The Roaring Lion and Wedding Bells
Subtitle: in the Hearts of Tigers  &  Leopards
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing
Published: July 17, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 538
ISBN-13: 9781419659614
Subjects: AZARIA J. C. MBATHA; Fiction / General
First sentence: Today's world might seem like chaos, but there really is unity all around us, suggests Azaria Mbatha, if we only know how to see it.
Description: PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:
Today's world might seem like chaos, but there really is unity all around us, suggests Azaria Mbatha, if we only know how to see it. In his luminous novel, The Roaring Lion and Wedding Bells, Mbatha explores how this unity is formed by a combination of oppositions. All things, he says, come from the one, and the one comes out of all things. He uses the metaphor of jungle animals, such as the lion and tiger, wild animals that exist together, to explore the power struggles that go on with mankind.In rich, lucid prose, Mbatha follows his characters from birth to adulthood. Using real and imagined settings, characters and incidents, Mbatha lays bare the importance of history, biography, art and the world of South Africa in page after page. He investigates the dangers of colonialism in Africa, and he indicates for everyone.
The Roaring Lion and Wedding Bells by Azaria Mbatha is an exquisitely written novel set in South Africa. Using the metaphor of the lion, tiger and leopard, the author explores the concept of multiculturalism and the need for people to peaceably coexist.
 It involves the struggle of the characters to wrap their minds, philosophically, around the effects of colonialism and the oppression of peoples (classes, races, and sexes) while at the same time constructing a valid response that fights oppression without resorting to violence or becoming the evil one is attempting to eradicate.


About the Author
Azaria Mbatha was born in South Africa and now considers himself a citizen of the universe. He lives in Skåne, Sweden.
Notes: Mbatha continues his love of South Africa, its peoples and he is faithful even when he cannot stand its past.  His goal became to write a novel taken back to its courageous roots of barefaced storytelling. It is also a very personal story, at once both fiction and history of the author and of South Africa. The story is set in South Africa and he tells the stories of his experience being born black in South Africa under apartheid rule. The tale rises above politics and tells of the possibilities of more than forgiveness, but indeed of momentary communion between opposition. Yet it is not a political book and azaria mbatha pleads with the audience not to read it as a political text. In the words of the author, “this book represents an attempt to raise anew the sign of human values – both black and white. He would give up his life to keep peace between the peoples of his country, and he says; “I can assure my readers that I will continue writing since there are things I  do not understand. Things I do not understand are above my head at the moment. However, I do not want to start writing if I am losing it and just writing in the same mediocre fashion. Then, I don not think I should write.” The Mbatha’s ultimate goal, then, is the extirpation of evil from the individual and collective hearts of humankind. He calls up from far away like a prophet.* He begs his country and wants us to have time to experience the entire range of human emotions from love to loneliness that he included in his biography. He has given in time to write this novel. Mbatha urges the audience not to be completely devoted to destroy others by law and cunning but to leave time to experience the entire range of human emotions from love to loneliness. “Love your fellow as yourself.” 
In his aim, he still sees the light at the end of the tunnel and he balances the effects of oppression and the basis of human freedom. Without ignoring the existence of the lion, however, Mbatha refuses to recognize this lion as the king of the beast. Many of us have made this interpretation: “The king of the Beast” By using the metaphor of the lion, tiger and leopard, Azaria says: “The lion is not the King of the beast but the bigger wave swallowing the smaller waves.” To this, with no doubt he is in humankind’s world and exploring the idea of multiculturalism and the need for people to coexist peaceably. The Roaring Lion and Wedding Bells, explores how a combination of oppositions forms this unity. All things, he says come from the one, and the one comes out of all things. The novel appropriately, ends with two images:  the independence of South Africa and a marriage.
He does not end there, but the whole Globe….

*
•	As in ‘The Long Goodbye: Clinton to Endorse Obama Rosemary Straley, a Clinton supporter from San .... azaria mbatha. 59. June 7, 2008; 
•	Azaria Mbatha wrote before Clinton said YES: 7th June  that: “Let Obama and Clinton share power in the white house that would be what I would call “change” Women and African Americans have been kept backwards far too long. I am sure they could gain 65% of US’s approval, and there after expect a peaceful world as a result. 
Congratulation USA! 
Azaria J.C. Mbatha
The New York Times Sunday, November 23 , 2008
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/the-long-goodbye-clinton-to-endorse-obama/?apage=3
Table of contents: title: Chapters about:                                            History of the author  and History of South Africa