The Sunday Independent

Mandla Langa’s latest is a tale of identity

LESEGO MAKGATHO lesego.makgatho@inl.co.za

IF THERE’S an author who’s been a literary treasure to South Africa, it has got to be Mandla Langa. The 71-yearold writer with African spirituality has come forth with a new book titled, The Lost Language of The Soul.

This brilliant novel follows the life of 14-year-old Joseph Mabaso, who embarks on a journey of self-knowledge. He meets his unlikely guides: Sobhuza, a freedom fighter; Chikwedere, a stonecutter and illicit trader; Madala, who helps him home in on his own voice; Leila and her horses; and Auntie Susie Juma, the unofficial Zambian ambassador in Yeoville, Johannesburg.

Each of these Dantean characters assists Joseph in bringing his daring quest to a soul-stirring end.

Joseph is used to his father Sobhuza’s long absences from the family home in Lusaka, Zambia. Sobhuza is a freedom fighter and doing important work, and Joseph has learned not to ask questions. But when Chanda, his mother, disappears without trace, leaving him and his siblings alone, Joseph knows that something is terribly wrong.

Langa captures with poignancy the perspective of a vulnerable yet determined child and the clashing emotions within him as he seeks to reunite his family.

As Joseph navigates unfamiliar and often hostile territory in his search for his parents, he is on a parallel journey of discovery – one of identity and belonging – as he attempts to find a safe house that is truly safe, a language that understands all languages, and a place in his soul that feels like home.

Langa said: “The Lost Language of the Soul came up at a time when South Africa was caught up in the xenophobic attacks from 2008, 2015 and all the intervening periods.

“I felt like there was some disconnect in South Africa about our identity as being people of the African continent. The other one came from my understanding of the plight of the children of ANC or exiles, who were left in various parts of the world, especially in Southern Africa in Tanzania and Zambia. Those were the major collection points for the people who were in exile during the years of struggle,” he said.

Langa said he felt a need to explore all of this from the point of view of a child of exile who is of another nationality.

“That is the case with Joseph who is also a Zambian. I had to create a plotline for him to then see the country of his father’s bed and see it from his own eyes, and also with the backdrop of what had been the support of the host communities for exiles in various parts of the world. That support cost them a lot in terms of material, the destabilisation by South Africa and the incursions by the defence force,” he said.

This layered body of work should not be read as a political novel or anti-apartheid novel. It’s a book about the coming of age of a boy who is looking for his identity and a language that will best express himself. and what is happening with his own peers, as well as the trajectory of his own growth.

The Lost Language of the Soul is available at all major bookstores nationwide.

METRO

en-za

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thesundayindependent.pressreader.com/article/281844351771142

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