Sleeping Dogs” by Simphiwe Vikilahle; “The Good Candidate” by Hans Pienaar; “Shoes and Coups” by Palesa Mazamisa; “Book Marks” by Allan Kolski Horwitz; “The Couch” by Sjaka Septembir; “Iziyalo Zikamama” by the Botsotso Ensemble and “Finding Me” by Moeketsi Kgotle.