shaunrandol
Reader
A review of Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow
An excerpt:
Welcome to Our Hillbrow follows the story of Refent?e, ?child of Tiragalong,? and several of his close friends and family members. Having moved to Johannesburg to begin his tertiary education, Refent?e ends up staying with Cousin in the inner city residential area called Hillbrow. Although new to the area, Refent?e is no stranger to stories about Hillbrow; by the time he moved there in 1991, he ?already knew that Hillbrow was a menacing monster, so threatening to its neighbors [?] that big, forward-looking companies were beginning to desert the inner city.? As Refent?e explores this ?menacing monster? for himself, the socio-economic geography of Hillbrow is charted as a slum marked by violence, death, moral decay, and broken dreams. This place seems to have brought an end to Refent?e?s dreams as well, for as the narrator admits, if he?d still been alive during 1998, he would have been glad about South Africa's loss in the soccer World Cup. Sometime, somehow, in less than seven years after his arrival, Refent?e has perished.
Continue reading on The Mantle.
An excerpt:
Welcome to Our Hillbrow follows the story of Refent?e, ?child of Tiragalong,? and several of his close friends and family members. Having moved to Johannesburg to begin his tertiary education, Refent?e ends up staying with Cousin in the inner city residential area called Hillbrow. Although new to the area, Refent?e is no stranger to stories about Hillbrow; by the time he moved there in 1991, he ?already knew that Hillbrow was a menacing monster, so threatening to its neighbors [?] that big, forward-looking companies were beginning to desert the inner city.? As Refent?e explores this ?menacing monster? for himself, the socio-economic geography of Hillbrow is charted as a slum marked by violence, death, moral decay, and broken dreams. This place seems to have brought an end to Refent?e?s dreams as well, for as the narrator admits, if he?d still been alive during 1998, he would have been glad about South Africa's loss in the soccer World Cup. Sometime, somehow, in less than seven years after his arrival, Refent?e has perished.
Continue reading on The Mantle.