The Lost Colours of the Chameleon

by Mandla Langa

The Lost Colours of the Chameleon is set on the fictitious island of Bangula in the Indian Ocean - an island populated by an indigenous community that coexists uneasily with Creoles, mainly descendants of ancient Portuguese colonizers. The half-a-million inhabitants live under the twin shadows of an impending cyclone and an outbreak of the blood plague. The novel follows the story of the Colonel Gondo, a patriarch who is the father of the newly reformed nation of Bangula, and the biological father of three sons (one legitimate and two illegitimate). Following their father’s death, the Colonel’s three sons become embroiled in a bitter succession struggle. Abioseh succeeds the Colonel, but has to contend with the Colonel's love-child, a boy called Zebulon. Zebulon grows up embittered and poverty-stricken, with an aim of avenging his mother, Madu, who died of official neglect. Zebulon, Abioseh's half-brother, is popular among the people for the simple reason that he has made it his life's mission to comfort the bereaved, even strangers. Abioseh also has to contend with the Colonel’s third son, Hieronymus Jerome, his childhood friend, who rises in the police ranks and becomes his head of security. However, Hieronymus also has ambitions of power - not so much to wield it conspicuously as to control the wielders of power, an eminence grise - who liaises with an undertaker to topple Abioseh and install Zebulon as leader of the island. This struggle for power is fuelled by the varying and personal motives of the Colonel’s three sons, and reveals the fundamental divisions tearing apart the fragile nation.  The Lost Colours of the Chameleon is a gripping and sophisticated satire of politics in the developing world.  It is a brave and timeous novel that is also compelling, entertaining and engaging and which takes the South African novel into new and exciting territory

(From Publisher).

Mandla Langa was born in Durban and grew up in KwaMashu Township. After being arrested n 1976, he was sentenced, skipped bail and went into exile in Botswana. He has participated in various arts programmes and conferences in Africa and elsewhere, and has lived in Lesotho, Mozambique and Angola, where he did MK military training, as well as in Zambia, Hungary and the United Kingdom.
In 1980 Mandla won the Drum story contest for The Dead Men who lost their Bones and in 1991 he was the first South African to be awarded the Arts Council of Great Britain Bursary for creative writing. A scriptwriter and journalist, Mandla has held various ANC posts abroad, including that of Cultural Representative in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. His published works include Tenderness of Blood (1987), A Rainbow on a Paper Sky (1989), The Naked Song and Other Stories (1997) and The Memory of Stones (2000).