Published by Jacana Media, Rumours is a powerful book that explores life, culture, family, and African tradition in the changing South African landscape and global context.
Published by Jacana Media, Rumours is a powerful book that explores life, culture, family, and African tradition in the changing South African landscape and global context.
- Rumours by Mongane Wally Serote
- Published by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd
- ISBN: 978-1-4314-0530-5
- Price: R195.00
- Rating: 3/5
The author of four novels and 14 volumes of poetry, Serote's political beliefs – and at times, uncertainties – have always permeated his work.
Rumours is no different. Serote's work aims to capture the black experience during and after apartheid and the armed conflict that raged across Africa for years.
It is introspective, and parallels can be drawn between his life and the story of Keke, the veteran MK cadre turned big-business CEO, who is the protagonist of his latest novel.
By examining Keke's life, beliefs and decisions, Serote commits himself to exploring African ways of life. His belief in the importance of an African Renaissance is clearly communicated.
But what form will Africa's renewal take?
Which values should be attached to life in the big and varied continent?
These are questions Serote addresses.
Keke wakes up one day to find his life in ruins: a terrifying, sweat-soaked nightmare is the reader's first introduction into his world.
Entangling his blood-soaked past with that of the land he inhabits, Keke's thoughts race through decades and across borders to draw the reader into an increasingly fast-paced, frustrated and furious train of thought.
After hitting rock bottom, Keke is thrust into a spiritual journey which leads him, finally, to a sense of peace.
Ami, a beautiful shaman from Mali, is a beacon of light. Serote's pen treats her with reverence and tenderness as she introduces Keke to the world of traditional healing and helps him find solace in a spiritual world.
Only once he is healed can Keke fully understand his role in the context of a post-apartheid South Africa, and the restless, angry atmosphere surrounding much of the action in the beginning of the book melts away at Ami's gentle tone.
Serote clearly uses the novel as a space to explore different paradigms, using different characters to embody seemingly conflicting lifestyles and belief systems.
However, much of the book is taken up with Keke's (or Serote's) political musings on the country's past, present and future.
At times didactic and morally prescriptive, Serote regularly sacrifices dialogue and realistic character development for the sake of espousing his own opinions and values.
Even the redemptive spiritual conclusion Keke finally reaches echoes Serote's life trajectory: he was also called by his ancestors to become a sangoma.
Serote's use of language in Rumours remind us why he is such a revered poet.
At times searing and incisive, at others surprisingly tender, Serote's words eke out the past, present and future to great effect – but he should be careful of losing his audience through self-indulgence and moralising.
