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London Cape Town Joburg by Zukiswa Wanner: book review



London Cape Town Joburg: A Novel (2014) is set in three cities: London in England (1994-1998), Cape Town in South Africa (1998-2008), and Johannesburg in South Africa (2008-2011).

In the prologue, 13-year-old Zuko Spencer-O’Malley has suicided in the bathroom of his home. The novel reveals why.

London was where Germaine Spencer and Martin O’Malley meet, marry, and have Zuko. Germaine Spencer is a ceramist, a potter, and white; Martin O’Malley is a London-born investment banker, and black. Martin’s father is Irish and his mother is South African, both living in Cape Town. 

Germaine and Martin’s move to Cape Town in 1998 is so that Zuko can ‘grow up among people who look more like him’ – a young black boy.

In the late 1990s South Africa is the land of opportunity, and a country at the beginning of change. The first truly democratic election in South Africa’s history results in Nelson Mandela’s rainbow nation win. Although Martin has never been to South Africa, it it his homeland – the land of his mother.

From Cape Town, Martin is promoted to a job in Johannesburg, prompting a family move; a move they are all looking forward to. As Martin says, ‘London started it all very well, Cape Town was a good intermediary, and now this hustler town, this City of Gold, is giving us a new lease on love and life.’

But it is in Johannesburg – Joburg – that their idyllic life starts unravelling. The past in Cape Town follows them to Joburg, in more ways than one. This has a devastating impact on the life of young Zuko Spencer-O’Malley. 

Written in the first person from all perspectives, readers learn of the family’s past. Both Martin and Germaine recount their meeting, their love, the birth of Zuko, the move to South Africa, and coming to terms with the challenge of an emerging rainbow nation. Zuko writes too. Zuko Spencer-O’Malley’s journal starts from 9 June 2008, at the age of 10.

The first two parts, London and Cape Town, set the scene, the lifestyle, and the love that Germaine and Martin share. The London section is written in a dreamy, ‘star-crossed lovers’ manner, while the Cape Town section builds to show the reality of a post-apartheid nation. It is the final part, in Johannesburg, that the writing becomes more poignant and sensitive, revealing Zuko’s unanswered cry for help, as challenging issues are closer to home. 


MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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