Book Title: Tsotsi
Author: Athol Fugard
Publisher: AD Donker Publishers (South Africa)

Tsotsi is the story of a gangster who died with a smile on his face. It traces the story of a young black man named Tsotsi whose life was ruined from the beginning. It is a caricature of the life and times of a black South African man who grew up in apartheid (racial segregation) South Africa. The word tsotsi can be loosely translated into English to mean a bully. In fact, it is a slang word for criminal in the Sesotho language, which is one of the eleven official languages ​​of South Africa. In the context of the novel, the title illuminates rather obscures the true lifestyle of Tsotsi, a criminal mastermind specializing in car theft and a host of other crimes. Tsotsi, in the context of the novel, speaks not Sesotho but Tsotsitaal, the street language of underworld figures, a mix of Afrikaans, Sesotho, and Isizulu.

The Tsotsi novel is not crime fiction, but rather an emotional and tortuous journey towards introspection and, ultimately, redemption.

Tsotsi is explicitly set in apartheid South Africa in the 1950s, a turbulent period in which apartheid had been declared the country’s official policy in 1948. A wave of political anger and agitation simmered on the horizon among many groups. racially excluded from politics. life of the place – the one they called home.

Tsotsi, the main character is a tormented soul. He talks less about his family. He kills without hesitation and has no moral compass. He is a man who lost his childhood innocence in the ghettos of Sophiatown (Johannesburg). He grew up deprived, neglected and abused. In his run as a thug, he treats his subjects as life has always treated him, until a chance encounter with a baby he found in a car he had hijacked.

For a time, Tsotsi’s humanity begins to show. She has childhood memories of her in misery. In an attempt to banish the emotional roller coaster caused by her flashbacks, she decides not to kill the baby. True to form, Tsotsi forces a breastfeeding woman in his neighborhood to feed the baby at gunpoint. The presence of an infant in his life seems to positively influence and harmonize his discordant soul.

However, the apartheid government was continuing with its policy of racial segregation and had declared Sophiatown, an area reserved for white South Africans only. To achieve this ridiculous government plan, the township had to be destroyed, so bulldozers were installed. It was at this stage that Tsotsi redeemed himself: he performed the one and last act of his life. He ran into the collapsing building to rescue a boy he had discovered in his stolen car. A child who was taken from the warm and loving hands of his parents.

In fact, it is a comforting story. It shows the human ability to right the wrongs of your past, even if it means doing a single act of humanity. The author, Athol Fugard, was calling on the authorities to save South Africa from the brink of predictable disaster. Fugard’s warning was never heeded. He fell on deaf ears and South Africa, in the early 1960s, was plunged into a dark period of bloodshed, uncertainty and fear. This period lasted until the now-retired international icon Nelson Mandela became president in 1994.

It is perhaps a fitting tribute to this visionary (Fugard) that the adaptation of his novel into a film of the same name ‘Tsotsi’ won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. in 2006.