Ever since the accolades bestowed on the author’s first three novels, appearing in relatively short succession, I’ve been keen to read his writing that was so highly praised all round.
This one is a collection of short stories described as a confrontation by the author of “the span of our democracy and the madness of the last 20 years after apartheid”.
That’s quite a handful, but on the other hand, probably smart to start out with a collection of short stories that can cover various aspects of this carnival of a country of ours.
And he starts at the beginning as he fires a salvo which he knows will have everyone reading with attention, the issue of land, probably in most instances the most emotional topic when it comes to dealing with our young democracy.
How can you take from some to give to others? But that which we’re talking of had been taken from those who want to now do the taking and which they see as their right.
Depending on where you come from, in many instances the colour of your skin, whether you have property or not, all of these come into play when talking land.
But Mhlongo doesn’t pussyfoot around.
He goes to the heart of the matter as he plunges us headlong into a story of human crossfires at its most emotional.
But that’s the thing, even when topics are uncomfortable, storytelling is the best way to scratch at these wounds and to start with a healing process. Turning away, simply using force, and no one wins in the end.
That’s why short stories make so much sense when you want to capture the flavour of a place or time.
Take a visit to a world city like Washington where you are left to make your own way with your own rules. But these don’t always work.
Fortunately, many inside that country, the US, will underestimate the speed with which a South African can find his/her way out of a tricky situation and because they’re so obsessed with the exotic nature of Africa that’s a good way to go if you really want to find a way out.
But in similar sense, be careful what you wish for in a world where the morality of individuals differ so dangerously.
Perhaps a better route to follow for Thami in the story titled Goliwood Drama was not to object that the youngest albino child, born just before he and his wife Thuli divorced, was not his.
He didn’t object paying maintenance for the first two who he claimed as his own, but he denied that this one could be part of his family tree.
In that one denial, many prejudices stumble across one another and that’s just one of the angles this multi-layered story takes.
This is a country with as many stories as there are souls.
When someone with Mhlongo’s ability decides to tackle the nature of the beast, it becomes a feast of different flavours in colours with varying shades of subtlety and sometimes shock.
It is about storytelling, it is about exploring who we are and it is about showing the differences, but also the things that make us all South African.
* Affluenza by Niq Mhlongo is published by Kwela Books