{"product_id":"maxwell-the-gorilla-and-the-archbishop-of-soshanguve-by-angifi-proctor-dladla-1","title":"Maxwell the Gorilla and the Archbishop of Soshanguve,by Angifi Proctor Dladla","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis epic poem takes as its starting point the 1997 shooting of Max the Gorilla in the Johannesburg Zoo by a criminal who, while fleeing the police, entered the gorilla enclosure. The criminal, Isaac Mofokeng, entered Max’s enclosure and shot Max twice, who retaliated by seriously injuring the man and injuring pursuing policemen. This incident was picked up by the media who made much of the event as symbolic of the rapid burgeoning of crime in the city and the courage and steadfastness required to resist this, as occurred in Max’s willingness to defend his ‘home’ and mate. Dladla, however, does a great deal more in his poem, via a narrative of future projection which soon enters the realm of the fantastical. Max thereby accrues a symbolic meaning through many layers of philosophical and cultural commentary and speculation. However, the poem’s documentation of this event, and the frenzy which follows, is transformed very quickly into a narrative which spices its heroic stance with humour and satire. A mordant critique of social and political folly, it magnifies and defamiliarizes current behavioural norms until they are revealed in their full absurdity so that South Africa comes across as a nation which – while so full of promise after 1994 – seems to be shackled by false solutions to national problems, fed only by competing self-interests.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Botsotso Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50829673857282,"sku":"9780639886817","price":200.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1160\/4950\/files\/Screenshot-2026-10-08-at-6.35.10-PM.png?v=1792583849","url":"https:\/\/bridgebooks.co.za\/products\/maxwell-the-gorilla-and-the-archbishop-of-soshanguve-by-angifi-proctor-dladla-1","provider":"Bridge Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}