Reviewed by Kate

Sipho is the story of a young boy's first day of school, as a South African Zulu in an all-white school. The clash of cultures and the atmosphere of overt racism in the school makes Sipho's school experience a memorable one.

This story gives a good sense of the distinction between the hard-working, polite, almost gentle world of the Zulu camp and the brutally discriminatory school. And yet there is also a bit of distance, of removal, between the story and the reader. I think that this is because there are just a few too many statements that would have to be attributed to a moral narrator. For example: "At the young age of six he had been introduced to the pain of racism, the piercing truth of the times." This is more the language of essay than short story.

I think that there is a very powerful story here, set in a fully realized landscape, with good characters, but I think that the author has to trust the reader to come to the necessary conclusions. This distancing through essayish tone could be easily remedied, leaving the author with a really good story.

Story by © Lara Purvis

Reviewed by © Kate

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