The story contains some horrific moments,
but the author is showing her readers the reality of life for a vulnerable
migrant population. (Review by Margaret von Klemperer, courtesy of The Witness)
Sue Nyathi’s second novel opens in 2008,
with Zimbabwe in economic meltdown. Her story follows a group of would-be
emigrants, crowding into a taxi to start the illegal and dangerous journey to
Johannesburg, the City of Gold. They range from the middle-aged Malume to
Gugulethu, an unaccompanied child whose mother wants her to come to the city
where she is establishing a life. Among the others are those who are running
away from their pasts and those dreaming of a better future or a reunion with
the ones they love.
The journey is horrific, as are those who
facilitate it. Nyathi’s cast of migrants are, like most of us, both good and
bad, but the dehumanising effects of their situations both in Zimbabwe which is
crumbling to its knees and in South Africa where waves of xenophobia make their
lives doubly dangerous are clearly shown. It’s hard to maintain decency and
integrity when your life is lived right on the edge of society.
Nyathi probes deep into the underworld of
Johannesburg, bringing the reader face to face with the drug culture and its
users, pushers and mules. Some of her characters get a sniff of the high life,
but all too often see it torn away from them. They are well drawn, rounded and
realistic, though inevitably where there is a large cast, there are moments
when the reader wants more about one of their favourites.
Happy endings are few and far between, just
as they are in reality. Nyathi brings her story up to the present time, and not
all her characters have survived to reach it. The story contains some horrific
moments, but the author is showing her readers the reality of life for a
vulnerable migrant population. Her own relocation from Zimbabwe to a life as an
investment analyst by day and a writer by night may have been a more successful
one than that of many of her characters, but she knows what she is writing
about, and it shows. Margaret von Klemperer
The
Gold-Diggers is published by Pan Macmillan - ISBN
987-1-77010594-2 - Margaret von Klemperer
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