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Maqoma is drawn to Zakes Mda’s character “Toloki” a professional mourner from his beloved Ways of Dying as he further uncovers in his book Cion, a story of the runaway slaves. Toloki rediscovers death in a modern context, inspired by universal events that lead to death, not as a natural phenomenon but by decisions of others over the other. The universe of greed, power; religion has led us to be professional mourners who transform the horror of death and the pain of mourning into a narrative that questions what seems to be normalised and far more brutal in how we experience death and immigration. This work is a lament, a requiem required to awaken us, the connection to the departed souls.
