Alpha Media Holdings scribe Elias Mambo has had one of his stories Home? chosen for the Advanced Level Literature Paper 5.
NQOBILE NKIWANE
The short story is part of a compilation by seven authors published in a book titled Hunting in Foreign Lands and Other Stories. The 144-page book was written with the aim of addressing various aspects and consequences of leaving one’s country in search of greener pastures.
According to Mambo, the book focuses on the sensitive issues of the society.
“I was inspired to write the story by my personal experience. My uncle went to the United Kingdom in search of the greener pastures leaving his family behind,” he said.
“He started cohabiting with another woman while in the Diaspora, thereby affecting his support for the family back home.”
In the story, there is Jacob — a married man — who leaves his wife and kid to go and seek a job in America, having sold his house and furniture to purchase an air ticket.
Mambo highlights how the wife suffers without her husband sending any money back home while he cohabits with a Zimbabwean widow who was also in America to further her studies.
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Numerous phone calls from his wife back home later remind Jacob that he has a family back in Zimbabwe.
Finally, getting back to his senses, he realises the importance of family and decides to return home not sure whether his wife was still waiting for him.
Mambo has also written a book Conscience of My Race, published in 2011 addressing the issue of xenophobia in South Africa where fellow blacks attacked each other.
