Photo of Anglo Louw: provided
Short.Sharp.Stories is a platform showcasing established and emerging South African short story writers. For the 2025 anthology, Power: Short stories that light the dark, writers imagined “power” in fictional terms – how it influences and affects us, including political and personal power, and the ever-present issues of loadshedding.
In this Short.Sharp.Stories interview, Lester Walbrugh chats with Angelo C Louw, author of the short story “Above and beyond the water’s edge”, which explores the power struggles a coloured biologist faces when she tries to prevent a massive climate disaster.
A journalist by profession and activist at heart, Angelo C Louw is a seasoned media personality with nearly two decades of experience as a storyteller. Better known for his award-winning documentaries and his thought leadership at news outlets such as Huffington Post and Daily Maverick, Louw uses his access to the media to focus on marginalised groups. He has recently released a collection of writing spanning his career as a columnist, but it has always been his ambition to enter the creative literary space. He is a Hubert H Humphrey/Fulbright alumnus, 2019 TYI SADC Top 100 Winner, and awardee of the 2021 Mail and Guardian 200 Young South Africans. Louw is currently completing a Critical Diversity Studies master’s degree at Wits University.
It comes as no surprise, with your background, that you’ve focused on climate change as the theme for your story. Firstly, what has created in you such a passion for bringing awareness to climate change?
Two things: my community already deals with so much hardship as we speak, that the climate crisis seems like a problem for the future – I don’t think there is enough awareness in non-white communities about the immediate impact of climate change and how this is rapidly getting worse, especially for us. Protecting the environment is perceived as a white thing, because white people have long fought for things like animal rights, and so the community doesn’t really see its place in the climate movement – despite the fact that our cultures are already so environmentally conscious; we just don’t call it that.
Your story, then, which is focused on this climate disaster, presents the reader with two stories that run concurrently, which is an interesting structure. What was it like writing of these two different worlds?
“Above and beyond the water’s edge” is an imagining of the flooding of Atlantis (Cape Town). It also imagines a world hundreds of years in the future, where my community restores balance in the world through a rediscovery of who they really are (from long before the colonial shackles).
.........
At Greenpeace, I see the impacts of the climate crisis daily. And so, I firstly wanted to remind myself why I am still fighting as a climate justice activist, despite things looking so bleak. But I also delved deeper into the idea of climate apartheid. We are not equally impacted by the climate crisis; people with money can simply relocate when they’re at risk. I wanted to explore what would happen to my community once the wealthy residents abandoned Cape Town.
.........
At Greenpeace, I see the impacts of the climate crisis daily. And so, I firstly wanted to remind myself why I am still fighting as a climate justice activist, despite things looking so bleak. But I also delved deeper into the idea of climate apartheid. We are not equally impacted by the climate crisis; people with money can simply relocate when they’re at risk. I wanted to explore what would happen to my community once the wealthy residents abandoned Cape Town.
Could you tell us more about the challenges Khadijah faces in the story? And what was it like for you, as writer, to take on the persona of a female character?
Khadijah fights tooth and nail to save Cape Town from climate impacts, because she knows that when the shit hits the fan, her community will be left behind. I guess I was projecting a little when I wrote her story, because it is grounded in the reality of our situation. She leads the community on a path of rediscovery, which helps them survive just another of many hardships they’ve experienced. I guess our colonially imposed amnesia is probably the biggest challenge we face – in the story and in real life.
I never really thought of writing her as taking on a persona. I chose to write about a woman because, like with many other issues, women are impacted disproportionately by the climate crisis – so, Khadijah had so much more to fight for. Women carry so much responsibility socially; women like Khadijah are tasked with responsibility as professionals in the community, as mothers, as women (whose labour is so naturalised that it often goes unacknowledged). Women also do a lot of the hard labour in the climate justice space, and yet they struggle to be taken seriously within those spaces and when advocating climate justice elsewhere. It didn’t make sense to centre the story around a man.
What were your main concerns when you considered “power”: political, social, personal or fantastical? The element of folklore is fascinating. How did you incorporate this?
My story is definitely political. It’s a form of decoloniality. It is certainly social and personal – I’m writing about my community and our history (and future). It also addresses an issue I deal with daily as a Greenpeace activist: the climate crisis. I like to think of “Above and beyond the water’s edge” as challenging literary standards, too. It incorporates folklore and ways of thinking that wouldn’t matter or make sense through a Western lens. At the time of writing the story, I was researching folklore to learn about my own culture, which we aren’t really taught about at home – or in any public institution, for that matter. I weaved in many of these stories to create an other-worldly setting, which has always featured in our storytelling. It also uses Khoekhoegowab and other languages, aside from English (without italicising or explaining).
Indeed, the incorporation of these other languages is fascinating. Could you tell us a little more about your interest in them?
I’m actually trying to learn Khoekhoegowab at the moment. It’s funny because I decided to learn the language after my manager offered me French lessons as an upskilling exercise. I said to her that I needed to learn my ancestral language before I dared learn another European one, and then I bought a textbook! Indigenous languages in South Africa are at the brink of extinction. It is scary that we are losing so much of our culture.
More than anything, I’d like to spark interest in our traditional stories – or folklore – which are some of the most beautiful and poetic texts I’ve ever read. They are currently scattered all over the internet and in a number of journals. It would be great if they were published as an anthology series someday.
The story ultimately emphasises the “power” of the people. Would you agree that this was your main motivation when you were exploring this theme?
Yes, for sure. But more than that, this story explores hope and belief as a precursor to power. Any change, be it personal or societal, needs conviction.
I’ve been writing about power struggles for close to 20 years as a columnist and journalist, but this is my first work of fiction. It was wonderful imagining a world beyond the colonial legacy we’re dealing with now.
On that note, would you like to add anything about the current debate on coloured identity?
I think it’s about time we had the conversation, but I do feel that this is a conversation for us to have, and not for others to have about us. We’ve had a number of identities imposed on us throughout history, and it is time for us to tell others who we really are.
........
I think it’s about time we had the conversation, but I do feel that this is a conversation for us to have, and not for others to have about us. We’ve had a number of identities imposed on us throughout history, and it is time for us to tell others who we really are.
.........
In this, your first published fiction, were there any particular challenges you faced while writing? And has the bug grabbed you? We hope you’ll write more!
I suppose that being excited about writing something fictional made me a little overzealous with the colourful language, which sometimes confused or distracted from what I was trying to say. I worked with a stellar editor to help rein it in.
I am a writer, deep in my bones. I love exploring different types of writing and will definitely return to fiction once I get this thesis out (yes, I’m giving academic writing a jab – and it is kicking my arse!). I think I like the idea of short stories. As writers, I think, we are always thinking about stories in terms of books and then never find the time to write them. I think that short stories at least give you a chance to get the story down on paper.
And lastly, where can readers find more of your work, and do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to share about?
My debut book, The problem with black people, which looks at systemic racism very practically in the context of our current times, is available at selected bookstores.
Angelo C Louw is a contestant in the “40 Under 40 South Africa 2025” competition in the Environmental and Climate Sustainability category. Please vote for Angelo at this link: https://wechoose.possitech.net/competitions/e11f7b6a-beb3-43dc-bbe2-08ff8c0bb9fd/categories/80f11ed3-79e3-48cb-983c-27949eb6719b.
Lester Walbrugh’s stories have been published on the online platforms The Kalahari Review, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and Itch Magazine. Others are in the Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Die laughing, in Hair: Weaving and unpicking stories of identity from Tattoo Press, in Hauntings from Jacana Media, and in Short Story Day Africa’s ID and Hotel Africa. A collection of these and new stories, Let it fall where it will, was published by Karavan Press in 2020, and a novel, Elton Baatjies, was published in 2022.
Power is available at good bookstores and directly from Tattoo Press: joanne.hichens@gmail.com.
Tattoo Press is an independent small publisher, specialising in contemporary South African short fiction.
Also read:
Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, Power: interview with Werner Labuschagne, author of "The killer"