Join Fourie Botha in conversation with Theo Kemp about his latest novel, Klein Konings.

In the book, two civil servants are summoned to the minister’s office for the assignment “Removal of monuments”. The backgrounds of these two are as diverse as can be: Pixley comes from Zulu nobility, while Joubert claims to be a descendant of General Piet Joubert on his great-great-grandmother’s side.

The minister’s assignment is clear: all apartheid and colonial statues, symbols and monuments must be moved. So Pixley and Joubert travel the country to visit these unwanted monuments, assess the situation, and devise a plan on how it may be done.

As they travel, they confront not only the country’s history but also their own. Personal secrets are revealed – and even more questions and mysteries arise.

Theo Kemp has been involved in various projects in the arts in his roles as project manager of the Woordfees, advertising coordinator at NB Publishers, programme manager of the KKNK and the Vrystaat Literature Festival, and as manager of the Breytenbach Centre. He currently serves as executive director of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation.

Kemp has penned the novels Skool (2011) and Strafjaart (2019), which was awarded the Jan Rabie Rapport Prize in 2020.

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Language: Afrikaans