Bhlawa's Inconsolable Spirits

“I have lived in Bhlawa all my life, from the day or night I was born in Madala Street. I've visited different places in the world—towns, rural homesteads, big cities—but never for too long, and very rarely. But rather, like a ship that is hauled with long ropes over a treacherous sea, I have been moored to this singular harbor of a township inhabited by drowning men.”

In this startling, poetic, and often graphic memoir, Mxolisi Nyezwa explores a life shaped by, and lived within, a South African township. Determined to understand everything, a young boy turns to writing to “train himself to see.” In his poetic visions, no boundaries exist between imagination, survival, spiritualism, spirituality, and economic political violence. As Mxolisi wanders the streets of Bhlawa, the seen and unseen haunt him, educate him, and, ultimately, define him.