I recently moved from Pretoria to Johannesburg. But it does not feel like I have moved less than 60km, within the same province. Perhaps the same gulf would be experienced by a Ugandan shifting homes from Entebbe to Kampala.
Pretoria is a laager homely, family-guarding and tribalistic. Johannesburg, Jozi, is a cacophony of smells, colours, movements bold and slow and thievery. It is a clanging mix of noises, of nonchalance, of quietness. It is a free-for-all home, yet closely guarded by Joburgers.
This is the feeling I get reading Salimah Valianis anthology iGoli eGoli . They are beautiful, thoughtful and insightful poems, thrown around, and yet easily abstracted thematically.
Listen to Charlie Minguss Moanin . And, in those jazz trumpet notes, you will find the oomph, amandla!, the verve and bouncing madness you will feel in iGoli eGoli .
iGoli, the first section of the collection, refers to a being the beingness of the city.
