Rumours

Author(s): Mongane Wally Serote

Location(s): Mali

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 21st century

Keke, a veteran MK cadre who was once the CEO of a cellphone company, wakes up one day to find his life in ruins. He has lost his job and his wife, and he has become more and more reliant on the solace of alcohol. After hitting rock bottom, Keke is thrust into a spiritual journey. He meets Ami, a shaman from Mali, and travels there, where he is “cooked” and cleansed in a “meeting” with his ancestors. Only when he is healed, and understands his role in the context of a post-apartheid South Africa, can Keke make a careful comeback to his country to re-join his wife and comrades. The global village, the African continent and South Africa are the platforms where Keke’s life unfolds in the 21st century. Dr Serote’s writing was inspired by the late Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart. It was through reading this novel that Serote realised that everything he had read before was about things he had not experienced himself. One of the main themes in is that of traditional healing – a theme Serote is very familiar with as he was called by his ancestors to become a traditional healer.

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