Description

Umkhapalanga - the Song of a Son integrates the philosophical writings of my father David with poems, stories, images and other observations along parallel themes that I, Alex, contributed in later years.

Umkhapalanga is the isiZulu name for a cool wind that blows in the great valleys of Natal, below uKhahlamba, the Drakensberg, when the sun starts to decline. Umkhapalanga is therefore a wind which follows or 'sees off' the sun. It can also be taken to mean 'the shrouding of the sun'.

I hope that in this dialogue, there will be kernels of validity, and thoughts and things that will be relevant to others - especially those families of the post-colonial English-speaking world that have been scattered so far and wide. So please look beyond the restrictions of references to the history of this family, or to the isiZulu language. Rather, please see in them the broader, essential themes they illustrate - or at least point to - and the way these affect all of us.

Umkhapalanga - the Song of a Son reads as an extended meditation on diaspora - an experience that everyone on earth can relate to.

Shortlisted for the International Plaza Prizes for Memoir, London, UK; and the At the Bay Prize for Hybrid Writing, Dunedin, New Zealand.