The Lockdown Collection

Melinda Ferguson

ISBN:

9781928421269

Publisher:

Melinda Ferguson Books

Date Released:

June 2020

Price (incl. VAT):

R 335.00

Format:

Soft cover, 296pp


About this book:

Sentenced to Lockdown, regarded as "non-essential", a group of 40 South African writers get together in a virtual Corona Collective, to pen The Lockdown Collection. This historical gem showcases a list of South Africa's most celebrated writers, disruptors and thinkers, including: Sisonke Msimang (Always Another Country), Fred Khumalo (Bitches Brew), multi-disciplinary poet, Lebo Mashile and Pumla Dineo Gqola (Rape A South African Nightmare). There's the comic genius of Ben Trovato (Durban Poison) and Everyday Zulu Melusi Tshabalala, while the likes of  Khaya Dlanga, Dudu Busani-Dube, Rahla Xenopoulos and Haji Mohamed Dawjee dig deep to find true meaning in the time of Corona.  Profound, insightful, angry, tender and searing, at times the work is even hilarious.
"I jotted down a list of dream authors and decided to take my chances to see whether any one of them would agree to go on this mad venture with me," says maverick publisher, compiler and contributor, Melinda Ferguson, "I hoped a few of them would say "yes". Turns out all 40 of them did."

Compiled from the best of the two hit e-books Lockdown and Lockdown Extended, that Ferguson launched, back to back during the first four weeks of lockdown, as well as including new essays by the likes of New Frame's Richard Pithouse, Kharnita Mohamed and Carsten Rasch, the work brilliantly tries to make sense of a world held hostage by a virus.

There's Lebo Mashile's sassy critique of Black Twitter and no-holds barred attack on the state of arts and culture in South African Lockdown, while Sisonke Msimang refuses to call this time of Corona an "opportunity" to get get zen via meditation apps, but rather to see the global lockdown for what it is - a crisis. The theme of crisis is evident throughout the book, but especially visceral in respected academic, Kharnita Mohamed's brilliant essay on crises in universities, tracking the Rhodes Must Fall movement In 2016/2017, the death of UCT student Uyinene in 2019, to the current challenges that the Coronavirus has created on campuses and households across South Africa. Melinda Ferguson's Wounded Healers opens a portal to the possibilities of global healing,  as she attends around the clock 12 step meetings for addicts on Zoom, seeking recovery and redemption. Then there's award winning author, Fred Khumalo, who ponders his role as a writer, while getting obsessed with Tiger King, while celebrated news editor, Ferial Haffajee feels deep loss as her beloved Joburg shuts down. Khaya Dlanga has to field off mourners at a church service in the Eastern Cape, due to limited numbers at funerals, according to Disaster Regulations, as he mourns his brother, Nganga, who took his life, just two days before Lockdown. Marianne Thamm encourages us to create a room in the mind to travel to far off places, which allows fiction writers Phumlani Pikoli, Steven Sidley, Kelly Eve Koopman and Rof Maneta to do just that. And then there are those who wrestle with the gods: Sara-Jayne Makwala King longs to delete her prayer app, but finds herself on her knees and desperate enough not to, while Dave Muller gets up close and personal with his maker as he contemplates the advent of our planet's First Lockdown.

While Melusi Tshabalala writes steamy WhatsApp love letters  to his "thikin" during isolation,  Haji Mohamed Dawjee sees Lockdown as an ICU room, but insists on the duality of hope and despair. 


Pre-order: Takealot

Readers say

"An important contribution in global literature, each and every piece is a classic work in its own right and speaks to the extraordinary depth of writing talent in this country. My hope is that this book will be bought for every library, high school and university in this country."

– Elinor Sisulu


RELATED BOOKS

Smacked

Melinda Ferguson

Zephany (A)

Joanne Jowell

Magenge, We Need to Talk

Melusi Tshabalala

Kwanele, Enough!

Andy Kawa

The Girl Who Survived Her Mother

Moshitadi Lehlomela

GiGi

GiGi

I am Ella

Joanne Jowell

Love and Above

Sarah Bullen

Kyk na my

Nataniël

Lansdowne dearest

Bronwyn Davids

Statues and Storms

Max Price

The ANC Spy Bible

Moe Shaik

Into Dark Water: A Police Memoir

Jeremy Vearey

Look At Me

Nataniël

Now You Know How Mapetla Died

Zikhona Valela

Whitey: The Rise and Rule of the Shoprite King

Niel Joubert

Yellow and Confused

Ming-Cheau Lin

IMPOSSIBLE SKIES

Frans Meyer

Zephany (E)

Joanne Jowell

Lucas Mangope

Oupa Segalwe

Whitey: Sakereus van Shoprite

Niel Joubert

Heart of a Strong Woman

Xoliswa Nduneni-Ngema, Fred Khumalo

Ghetto Ninja

Nikolaos Kirkinis, Junior Khanye

Witnessing

Pie-Pacifique Kabalira-Uwase

The Legend of Zola Mahobe and the Mamelodi Sundowns Story

Don Lepati, Nikolaos Kirkinis

Anton Goosen

Hanlie Retief

The Corporate Revolutionary

David Williams

Andile Gaelesiwe: Remembering

Andile Gaelesiwe

Anton Rupert

Ebbe Dommisse

Matriarchs, Meze and the Evil Eye –

Costa Ayiotis

Die kind se naam is Anneke

Juliana Coetzer

The Scholarship Kids

Robert Gentle

Robert McBride: The Struggle Continues

Bryan Rostron

Putco Mafani: The Price and Prize of Greatness

Putco Mafani

Meditating with Rhinos

Helena Kriel

Anton Rupert

Ebbe Dommisse

Comrade Editor

Gwen Lister

Betting on a Darkie

Mteto Nyati

How I Took Back My Power

Nompumelelo Runji

Becoming a Doctor

Hloni Bookholane

But He Speaks So Well

Ivan Johnson

A Childhood Made Up: Living with my mother's madness

Brent Meersman

Takka Takka Bom Bom

Al Venter

Robert

Robert Hamblin

Life Lessons

Alan Knott-Craig

Hooked

Melinda Ferguson

Clare: The killing of a gentle activist

Christopher Clark

Out of Quatro

Luthando Dyasop

Derick Hougaard

Brenden Nel

Jwara! Induna's Daughter

Joyce Piliso-Seroke