Interview with Niq Mhlongo editor of Hauntings, a new short story anthology with a thrilling array of African writers
The widely travelled novelist reveals that he edited the book while in lockdown in Germany as he could not leave the country until after a year.
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
Just an hour ago there was a downpour, but right now the sun was as bright as If only an hour ago, the sky was not enveloped by the rainy clouds. These are indeed strange times as children born in this era have to worry about even issues of climate change. My generation did not have to worry about such as we grew up only a few decades ago in the 80s. But now they have to as presidents even sat recently to see what they could do to mitigate against climate change.
Well, Melville is packed with people walking up and down in the streets, hawkers selling mainly handcrafted baskets and wood carved art works along its streets. A few gentlemen who are in the age of being grandfathers are playing a game of cards, gambling as they huddled at the entrance of what used to be one of a plethora of restaurants that has since closed its doors. I notice a few notes of R20 and R10 notes on the floor being gambled away, and never R50 or R100 notes, let alone a R200 note. Times are indeed tough, even for gamblers, I concluded as I walked along 7th Street, heading to Xai Xai Restaurant, a popular eatery and pub in Melville known for its chilly chicken dishes, as it is known for hawking its liquor at a comparatively inexpensive price in this overpriced middle income suburb, north West of Johannesburg. The other restaurants are also busy, so packed that had it not been for the masks lowered down the patrons’ chins to enable them to dine in relative comfort, in the pubs and restaurants dotting 7th Street, one could conclude that the good old days are back. But they are not. We live in times of Covid-19, a disease caused by a tiny but deadly coronavirus that has cowed humanity into submission worldwide.
I am meeting short story writer, novelist, traveler and editor, Niq Mhlongo. Now, If there was a culture of celebrating novelists in this country, in the same way we celebrate TV and radio personalities, Mhlongo would be one person we could call a celebrity writer. Sadly, writers are hardly celebrated in the public imagination in this country, including in corridors of power. We seem not to see the currency of writers in the enrichment of our contemporary culture.
Here is a Soweto born writer who has emerged from those humble beginnings to become a prolific writer of global eminence, celebrated throughout the world for the use of his pen to tell stories, African stories, our stories, to an appreciative global audience through his several books. Judging by his globe trotting schedule, even sleeping at airports to catch the next flight to yet another book fair where he is to make a literary presentation about his literary, the world seems to be ever hungry for stories from this part of the world. Mhlongo is one of the most prominent advocates for sharing written African stories qwith the rest of the world.
His novels and books of short stories have been translated from English into several global languages spoken in the West, such as Spanish, French, German, Italian, and even Flemish, among others.
The author and editor of several books, such as the critically acclaimed Dog Eat Dog, After Tears, Paradise in Gaza, Way Back Home (novels), Black Tax, Johannesburg Noire, (editor), Soweto Under the Apricot Tree (author), and now recently, Hauntings (editor), Mhlongo has not only cemented his foothold on the South African cultural scene, but his writing has a crossover appeal. His books have remarkably crossed a divide that others struggle to achieve in a culturally fractured society along racial lines that is South Africa today, where race matters, even in areas such as literature.
“In that regard, I think what has assisted me is the fact that I have my publisher, Kwela Books, but I also work with other publishers on certain projects, and these publishers have different readers,” he modestly suggests. But I think it is more than that. Mhlongo is one guy who tells his stories in his novels and in short story anthologies in a manner and tone that many South Africans resonate with immediately they lay their hands on his books. He has a simple way of telling complex stories without being simplistic. Often these stories are inspired by the everyday contemporary issues that occupy people’s imagination right now.
For example, his short story in Hauntings is about a Comrade. Mgobhozi, a political character from Mpumalanga Province, who is also an MEC, who is corrupt to the core. Comrade Mgobhozi a typical rotten to the core modern politician who seems to think that the country owes him a never ending debt simply because he participated in the liberation of the country. In other words, the likes of Comrade Mgobhozi, who by the way are many in contemporary South African politics, is a good guy, a fomer fight gone rogue in a free and democratic South Africa. The story is written so authentically that a reader aware of the state of our ethics, particularly in political circles will not fail to point his own Comrade Mgobhozi in South African contemporary politics.
But his is a bit about Mhlongo’s Comrade Mgobhozi in Hauntings. This character is so used to tender corruption to an extent he seems to believe in his mind and heart that people like him, with an illustrious track record in fighting for freedom, deserve to be wealthy through corruption. After all they fought for freedom for this country and now is time to eat.
But his comrades, who are tired of his philandering ways, especially with wives of fellow comrades, decide to set him up and get him arrested in a corruption sting. I will not spoil your reading experience by exposing what happened at the end, in case you decide to buy and read Hauntings. But let me say the end is not what you probably think happened.
Mhlongo edited this book, which was commissioned by Jacana Media, and Hauntings, has several contributors, talented writers, both emerging ans established, urban based and rural bursed, young and old, from different professional backgrounds, including some of the best short story writers in the game.
”A thrilling array of African writers, including Fred Khumalo, Sibongile Fisher, Lucas Ledwaba, Vonani Bila, Lynn Joffe and Christopher Mlalazi, tell surprising and unnerving tales in this collection of commissioned stories from the master of narrative writing, Niq Mhlongo. These stories give answers to the question: what does being haunted and hauntings mean in our southern African world, in the past, the present and the future?” reads the text from the publisher accompanying the release of Hauntings.
After reading the short stories I agree with this statement from the publisher. If anything, Hauntings , represents the best of our rich heritage of stories, and the interpretation of the theme is wide, embracing such myths as haunting from ghosts to haunting from the fraught political history of this country. These are stories many will identify with in South Africa.
“When Jacana Media approached me last year with the idea of this book, following the success of Johannesburg Noire, I was in Germany during lockdown. I then approached writers immediately to contribute. Some of them are writers I already knew and had worked with before in other projects. We had deadlines set. Initially we had 35 writers, but at the end we ended up publishing 19 stories, down from the initial 35 as some could not cut it, and unfortunately we had to leave them out,” says Mhlongo.
He explained that the process was not as easy as it would seem as there were challenges that needed to be overcome, one of which is being in a foreign country out of which he could not move as the skies were closed due to the pandemic. Personally he had to deal with his own worries about his family back home as he was away from them during a pandemic.
“There were a number of issues that I had to deal with while working, not only on Hauntings, but also on Johannesburg Noire, such as the death of my sister and whose funeral I could not attend. I also had to manage the writers, such as the need to meet deadlines. Interestingly the people who missed the set deadlines the most were the established writers as they were also busy with other projects at the same time, and where they met deadlines, in some few cases, the stories were often not complete. But at the end it worked perfectly well. In fact I broke my own record in publishing as I launched two books one month after another, Hauntings and Johannesburg Noire,” he explained, displaying a sense of deserved satisfaction about the publishing feat.
Mhlongo at the time was in Germany to deliver writing workshops, including in Switzerland, something he has done annually since 2016, whereby he spends three month between Switzerland and Germany facilitating these writing workshops. In fact he is leaving for Germany on November 27, and will spend three months there, only returning in February 2022.
But last year, he was caught up in the storm of the coronavirus while there. His residency was delayed, and he ended up spending a year there, but fortunately his hosts decided to look after his welfare anyway.
“It really felt strange being in a foreign country, whose language you did not understand and it is during a pandemic that nobody really understood. And so I relied on locals about what I needed to do, especially when it came to the health protocols that were implemented during that time, especially the issue of masks. The local people guided me about what I needed to do to comply with the health protocols,” he explained.
However he soon got used to the situation for the year he spent there. “What also worked in my favour is the fact that I did a lot of reading as book stores were open during that time, and books in Germany are reasonably priced as compared to South Africa, In fact the price of books is standardised, just like the price of bread. And so I did a lot of reading, and that was helpful,” he said.
However truth is, being in a foreign country for Mhlongo may not have been as hard as it could have been for someone else, simply because, in any case, Mhlongo is a widely person. He himself is ready to confess that in fact he loves traveling, often going to book fairs around the globe. And in fact he has just come back from Portugal, where he attended a book fair recently. And as is his normal habit of marketing his books personally, he carried 22 of his books with him to the book fair in Portugal.
“I sold all the 22 books within a minute, which is a record of mine on its own. What happened is that one guy as soon as he heard I had my books with me, decided to buy all the 22 books, and that was it.”
Another truth about this author is that in as much as he is a master narrative story teller, Mhlongo is equally a master marketer for his books.
“I am always carrying my books with me everywhere I go, to sell them. Whether I am going to a braai or anywhere, I am always carrying my books to sell. Even right now I have my books in the boot of the car. Instead of waiting for people to go to a book shop, I take my books to the people instead,” he said.
About his travels, Mhlongo will tell you stories about each country he travelled to. ,Whether he is in Berlin, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia or Zimbabwe, he will tell you about his adventures while there.
“At one time, I was in Kenya, invited by Zukiswa (author Zukiswa Wanner who is based in Kenya), and on a day I was supposed to fly back home, I decided to cancel the air ticket and instead bought a bus ticket to travel back home through Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The bus I took was not an ordinary bus, but a chicken bus that carried both people and live chickens. It was so weird, but that is the reality of life there. In fact I regret that I never had the foresight to make a documentary film about that trip,” he says.
Well, like the theme of the new book Hauntings, that is probably his current haunting, the inability to film his travels that he loves so much that in recent years he has been commissioned by a number of publications to write travel pieces for them.
.Hauntings, a short story anthology, published by Jacana Media and edited by Niq Mhlongo, is available at book stores throughout the country.