Dog Eat Dog by Niq Mhlongo
Dingz is an average Wits student who spends his time partying with his friends, picking up girls, skipping lectures, making up elaborate excuses for missing exams, and struggling to make ends meet. Dingz — a bright, articulate student — and his circle of friends like to sit around drinking and discussing AIDS, racism, history and South African politics.They also have some hair-raising adventures; like being kidnapped by taxi-drivers, contracting gonorrhea and trying to fake a death certificate.
The novel’s constant backdrop is the subtle but institutionalized racism at Dingz’s university; which threatens to deny him financial aid. Dingz is an intelligent and likable character — but he is certainly no saint. His anger at the racism around him is sometimes over-the-top but certainly not hard to understand, and his self-aware, cynical usage of the ‘race card’ is at times incredibly amusing. This is an authentic, witty, slice-of-life piece of fiction set at the time of the first South African democratic elections.
