Short stories
A Point of No Return
Fwanyanga Mulikita · 1968
Synopsis
Ten short stories in which the author tries to hold on to a cultural world that is disappearing. We listen to a grandfather's stories, we see the villages live, and the colonial masters barely appear. Witchcraft keeps a power there that exceeds what can be seen, to the point that a foreign researcher who has come to prepare his thesis finds himself caught up in it. Love has its place there, sometimes romantic, more often arranged to unite two families.
Context
The collection appeared in 1968, in London from Macmillan according to booksellers' catalogues, in Lusaka from Neczam according to the bibliography of the Jahn Library at the University of Mainz. The stories move from villages to Lusaka, to Kitwe or to the shores of Lake Mweru. The author had published a play the previous year, and in 1975 produced a second collection of short stories, from Oxford University Press in Lusaka.
Who it is for
Short stories in English, brief and easy to read, about life in Zambian villages; no translation.
Prizes and reception
The collection is among the first story collections published by a Zambian author.
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