Mr Chameleon: An autobiography
Few people can have had so extraordinary a life as the poet and novelist Tatamkhulu Afrika. Soldier and freedom fighter; prisoner to the German Reich and the Apartheid State; born on the northernmost shore of Africa in Egypt, died on the southern tip of Africa, in the BoKaap. Born a Muslim, brought up in a Christian home, converted (back) to Islam. Bearing five different names during his life, he worked variously as a barman, storekeeper, auditor’s clerk, drummer in a band, in the flotation works of a copper mine, and as the manager of a pop singer. For the last ten years of his long life, he lived in extremely frugal circumstances, in a garage, and in a wendy house in someone’s backyard; yet he founded and worked tirelessly for an organisation set up to help the needy. Eight collections of his lyrical and religious poems were published, as well as two novels and four novellas; he won every South African prize and award for which his work was eligible. Now his autobiography lays bare not only the life events of this remarkable man, but also his innermost secrets and revelations, things that he withheld from even his close friends during his lifetime, all written with an stylish elegance all his own.
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