The first thing to strike one about this handy, attractive book is the interesting mission statement from the publisher. Boldly they assert (which is music to our ears at KZN Literary Tourism), “Whereabouts Press is dedicated to publishing books that will enlighten a traveler to the soul of a place. By bringing a country’s stories to the English-speaking reader, we hope to convey its culture through literature”. Other Traveler’s Literary Companions which the publisher has commissioned cover countries as divergent as Cuba and Vietnam, Israel and Japan; together with the cities Prague and Amsterdam.  These, then, are literary companions for the “curious traveler”, the type who likes to read and look at the same time. 

Appropriately, the book starts with a map of South Africa which is followed by a Preface written by the editors. In it they discuss their choices, making the comment that the history of South Africa is one of contested spaces and thus the literature that springs from it will no doubt reflect this. They have chosen a mixture of selections from old and new writers over the past 100 years: from Olive Schreiner (and, sadly, not an extract from that most evocative of ‘landscape’ novels The Story of an African Farm), to Herman Charles Bosman, to Richard Rive and Alan Paton. Most ‘chapters’ are short extracts which give a taste of a place and a time; except for the long piece from Mphahlele entitled “Mrs Plum”. The volume, by the way, is dedicated to this writer. Each author represented is summed up in a short biographical sketch on the title page which is a quick, handy way to contextualise the writer, era and region. 

We stand in a small white clump
Like the ghosts of the past
Drifted onto Dube's hill,
Wiser day by day, but still
Not sure of where we are.

Below, beyond the gate, we see
The living swarm, a sea
Of Black youth in blue and white,
Their joyous chatter a song of life,
Overflowing with tomorrow.

Before us, the sacred circle
Of Dube's grave, abstract to us,
But for the stone and plaque, as we
In our hats, point and photograph the facts.
We hear, not yet knowing where we are.

Gradually, the point sinks in,
As our host's extended arm and compact fist
Reveal the wreath, still there, that Tambo laid,
The spot Mandela chose to speak,
The place he came to cast that mighty vote.

                                  --Dennis Huffman
                                     April 2010

This poem was inspired by a trip on the INK Writers trail, which visits Inanda Seminary, the Phoenix Settlement and Ohlange Institute.

On 9 May 2010, KZN Literary Tourism attended a prestigious launch event held at Ohlange Institute, Inanda. This was the unveiling of the statues of Nelson Mandela, first president of the democratic South Africa, and John Langalibalele Dube, founder and first leader of the South African National Congress, now known as the ANC. The event also marked the launch of the revamped Inanda Heritage Trail which aims to draw tourists from all over the world to visit this area. The Inanda Heritage Trail consists of the Phoenix/Ghandi Settlement, Ohlange Institute, Shembe Ebuhleni and Inanda Seminary School; these places being the main tourist attractions on the route.

The launch event was graced by the presence of the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Zweli Mkhize, Deputy Mayor of Durban Logie Naidoo, Minister of Social Development Dr Mike Mabuyakhulu and eThekwini City Manager Mike Sutcliffe. Also in attendance was the granddaughter of JL Dube. Zenzele Dube, the spokesperson for the family, said "We are happy as the Dube family, this is a great day for us and the community of Inanda”.

Review of High Low In-between by Imraan Coovadia.  Cape Town: Umuzi, 2009.

All things that we ordainèd festival

Turn from their office to black funeral (Romeo and Juliet). 

Imraan Coovadia’s third novel is intriguing – it is about intrigue, and it is a deliberate generic puzzle in order to represent what one character calls “a looking-glass society” (103).  Its action includes deception, betrayal, death, murder, theft, intrigue and mystery – all the stock in trade of the who-dunnit.   And yet that is hardly the point, because the world in which these things happen is presented as very different from the genre’s old separation of good guys from bad.  This reworking with a difference also extends to other genres with which Coovadia plays.  When a planned party has to change abruptly, in the first chapter of High Low, from being a retirement party to a funeral gathering, no one can be sure of who decided and did what, or even how much it should or does matter.   “[N]othing and nobody was in charge” (103).  When the families in Verona made their terrible mistakes, at least Capulet could say that he and his kind were responsible, “we ordainèd”, and thence allow events to bring them to their senses.   Nothing like that seems possible in Coovadia’s fictional world where people feel obliged to work “outside the ordinary channels” (240).