This is the story of a small family in Lobengula township, Bulawayo: a shoemaker, Ngwenya, his wife, MaVundla, and their two children, Ambition and Senzeni, whose lives are turned upside-down when Senzeni joins the local youth militia. Mlalazi captures the texture of everyday life in the township, the humour, warmth, rivalry and fear as neighbours interact with each other or get swept up by events outside their control. Their constant search, however, is for autonomy and independence, for the ability to have control over their own lives. They are Coming provides us with perspectives often hidden from view, in a story where particular events are part of a more complex history.
About the Author:
CHRISTOPHER MLALAZI is currently Guest Writer of the City of Hanover in Germany, the most recent of a series of writing fellowships. In 2012, he was a fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program, USA; in 2011, he was Guest Writer at the Nordic Africa Institute in Sweden; and, in 2010, Guest Writer at Villa Aurora, in Los Angeles, USA. Prolific as a prose writer and playwright, in 2008 he was the co-winner of the Oxfam Novib PEN Freedom of Expression Award at the Hague for theatre. He won NAMA awards for his short story collection, Dancing With Life: Tales From The Township and for his play Election Day. His second novel, Running with Mother, has been translated into German and Italian.
They are Coming
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