{"id":213103,"date":"2022-01-09T13:56:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T11:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/book-review-zakes-mdas-subversive-take-on-lesothos-traditions\/"},"modified":"2022-01-09T13:56:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T11:56:28","slug":"book-review-zakes-mdas-subversive-take-on-lesothos-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/book-review-zakes-mdas-subversive-take-on-lesothos-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review: Zakes Mda’s subversive take on Lesotho’s traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2019 at the Abantu Book Festival in Soweto, South African writer and artist Zakes Mda was celebrating the publication of his final novel, The Zulus of New York<\/a><\/em>, when he made a surprise announcement<\/a>. He had changed his mind and was writing another novel. He explained that \u201csometimes when you are a writer a story finds you and attacks you. It forces you to narrate it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The story is set in Lesotho, a landlocked and mountainous country neighbouring South Africa. It covers the growth of a kheleke \u2013 a wandering minstrel \u2013 and his career and the heights it is possible to reach, before tragedy engulfs and silences his accordion.<\/p>\n

In Wayfarers\u2019 Hymns<\/a><\/em>, the author draws on his early life in Lesotho, where he joined his father in exile, and where he later taught at the national university. This novel re-connects the author to the land and culture of colourful blankets<\/a>, Famo musicians<\/a> and feuding factions, or \u201cmusical gangsters\u201d as academic Nokuthula Mazibuko-Msimang calls them in a recent interview<\/a> with Mda.<\/p>\n

Subverting traditions<\/h2>\n

The central character is a nameless boy-child kheleke \u2013 \u201cthe eloquent one\u201d \u2013 who sings the praises of his sister Moliehi. Despite the abundance of compliments sung by her brother, she describes him as a lazy leloabe<\/em> (vagabond) and molelere<\/em> (wanderer), with the connotations of a wastrel. But as the kheleke narrates the novel, it is his viewpoint that wins over. He explains in the first line that \u201cshe was the one I sang my hymns to\u201d and he makes her name and beauty famous.<\/p>\n

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Read more: Zakes Mda on his latest novel, set in Lesotho’s musical gang wars<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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The tradition is explained thus:<\/p>\n

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A great hymn begins with the kheleke introducing himself to the world, repeating his name and his father\u2019s, against his father\u2019s if his father was a reprobate as men tend to be, and praising the virtues of his clan, his village and his chief.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And throughout Mda plays with this convention as the kheleke himself remains nameless, it is his \u201ccult\u201d (band) \u201cof the arum-lily\u201d, Mohalalitoe, that becomes famous. And although the kheleke sings about his father, it is a father who is missing, having died in a deep goldmine. He could not be buried among his kin in ancestral land and his spirit remains unappeased. In many ways it is the search for his father\u2019s body that propels the action in the novel.<\/p>\n

This apparently patriarchal form of music also praises the land, \u201ceven when the hymn is a lamentation. Even when the land is barren.\u201d Before moving on to the sister: \u201cA kheleke dwells on his sister and her unsurpassed qualities of womanhood.\u201d Again the irony here is that the kheleke must sing about a \u201cformidable woman in his life\u201d, if he doesn\u2019t have a sister, then his rakhali<\/em> (paternal aunt) is the best he can do. <\/p>\n

Most importantly, \u201cNo self-respecting kheleke sings the praises of his wife in public, lest he invites vultures to his homestead.\u201d And yet the song the kheleke becomes famous for U Ka Se Nqete<\/em> celebrates female polyamory, or at least the ability of women to take different sexual partners while their husbands are working in the gold mines of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/div>
Zakes Mda.<\/span> LEONARDO CENDAMO\/Getty Images<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This song that celebrates cuckoldry becomes an unexpected hit. The duet that the kheleke creates with his girlfriend, the dancer Maleshoane, is what cements the success of the song. It\u2019s upbeat and funny, and though the men claim to dislike it, they all sing along.<\/p>\n

Musical gangsters<\/h2>\n

In the ensuing battle between rival bands, the kheleke\u2019s Cult of the Arum Lily directly challenge The Cult of the Train, an antagonism that leads to his downfall. Unknown to him, the cults also operate illegal mining operations and, as his father\u2019s age-mate Tau ea Khale explains, things have changed greatly since the days when \u201cwarriors were warriors and musicians were musicians\u201d.<\/p>\n

The gangs arose in 1999, escalating in 2007, when Tau ea Khale describes being in prison and hearing of \u201cinmates sentenced to years because they killed others over music \u2026 Mosotho killing another Mosotho for a song \u2026 boys who used to look after cattle together.\u201d It is this snapshot of Lesotho gang warfare that Mda expertly captures in this novel, though it also celebrates music, composition and creativity itself.<\/p>\n

Meditation on masculinity and femininity<\/h2>\n

Mda develops a significant meditation on masculinity as Wayfarers\u2019 Hymns<\/em> continues the pattern of Siphiwo Mahala\u2019s When A Man Cries<\/a><\/em>, Thando Mgqolozana\u2019s A Man Who is Not a Man<\/a><\/em>, and Masande Ntshanga\u2019s The Reactive<\/a><\/em>, all of which consider ulwaluko<\/em> (traditional circumcision ritual) and what it means to be a man in southern Africa (during the HIV\/AIDS pandemic).<\/p>\n

A continued refrain amongst the men of his band is that the kheleke is disloyal because he is not circumcised and must \u201cgraduate from an initiation school\u201d to be a man. He responds: \u201cAll I wanted was to be a kheleke of note, playing beautiful music, appearing on television \u2026 Radio.\u201d But he is pushed by an attack on his sister to write a song which directly challenges The Cult of the Train and therein lies his downfall.<\/p>\n

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Read more: Book review: Sindiwe Magona’s devastating, uplifting story of South African women<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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Mda develops different notions of freedom \u2013 in performance, singing, music and mourning \u2013 by bringing back the much-loved character of Toloki from his celebrated 1995 novel Ways of Dying<\/a><\/em>. Toloki seeks more ways of mourning, away from the township and the HIV\/AIDS bereavements of South Africa, with the deaths of the Famo musicians in Lesotho. Although he is a background figure in Wayfarers\u2019 Hymns<\/em>, Toloki provides ample comic respite from the posturing and machismo of the gang warfare. He also challenges us to rethink categories, bringing his performance of \u2018grief\u2019 to Lesotho and then juxtaposing it with his own genuine grief at losing the love of his life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\"A<\/div>\n

<\/a>

<\/span> Umuzi<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mda has always written strong female characters, but in Wayfarers\u2019 Hymns<\/em> he also classically undercuts notions of femininity by making Moliehi a woman who loves another woman, providing unexpected female khelekes and featuring female gangsters called MaRussia like Mme Mpuse. She offers her sage advice to the boy-child kheleke when he sings with her. She tells him, \u201cOne day you will be a sought-after kheleke. But never be led by your penis. That\u2019s what has destroyed great men. Be led by the music.\u201d The Wayfarers\u2019 Hymns<\/em> are songs worth listening to.<\/p>\n

Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2019 at the Abantu Book Festival in Soweto, South African writer and artist Zakes Mda was celebrating the publication of his final novel, The Zulus of New York, when he made a surprise announcement. He had changed his mind and was writing another novel. He explained that \u201csometimes when you are a writer a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-213103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/book-review-zakes-mdas-subversive-take-on-lesothos-traditions.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}