Jacana Media is delighted to announce the publication of a ground breaking South African work by Welcome Mandla Lishivha.
‘BOY ON THE RUN IS TOUGH AND FRAGILE, TRAGIC AND RESILIENT, AND UTTERLY COMPELLING. WELCOME LISHIVHA HAS BROKEN NEW GROUND IN SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE, IN THE VOICE HE FINDS – AND THE STORIES HE TELLS – ABOUT GROWING UP POOR, AND QUEER, AND LOVED, IN A SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIP. IT IS DESTINED TO BE A CLASSIC.’ – MARK GEVISSER
Living in Soshanguve as a young boy with an adored and adoring mum, Welcome’s life almost stops when his mum is murdered by her new boyfriend. The upturned chair, his mum’s lifeless face, the blood on the floor, the glasses with the gold detail that Welcome had taken from a precious cupboard, the boyfriend’s body; it was a tableau that was impossible to unsee. But this is only the beginning of a journey which takes Lishivha through school and university, with the help of his remaining family, and allows him to explore South Africa.
Through student politics, journalism studies, Fees Must Fall and then as a freelance journalist, Lishivha documents the living country as he documents his sexuality, his body, his choices. Welcome Mandla Lishivha’s exquisitely crafted memoir is unlike anything you have ever read. Boy on the Run is a staggering exploration of identity through grief, love and friendship, giving us, Lishivha’s readers, a glorious song of self-expression. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, as they say. This book will change your life.
‘It is the godly feeling of dancing like a goddess and snapping on a beat with sheer joy that makes all the trouble life demands worthwhile. In these moments, of intensive freedom from pain, of joy that knows no bound and peace that passeth all understanding, I become that kid again, dancing with my mother.’
About The Author
Welcome Mandla Lishivha is a freelance journalist and PhD candidate in Jurisprudence at the Universityo f Pretoria. He has a Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies, a Bachelor of Arts with Honoursi n Anthropology and a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies & Anthropology.
Welcome worked as a travel writer for Getaway magazine for three years and has written for the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Daily Maverick, Mail & Guardian, Reuters, GQ and City Press, where he served as the Arts and Lifestyle Co-Editor.
His piece ‘Site Visits’ was published in the second volume of the Gerald Kraak Anthology, As You Like It: African Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Justice.