What is the Jonker Memorandum?

The Jonker, as I’ll call it is first and foremost a cell phone story. It didn’t start out intending to be one. It took so long to write that the world changed considerably and it became possible for it to be one.

So what is it?

Firstly it is all about the artist asserting complete control over its work in a way that has not been possible before… well not on a mass global scale anyway.

By Artist I mean [here] the Poet. When a poet writes a story it is still a poem even though it sounds and maybe even reads like literary fiction [which it also is].

Nicholas doesn’t claim to be the first of the cell phone book writers , but he is a pioneer: a septuagenarian one certainly, but nonetheless a pioneer.

As mentioned in previous comments the Jonker is an Mzansian myth [Mzansi being a place in Afrika, the exotically unknown, so-called, “Dark Kontinent”.]  It’s an Mzansian myth following an Apocalypse. Among other things it is a story about how the world ended and what happened afterwards. It is written and narrated by Nicholas Jakari,  the post-Facebook name for author and poet Nicholas Williamson: responsible for: The Buffalo Hunters [1996], The Ashanti Raider [1999], Tales of a Tickey-Line Trader; [published as Seven Ways to get your money.] plus a few hundred blogs and a great deal of unpublished poetry, and other activist writings. Much of this material will be found as we progress through the Jonker.

The Story itself of the Jonker has three sub-titles: each referring to different elements of the overall story. They are: The Testimony’s of an enumerator, The Legends of Korinth Starr [The Elder], and in a nod to a running motif through the tale “Loadshedding”.

Briefly, the tale itself concerns a man called Jordan Marak who co-owns a mail order funeral business in the city of Jozi, a place in the region called Zone One in the State known as Mzansi, which is part of the Azanian Konfederacy in Afrika. [btw None of these places will be found on your atlas so don’t go off to Google Earth.]

Marak has a drinking problem; and his frequent disappearances on binge drinking expeditions leaves him with unexplained holes in his memory, about which he is increasingly concerned.  The sory is about what happens when he decides to turn his life around and finds himself among other things in a world run by and for the benefit of women… a world outside his imagination.

The Jonker will consist of some 90 plus episodes each ranging between twelve and twenty odd minutes, according to the flow… [ it did start life as a novel not a cell’ phone story remember] . It will launch now within days and will initially consist of 30 plus episodes with a new one every four to five days. It is aimed at people who like stories and have a long attention span, for it is a long and well worked tale.

Along the way: should you find the tale to your liking, and want to spur Nicholas into continuing this lonely and oddly arduous task he has set himself, then you are asked to donate a dollar [US] or equivalent to his venture. In a sense here the theme as we move from one era into another…. something that is happening in this place we think ofas our reality as well as that shift reflected in the story… the theme is Buddy can you spare a buck… And for the duration of the tale you make this donation in US dollars or equivalents: even Bitcoins.

I look forward to you joining my listenership and travelling with me along a most curious possibility.

Regards

Leofric

Leofric House Productions.