Dreaming of a humane society: orature and death in Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying and Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to our Hillbrow

Abstract

Ways of Dying (1995. Cape Town: OUP) by Zakes Mda and Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001. Pietermaritzburg, Natal University Press) by Phaswane Mpe both construct death as a signifier of traumatic social change, thus anatomising community responses to transformation. Both authors introduce the narrative technique of orature. Mda, however, counterposes orature against death, injecting through it a humane and uplifting principle. In Mpe's novel, orature finds a more causative role, becoming a malicious agency that leads to the death of various characters. I contrast the viewpoints thus projected through orature, Mda projecting a community-based, developmental commitment, while Mpe negates community and nation as principles of social consolidation.