"Opening up to the Rest of Africa?": Continental Connections and Literary (Dis) Continuities Simao Kikamba's Going Home and Jonathan Nkala's The Crossing

Abstract

This article focuses on Simao Kikamba's semi-autobiographical novel Going Home (2005) and Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala's one-man drama The Crossing (2009). Both texts chronicle the odyssey of the refugee author or narrator - in Kikamba's text from Angola and in Nkala's drama from Zimbabwe - to South Africa. I argue that although these works picture the growing transnational texture of the South African national space, this apparent continental connectivity is fraught with new intolerances like xenophobia. Far from displaying a definite break from the hallmarks of South African writing during apartheid, such as a preoccupation with the national and a focus on social commitment, the texts stress a continuation of these characteristics while at the same time re-examining them from a new, Afropolitan angle.

Opsomming
Hierdie artikel fokus op Simao Kikamba se semi-outobiografiese roman Going Home (2005) en Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala se eenmandrama The Crossing (2009). Albei tekste vertel die storie van die vlugtelingskrywer of -verteller se tog na Suid-Afrika - in Kikamba se teks vanuit Angola en in Nkala se drama vanuit Zimbabwe. Ek voer aan dat hierdie werke die toenemende transnasionale tekstuur van Suid-Afrika se nasionale ruimte uitbeeld, maar ook dat hierdie klaarblyklik kontinentale samehang deurspek is met nuwe voorbeelde van onverdraagsaamheid, soos vreemdelinge­haat. Hierdie tekste beweeg nie onomwonde weg van die onmiskenbare eienskappe van Suid-Afrikaanse skryfwerk gedurende die apartheidsjare nie. (Die eienskappe sluit in 'n fassinasie met die nasionale en 'n klem op maatskaplike verant­woordelikheid.) lnteendeel beklemtoon die tekste 'n voortsetting van die eienskappe, en ondersoek terselfdertyd hierdie eienskappe vanuit 'n nuwe, Afropolitaanse hoek.