The Lion Sleeps Tonight: And Other Stories of Africa
Since its original publication twenty years ago Rian Malan’s classic work of narrative nonfiction My Traitor’s Heart has earned its author comparisons to masters of literary nonfiction like Michael Herr and Ryszard Kapuscinski.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight is Malan’s remarkable chronicle of South Africa’s halting steps and missteps, taken as blacks and whites try to build a new country. Some of the essays previously appeared in a collection published only in South Africa, Resident Alien, but others are collected here for the first time. The collection comprises twenty-three pieces; the title story investigates the provenance of the world famous song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which Malan traces back to a Zulu singer named Solomon Linda who recorded a song called “Mbube” in the 1930s, which went on to be covered by Pete Seeger, REM, and Phish, and was incorporated into the musical “The Lion King.” In other stories, Malan follows the trial of Winnie Mandela and plunges into the explosive controversy over President Mbeki’s AIDS policies of the 1990s.

The stories, combined with Malan’s sardonic interstitial commentary, offer a brilliantly observed portrait of contemporary South Africa.
1114979956
The Lion Sleeps Tonight: And Other Stories of Africa
Since its original publication twenty years ago Rian Malan’s classic work of narrative nonfiction My Traitor’s Heart has earned its author comparisons to masters of literary nonfiction like Michael Herr and Ryszard Kapuscinski.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight is Malan’s remarkable chronicle of South Africa’s halting steps and missteps, taken as blacks and whites try to build a new country. Some of the essays previously appeared in a collection published only in South Africa, Resident Alien, but others are collected here for the first time. The collection comprises twenty-three pieces; the title story investigates the provenance of the world famous song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which Malan traces back to a Zulu singer named Solomon Linda who recorded a song called “Mbube” in the 1930s, which went on to be covered by Pete Seeger, REM, and Phish, and was incorporated into the musical “The Lion King.” In other stories, Malan follows the trial of Winnie Mandela and plunges into the explosive controversy over President Mbeki’s AIDS policies of the 1990s.

The stories, combined with Malan’s sardonic interstitial commentary, offer a brilliantly observed portrait of contemporary South Africa.
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The Lion Sleeps Tonight: And Other Stories of Africa

The Lion Sleeps Tonight: And Other Stories of Africa

by Rian Malan
The Lion Sleeps Tonight: And Other Stories of Africa

The Lion Sleeps Tonight: And Other Stories of Africa

by Rian Malan

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Overview

Since its original publication twenty years ago Rian Malan’s classic work of narrative nonfiction My Traitor’s Heart has earned its author comparisons to masters of literary nonfiction like Michael Herr and Ryszard Kapuscinski.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight is Malan’s remarkable chronicle of South Africa’s halting steps and missteps, taken as blacks and whites try to build a new country. Some of the essays previously appeared in a collection published only in South Africa, Resident Alien, but others are collected here for the first time. The collection comprises twenty-three pieces; the title story investigates the provenance of the world famous song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which Malan traces back to a Zulu singer named Solomon Linda who recorded a song called “Mbube” in the 1930s, which went on to be covered by Pete Seeger, REM, and Phish, and was incorporated into the musical “The Lion King.” In other stories, Malan follows the trial of Winnie Mandela and plunges into the explosive controversy over President Mbeki’s AIDS policies of the 1990s.

The stories, combined with Malan’s sardonic interstitial commentary, offer a brilliantly observed portrait of contemporary South Africa.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780802121837
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date: 11/12/2013
Pages: 336
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Rian Malan was born in South Africa in 1954. He has pursued a 36-year career as a journalist in South Africa and the United States and is the author of My Traitor's Heart. He currently lives in South Africa.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

1 Politics 1

The Last Afrikaner 3

Invictus 23

Season of the Leopard 30

Report from Planet Mbeki 45

2 Culture 55

In the Jungle 57

The Beautiful and the Damned 87

Great White Hyena 100

Jewish Blues in Darkest Africa 108

3 Disease 117

The Body Count 119

Among the AIDS Fanatics 151

4 Truth 165

A Truth of Sorts 167

The Queen 176

A Question of Spin 183

5 Light 207

The Apocalypse that Wasn't 209

The People's Republic of Yeoville 215

6 Darkness 227

House for Sale in Doomed Country 229

Ugly Scenes in Boer Provence 235

Nemesis 242

Messiah of the Potato Fields 274

7 Mutations 287

Did You Hear the One About Apartheid? 289

Those Fabulous Alcock Boys 296

Postscript 313

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