African Anamnesis

I’ve done two versions. Take your pick.

Zakes Mda is a South African writer whom I got to know first as a playwright. His plays were performed at the Johannesburg Market Theatre. In The Heart of Redness he writes about Nongqavuse, a Xhosa girl who prophesied the exodus of the British settlers if her people were to kill their cattle and burn their crops. This resulted in a massive famine in 1856/57 in the area of the Eastern Cape, with an estimated 20,000 people dying and many more deplaced. Mda shifts from the historical perspective to the present to illustrate the interplay of history, myth and present day reality.

Linked to Thursday’s Special: Make a book cover.