July: Here Again Now

Review by Puseletso Bellina Motsemedi

What to expect © K. Sello Duiker - Kwela Books

A not for the faint of heart masterpiece. Kabelo Sello Duiker paints a brutal picture of the new dispensation in the eyes of young people. Set around 1998, Kabelo sheds his skin through Tshepo; a private schooled, well-spoken Rhodes University student hailing from SOWETO, who “is feeling close to madness” in the beautiful city of Cape Town.

Tshepo eventually finds himself staring abuse in the face, which chillingly transcends his gender, educational background and social status. Negotiating with poverty at a position of weakness, he ends up selling flesh to keep hunger pangs and homelessness at bay. Separating himself only to become one with his profession, leads to the fluidity of sexuality that gives him the courage to love and sleep with men.

It is that courage that opens up exclusive enclaves, which only money can penetrate. Whilst money offer economic security, that does not shield him from the reality of racism in a racist city and country. Money can only buy tangible things but loneliness would always be lurking behind. The fundamental quest to be somebody and the need for self-acceptance, reveals to Tshepo a journey to spiritual destiny.

Kabelo Sello Duiker in your face storytelling about male prostitution, is also a major theme in his first book Thirteen Cents which is also based in Cape Town. It is apparent on the Quiet Violence of Dreams that Cape Town bruised the already injured Kabelo Sello Duiker, and in his book through Tshepo he is vulnerable and asking for help. Despite all the money in the world, he was alone and sad. The violent dreams were actually a spiritual gift, which felt like a curse for him because he would be intoxicated with a touch of madness.

His exploration of two worlds; English and Sotho, Cape Town and Joburg, Suburbia and Township left him feeling Schizophrenic as he couldn’t choose one over the other and in the end he was lost on all fronts. Unfortunately, his teenage demons of suicidal and psychopathic feelings, came to haunt his adulthood. His writing talent, spiritual gift and loneliness cooked a time bomb. As such, he did feel he was going to die young and he was ready to face his death because he sometimes fantasised about suicide. In the end, Kabelo Sello Duiker did die young through suicide.

 

This review is the seventh in the new Book of the Month series from the Goethe-Institut South Africa. A new review by South Africans for South Africans will be published every month, check back regularly. All books can be borrowed from our library, the membership is free.