Truth stranger than fiction
PE poet publishes debut novel ‘Dancing with Hyenas’
PORT Elizabeth playwright and poet Mzi Mahola has just released his first novel, Dancing with Hyenas, which he describes as the first volume of his “fictional autobiography”.
The Mahola name is known in Bay creative circles: he is the uncle of actor Fiks Mahola and singer Zolani Mahola, and his daughter Sithini – one of four children – is a voice artist and musician whose voice is often heard on the radio station Umhlobo Wenene.
The English literature honours graduate may earn his living working at his spaza shop in Zwide, but he lives and breathes his writing. And, although Dancing with Hyenas is his first foray into fiction, Mahola has an illustrious pedigree in poetry dating back to his schooldays in Port Elizabeth in the ’60s.
He cites Port Elizabeth’s late Rev Dr Simon Gqubule as another of his inspirations.
“I have always loved reading and writing but he gave me the desire to be and do something. He told us we each have a talent and it is up to us to find what that talent is – and that is when I started writing.”
In the ’70s, he was a keen sportsman, with a boxing career which saw him crowned national flyweight champion and later provincial bantamweight champion.
However, as an active member of the Black Consciousness Movement, and the non-racial youth group Isihlobo, he also was harassed by the security police and periodically detained.
The state forces cracked down on the youngsters whom they suspected of being subversive and, due to his friendship with human rights lawyer and theologian Barney Pityana, Mahola suffered a major blow when his first volume of poetry was confiscated.
In the pre-laptop and Cloud storage days, he had left his sole copy in Pityana’s office for safekeeping.
“They broke into Barney Pityana’s office and I lost the original manuscript and the will to write.”
He picked up his pen again only many years later.
“And I haven’t stopped since then!” Mahola said, de- scribing the “joy I felt when I wrote my first poem again – and I made a vow that I would not ever stop again.”
Since then he has had his poems published in 26 anthologies and translated into six languages.
Last year, he says it was a thrill to receive a call from Johannesburg to ask about a poem included in the matric English syllabus in Gauteng schools. The caller wanted to hear more about the piece from the poet himself and a lively discussion ensued.
He hopes that a wide circle will enjoy Dancing with Hyenas, giving as it does a glimpse into rural and township life in the ’60s to ’80s.
“It’s a fictional biography of some of the experiences of my life and here and there I had to use fictional names for those I have demonised.
“I have protected them by not revealing their true names but there are others who are named because I want to honour them for their contribution to my life.”
Hence, the main character Dancing With Hyenas, Lizo, is the on-page counterpart of Mahola. The novel starts in his rural childhood in Lushington, near Seymour, and comes to a climax with a cliff-hanger in the Port Elizabeth harbour that is chilling in its realistic portrayal of apartheid-era
I made a vow that I would not ever stop again
South Africa.
If you enjoy this first book, you will relish the fact that Mahola has already written the second volume. He says he did in fact write the entire story as one but was advised to split it into two and so the second part picks up when Lizo is recruited as an underground operative for the ANC.
ý Dancing with Hyenas is published by Ilitha Publishers and is on sale at Forgarty’s Bookshop and Amazon. Alternately, contact Mahola on 072-232-7396, or e-mail mzi@mahola.co.za.