Istraight Lendaba and Other Stories by Mmatshilo Motsei

This collection of short stories describes the lives of ordinary black people living in post-apartheid South Africa, especially those living in the margins, and the compromises that poverty forces them to make. In such a world, virtue and vice are the flip sides of the same coin. The stories search for hope in an environment that Ayi Kwei Arma describes as “so completely seized with danger and so many different kinds of los.” The writing is inspired by South African writer Joel Matlou, whose demotic stories gave voice to everyday life in the townships, as well as Brenda Fassie’s powerful representation of the subversive nature of African women.