Bird-Monk Seding is a book that rewrites the rules of South African fiction. Although the author describes this innovative and refreshing literary venture as a novel, it is actually a multi-layered work that intricately weaves together various literary genres and conventions the likes of which South African literature has never seen.
The setting is the Soweto of the 1970s/1980s and Leseding, a small rural township in Madikwe, as the Tswana natives of Groot Marico refers to the North West district. If this was a movie, it would have been screened in flashbacks showing glimpses of a Soweto boyhood defined by epic soccer clashes at Orlando Stadium, the grim exploits of the Lovers Lane serial killer and the historic 1976 student uprisings – among others.
[The book is also a] constant celebration of jazz [and a] salute of literary heroes who have shaped the author’s literary identity as a distinct voice in South African writing. It is not just a story of a community. It is a hard-hitting commentary on the state of the nation.