Paper short abstract:

Mngadi's 1996 Zulu novel Asikho ndawo bakithi illustrates the potential of SA African language novels to narrate social histories from within. As such, they constitute authentic texts in an education system still reflecting a European worldview.

Paper long abstract:

SA African language literature has won political freedom. The heavy-handed censorship by apartheid language boards which dictated on books through controling the school market belongs to the past. No more political or social no-go areas. Indeed authors do not shy away from the dark side of recent history or the social problems of the day, to the extent that some novels may look like a catalogue of social problems. This view fails to do justice to their potential as counter texts in an education system where manuals still tend to reflect a European worldview. African language novels, emanating from writers who share the socio-cultural background of the readers, are framed from within.

In his 1996 Asikho ndawo bakithi -Nowhere for us to go, guys- Mngadi gives his own reading of recent history. Having firmly placed apartheid forced removals, constraints on residence and housing combined with limited state investment in townships as the root of the suffering of black people, he illustrates how this created space for internecine conflicts in the 1980ies Durban, which in turn allowed for greed, lust and despondency to sprout. The narrative is overall pessimistic. A candid family in desperate need of accommodation is wiped out, after suffering a harrowing sequence of abuse. Even would-be good Samaritans, with decent conditions, get swallowed. The only solution stems from uprooting the problem, which requires the realisation, among all across the colour spectrum, of the societal catastrophe that lays ahead, and therefore of the need for the building of an inclusive nation.