BOOK REVIEW: Opening up Soweto and Chatsworth with stories
Niq Mhlongo’s fetching awkwardness contrasts with Pravasan Pillay’s dexterous appropriation of English, writes Hans Pienaar
A child hanging around under or in an apricot tree in a backyard puzzling over the grownups seems such a quintessential South African scene. But at the heart of Nic Mhlongo’s eponymous story in Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree, is another mystery: why was there an apricot tree in every backyard in Soweto? This is a matter he raised at some of the many launch events for the collection. In reality, of course, such a backyard idyll is a tainted one. The apricots are either too green or they fall off and lie under the tree to rot. For Mhlongo the tree is the source of stories; that is where township dwellers gather to tell them. But its rotten fruit is also a reminder of the one story he is in two minds about — he owes his existence to apartheid’s absurd social engineering, which threw his father and mother together. This tension, between the township as his home and source of the stories, has made him a writer and a human; and the sense of captivity and waste Soweto’s residents still suf...
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