Here we are almost into our third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, four years into the Cyril Ramaphosa presidency and nearly as long into the ever-unfolding revelations of the Zondo Commission of Enquiry into State Capture etc. In this context Niq Mhlongo has put together a collection of short stories by 19 Southern African writers called Hauntings.
It is not only the spirits of the dead, our ancestors and others that haunt us, but matters we have not resolved in a personal way and as a society. In the midst of the major dramas mentioned above, people keep on, and we move along with subtle changes till suddenly everything is different. These stories reflect this.
They make for a wonderfully satisfying read and, though very different from each other, they all seem to connect the reader to some experience of our South African life. I will select a handful to give some idea of what to expect.
Joanne Hichens has contributed a devastating story called The Looting in which twin teenage girls, Nandi and Nolwazi, join the looting in a big shopping mall. Once they have found clothes and hair accessories, they head for the supermarket to get food for the beautiful new fridge their father is guarding at home. You know what is going to happen once they smell smoke, but it doesn’t make it any easier to read.
