Simon Chilembo

Machona Simon Chilembo

A boy leaves his village in eastern Northern Rhodesia under dramatic circumstances. He first gets to learn skills of survival in the modern world in Lusaka, the capital city of modern day Zambia. Then he ends up in apartheid South Africa as a prospective mineworker in Johannesburg. From here his life changes forever in a totally unexpected way, taking a whole new direction. He eventually goes on to turn South African big business upside-down in his mission to have the workers' work and living conditions improved. Raised to go out in the world to find a new home for his people, he is guided and protected by his people's ancestral spirits. The latter manifesting themselves in both human and animal forms. His is a world of magic, witchcraft, and wonder striving to triumph over evil; the latter coming out through racism, tribalism, and xenophobia. As a grown-up family man in South Africa, he encounters the normal challenges of being a husband and parent. But his challenges are compounded by the fact that he is a foreigner more resourceful than many a local man. This is a source of jealousy and awe. When one of his teenage children gets into an illicit business line, he is confronted with the nightmare of every parent raising children. As if that weren't enough, the teenager's health and wellbeing are compromised in the process. This is a story of an emigrant's defiance against ignorance, backwardness, poverty, and exploitation. It's a story of making, and living with hard choices in the diaspora. It addresses aspects of religion, faith, God, and history with respect to power relations between the races, and tribes. It is a story of aspects of ancient African culture colonialism tried in vain to suppress and eliminate. Although dismissed as superstition and flights of fancy by the so-called modern and civilized, African witchcraft and mysticism are today as real and as important to people's lives as the Pope is to the Catholics. These special attributes are played out in their most elegant in this story. Enjoy.