SIGH, THE BELOVED COUNTRY, braai talk, rock 'n roll & other stories

502pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2016

A collection of essays, memoirs, interviews, profiles, and travelogues by Bongani Madondo, author of Hot Type: artists, icons & god-figurines and I'm Not Your Weekend Special: portraits on the life-style & politics of Brenda Fassie.

Foreword by Rian Malan.

"I found Madondo slightly unsettling. He has a penetrating gaze, and a sympathetic tone during interviews that invites you to more than just share the basic facts. In this way, he manages to capture the essence of his interviewees. His portraits come out almost 3D." Zolani Mahola, lead singer of Freshlyground

"I'd heard rumours about him. Some mythmaking and mysticism was goin' on, all at once. Some said he's full of shit. Some that he's retired in his early thirties and moved back to the village. Some said all he wants to do is compose for big band jazz orchestras, while others said his heart is still in it: The written word. We had a magazine to publish. We were on deadline. We tracked him down and commissioned a film review, full page. He travelled over 50 kilometres from his village to watch Djo wa Tunbda's set-in-Kinshasa's thriller, 'Viva Riva!' far off in the city at night, hiked back and worked on the piece overnight. When we switched on the following day: There, in full glory, was the most inciteful cinema review I'd read all year. We hired him immediately. At 'Rolling Stone', Madondo invented a new reportorial form altogether: Gonzoid, gothic, punk, township, spiritual and full of magic. His readers called it Afro Punk journalism, just as Fela Kuti has Afro-Beat. The man's possessed." Miles Keylock, publisher and ex-editor, Rolling Stone magazine

Bongani Madondo lives between Johannesburg, Cape Town and the Eastern Cape.