Red Apple Dreams & Other Stories is delectable, soft and nostalgic

Delectable’, ‘soft’ and ‘nostalgic’ are three words which come to mind when one engages Siphiwo Mahala’s Red Apple Dreams & Other Stories.

“I was partly raised by my grandmother, Shinana Thembani of the Madiba clan, who remains one of the most exceptional storytellers I have ever come across. Though she raised us in a village, we never sat around the fireside in the evenings to listen to stories, as is common in the cultures of other traditional communities. Her storytelling was spontaneous,” writes Siphiwo Mahala in his opening to his latest offering, Red Apple Dreams & Other Stories.

Siphiwo Mahala is one of our finest writers and an excellent exponent of the short story genre. He is the author of the novel When A Man Cries (2007), which he translated into isiXhosa as Yakhal’ Indoda (2010), and the short story collection African Delights (2011).

Red Apple Dreams and Other Stories is a compilation of fifteen stories – eleven penned by Mahala and four by guest authors. The stories range from the 1950s to the present era, from rural to urban landscapes, and interrogate both marginal and complex topical issues like the land question.

Speaking about the genesis of his work, Mahala said the oral tradition he grew up listening to has a lot of influence in his storytelling.

“It all began with my grandmother, in particular, telling us stories, to hearing various stories on the radio, and being a reader myself. The argument I always make is that you cannot have ambitions of becoming a writer if you are not a reader yourself. So what you see in my writing is a reflection of my own reading habits combined with oral storytelling,” he said.

The compilation features works by authors Can Themba, James Matthews, Njabulo S Ndebele and Zukiswa Wanner. According to him, incorporating these authors is a part of retracing his journey.

One of the influences of his writing is Njabulo Ndebele. You see the elements of his (Ndebele’s) writing, especially in his earlier writings, hence he includes his story, The Test. When one reads the book, they will find resonances of The Test in the next short story, Mpumi’s Assignment, they will find resonance of The Test in a story called Bhontsi’s Toe.

The very first story of his compilation, Red Apple Dreams is a work of creative non-fiction which is a reflection of his own life, based on his lived experience. And when he wrote it, Mahala had no intentions of publishing it.

“I wrote it on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the passing of my mother, as she passed away on the 1st of August 1986. So in 2016, I was just reflecting on this experience and what I can remember because when she passed I was quite young. And one of the things that stayed with me was when she gave me these apples, and it turned out it would be the last time I would ever see my mother alive. It’s an image that stayed with me for a long time. I then gave it to my editor after a friend had suggested that I publish it,” he said.            

Another story one may enjoy from this collection is Old Man’s Horse because of its air of optimism for the future. Set entirely in a rural area, it follows the life of Samkelo, who works as a miner in the city. He returns to his village for the festive season, and at first, it seems as if the story is going to take a dark turn. But it ends on a note of hope; he is able to reconcile his urban and rural identities.  

The freshly-published, crisp and bittersweet collection is a bona fide literary maven, with bylines across academia, theatre and fiction. The thing about this book, apart from its author’s and contributors’ pedigrees, is that it is independently published. Supporting it will not only make a literary statement, but also an economic one: you’ll help encourage the alternative publishing value chain that’s spreading across SA like wildfire.