Arts views with Thabani H Moyo
LEROY Mthulisi Ndlovu is known for his works as an actor and a film producer. Some of the works that he has featured in include Jane the Ghost and Gold-diggers. Sirens is his first book. The book was launched on the 9th of December 2020 at The Orange Elephant. The event was attended by a few invited guests who were treated to a reading of some of the passages from the short stories from the publication. The selected passages were well selected by the author. They were catchy and entertaining. They gave those in attendance an insight into what to expect from the book.
The director of ceremonies at the event was Philani A Nyoni, himself an accomplished writer. PAN and Leroy are buddies. They grew up together in the same neighbourhood. They share almost same likes. Besides both being crazy, both are serious lovers of literature. Reading is one of their top hobbies. For them reading keeps their minds sharp. Bothe are into writing and acting. While PAN has established himself as a writer and reciter of poetry Leroy seems to be falling in love with the art of storytelling and writing short stories. In the future he hopes to drop a full length novel. Maybe he will develop one of his short stories in the current publication. The two buddies have fallen in love with art despite the challenges that come with being an artist in Zimbabwe.
I have had the privilege to sample a few of his stories. In short these are stories from Bulawayo. They are set in set Bulawayo. The characters are shaped by the life in and around Bulawayo. Sirens: Tales of Youth and love is made up of stories of youth. The central characters are young people trying to fit in a society they find themselves in. Most of the stories are crafted around young males and females as they interlock in love. Some of the stories are erotic. The characters are mostly driven by lust and the desires to kill boredom. One night stands, infidelity and casual relationships are some of the incidents that Leroy has built his stories around. Young people are known to be full of exploratory energy and this publication presents before us such characters who not scared to make new friends and go into new spaces without fear. One thing that Leroy has made clear though is that sometimes these escapades come with painful consequences. Adventure is exciting but one must always take precaution.
Locked Gates and Tall Grass parts a sad picture of how Bulawayo has become a pale shadow of itself as the industrial hub of Zimbabwe. What remains are locked industries. This is the world that our young people graduate into from Universities, a world with battered economy that presents no employment opportunities. One is tempted to think that in this story the writer was reflecting on his personal life soon after graduating.
Goodnight, Auficidus is a must read for Zimbabwean artists. It follows the life of a young male actor. He dreams to make a living as an actor. The character seems to attract young ladies with a higher status than his. His acting career is taken as a show of lack of seriousness by the ladies she connects with. Nkathazo seems to be finding it difficult to make ends meet with one of his girlfriend offering to give him something to take to his lodgings after a night together.
Town Fellow is an interesting story that narrates Bulawayo’s night life and its happenings. The day normal starts with a drink at a bar with friends, an invitation for a braai, a night of moving from one club to another and ends with an incidents and in most cases it’s a brawl. It is in this story that Leroy’s craziness is fully exposed. It starts with how he has managed to create casual characters, interesting characters. But what I found even crazier is his symbolism of using blank pages within the story. The blank pages help to tell the deeper meaning and consequences that comes with a life lived in reckless abandon. I first encountered that level of craziness in his friend, Philani Nyoni’s writing. PAN has a publication that has no page numbers and it happens to be one of his literal style in Once a Lover always a fool. The two writers are great talent.
The cover design for Sirens was done by Danny Rodrigues, another great talent whom l hope soon we will be viewing one of his exhibitions. The cover is very capturing and represents life and interconnectedness of men and women. The book is available at The Orange Elephant bookshop and at Bulawayo Art Gallery. It is worth reading. Make sure you grab a copy.
