Going Home

by Simmao Kikamba

Going Home is a story told in the voice of a political refugee living in South Africa. It investigates the life of one particular immigrant, Mpanda from Angola, and his experiences of trying to make the best of being an unemployed foreign national in South Africa. There are four parts to the narrative. Part Mpanda is arrested and sent to the Lindela Repatriation Centre. Part We learn of Mpanda's his return home to Angola from Zaire, his relationship with a woman called Isabel, his political involvement and embarrassment and his final decision to flee to South Africa. In Part Three, we follow his life as a refugee in South Africa. Finally in Part Four he is freed from detention and allowed to go back home - to Yeoville. Going Home is a very moving debut novel, revealing the anguish of a man trying to survive in a country where nobody allows him to belong. Simao Kikamba is without a doubt a leading new voice in Southern African writing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Angola, Africa

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Alison Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

A grim and harrowing tale of a Congolese political refugee and his odyssey to Johannesburg, South Africa. Our continent is wracked with violence, corruption and hordes of refugees all of whom have heart-breaking stories to relate. I didn't enjoy the book - too close to home. As a novel it had faults, but they were overwhelmed by the subject matter - I'm not inclined to pick holes in the novel. Enough already.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manuel Mpanda, an Angolan living in the DRC, longs to return to Angola as an adult after the war. Despite his family's wishes that he remain in Kinshasa, he leaves them behind, makes his way to the border and eventually to Luanda in search of a cousin he believes still lives in the city. Luanda turns out not to be the final destination. As the back cover says "it is but the first stopover in his relentless search for a home."
Much of the book is written in first person - as he is recounting the events to a Mozambican. To say much more probably would tell too much of the story line. Having read so much African non-fiction recently, I had to tell myself a few times this is fiction, not a memoir.

[Jen (Remembered Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story, but not a great telling of it. 90% of it is told in the first person, and I could imagine how hearing someone actually *tell* the story would be so much better than the way it sounds on the page. That fits with the layout, since the framing is essentially that (A Congolese-Angolan telling his story to other immigrants in South Africa), but while that does make the voice feel authentic, it doesn't make it as absorbing as it could have been.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plight of an immigrant and asylum-seeker. Humany sucks, we never learn.