Review of Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, “Reviving a Traditional African Genre: The AfroSurrealism of Ngano,” Fantasy Magazine 84 (October 2022): 39-41 — Read here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
While in the last five years or so I have made an effort to read more spec fic outside the western/European tradition, including especially African speculative fiction, I still feel like quite a novice when it comes to the details and differences of traditions that I didn’t grow up with. Ndlovu’s article is an excellent piece for me, therefore, because it’s a concise introduction to a particular tradition — Ngano — clearly explained with Ndlovu’s own experiences hearing, reading, and writing it interleaved.
AfroSurrealism, for Ndlovu, is a way “to capture the flavor of the absurdity and horror I experience daily as an African woman” (p. 39). Ngano, a story telling genre (traditionally oral story telling) from Zimbabwe, is made up of five elements (pp. 39-41):
- the sarungano, or storyteller
- shamismo, or fantastical or surreal elements grounded in reality
- hunhu/ubuntu, or humanist morals
- nziyo, or song/call and a response
- tsuro naGudo, or anthropomorphism
I was particularly interested in Ndlovu’s discussion of how each of these elements shape the structure, as opposed to the content of the stories.
I would love to see more short essays on different non-European genres of this type!
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