Forwards Toward the Past. Masande Ntshanga and Julia Wiedlocha

The year is 2043, and an astronomer at the South-African Space Agency receives a package filled with documents, which contain a warning that the earth will end in 10 years.The documents are diary entries and audio tapes by a girl, relaying first her adolescence in the 1990s, when she explores her sexuality and tries to find her mother, who disappeared without a trace when she was little, and then moving to her daily life as an adult.Through the history of the girl, we see how South-Africa’s dark past is still shaping its present, and mirrored in a dystopian future, where environmental issues are rampant, and social issues is solved by creating work camps across the country.In his novel Triangulum, Masande Ntshanga combines different genres in a story which illustrates, convincingly, that South-Africa’s dystopian past is far from a closed chapter.Ntshanga is the author of two novels and a chapbook. His debut The Reactive won him the debut prize the Betty Trask Award, while Triangulum was nominated for the Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by and African.At the House of Literature, Ntshanga is joined by editor and translator Julia Wiedlocha for a conversation about adolescence and technology, future dystopias, and the dark shadow of colonialism.The event is supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.