Zoo City

Testimonials from imprisoned mashavi: An inmate named Caleb Carter from Australia says he didn’t get his Tapir until his second night in prison, after he stabbed Deke, a fellow prisoner who’d come to attack him. The Tapir was discovered, still caked in jungle mud, scratching on the door to his cell in solitary confinement. He loves the Tapir, even though it seems stupid, and he likes that the other prisoners see it and remember what happened to Deke.

Zia Khadim of Pakistan, a 14-year-old prisoner who has a Cobra, says that in their prisons, animals are locked up separately. To torture prisoners, guards take the animals and drive them away from the prison: “The pain is unbearable. You scream, you vomit, and you say anything” (98). At first, they grouped the separated animals together in cages, but the animals killed each other or got sick and died, eliciting frequent visits from the Undertow. Now, animals are caged separately, but the prisoners can’t see their animals unless they can afford to bribe the guards. Zia hasn’t seen his Cobra in five years.

Tyrone Jones lives in a prison in the United States, where animals live among the prison population. Prisoners with dominant animals, like cougars, dominate prison life; “it don’t matter how many people you killed, you got a Chipmunk or Squirrel, you’re gonna be a bitch” (99). Tyrone’s Butterfly, which he keeps in a matchbox, lets him live other people’s lives in his mind. His body remains imprisoned, but the Butterfly lets his mind roam free.

Zinzi, Amira, and Mark travel to the estate where Songweza and S’busiso Radebe live with their guardian, Primrose Luthuli. Zinzi asks for her own car and says that Mark and Amira can take her places, but then they need to “piss off” and let her do their job. Amira says they don’t want Zinzi to be hijacked, causing Zinzi’s mind to be hijacked by the memory of a bullet tearing her left ear “before it ripped through my brother’s skull” (101). As they go through the security gate, all are asked to step outside the car and photographed with their animals. Mark says there are animalists everywhere and that some people would bring back quarantine camps if they could.

A heavyset white teen who reeks of marijuana answers the door to Song and S’bu’s house. He sees the Marabou and alerts the others; when the Marabou steps inside, Zinzi hears the noise of gunfire. Two boys, S’bu and his friend, Des, are on the sofa playing video games. The boy who answered the door is named Arno, and he has a bloody nose, courtesy of Amira. S’bu stubs out his joint, and Mark and Amira take away the boys’ weed.

Mark tells S’bu that Zinzi would like to talk to him. Zinzi lies and says she’s writing a story for a magazine named Credo. She takes Des’s discarded controller and starts playing the video game with S’bu. Arno offers to get them beers, and Zinzi accepts; then, remembering she is supposed to stay sober, she refuses, saying she doesn’t want to return to rehab. She tells S’bu that she went to rehab while in prison, and he asks her if that’s where she got Sloth. Zinzi interviews S’bu and learns Odi sent the twins to rehab for smoking weed. S’bu also shares that people think Song is the talented one, and that he’s only there because she carries him.

Zinzi says she wishes there were “restore” points for the real world, just like there are in games. S’bu asks her what restore point she’d go back to, and she says she’d go back to the moment before she got her brother killed. S’bu says he’d go back to the time before they signed with Odi. Zinzi tells him the truth, that she isn’t an interviewer but has been hired to help find his sister. She suggests that S’bu may not want Song to return, which makes him angry.

S’bu leaves, and Zinzi searches the house, looking for lost things that she can use to trace Song’s whereabouts. She finds a bottle of Flurazepam, a drug for bipolar disorder, prescribed to Song, and some dried herbs in Song’s bathroom. She steals a notebook of S’bu’s song lyrics and throws open a closet, where she notes empty hangers. The missing clothes suggest that Song had time to pack before she left.

Next, Zinzi takes Arno and Des to the clubhouse, where Des tells her that the twins were on Starmakerz and then got signed. Mark and Marabou had already told Zinzi on the way to Prim’s house that the twins, once desperately poor, had auditioned for Coca-Cola Starmakerz and then decided to drop out before the semifinals, when their grandmother died of lupus (the grandmother had cared for them after their parents died of AIDS, two years prior). A range of sponsors and Coca-Cola chipped in to get the twins to stay in the competition, but they ended up dropping out anyway, per the advice of their new label: Moja Records. Zinzi also learns that the twins have become distant as their fame has grown. Arno makes rude comments about Song, which leads Zinzi to think he has a crush on her.

Zinzi then interviews Mrs. Luthuli, the twins’ guardian and also Des’s mom. Prim is upset that Odi won’t call the police. Zinzi asks if Song has lost anything lately, but Prim is confused by the question. She gives Zinzi Song’s phone number, and when Zinzi calls, the voicemail box is full.

Zinzi asks whether Song has a boyfriend, and Prim insists that she doesn’t. She asks whether Song takes prescription medication, and Prim says she doesn’t, although the twins see a sangoma monthly to get treatment for their stress. She asks if Prim knows that the kids drink beer and smoke weed, and Prim begs Zinzi not to tell Odi. She says they’re just letting off steam and that they’re good kids.

Without lost things to connect to Song, Zinzi decides to rely on her journalism background. She takes a taxi to Rosebank and calls her ex-boyfriend, Giovanni (Gio) Conti. He’s deputy editor for Mach—and the person who taught her to use a crack pipe. They meet at a bar called Reputation for the first time since her imprisonment and acquisition of Sloth.

While they talk, a group of teen Goths approach to tell Zinzi they think she’s cool and that it doesn’t matter what she’s done. Gio tells her it’s the influence of Slinger, who has “made zoo cool. You’re countercultural aspirational, baby” (134). They relocate to a sushi bar next door, and Zinzi tells Gio she’s working on a piece about iJusi to sell to Credo as the first piece of a larger book about “Jozi youth culture” (135). Gio says it’s her big comeback, and she says she’s worried that Sloth will make it difficult to get interviews. Gio says she’d be surprised, and Zinzi notes that his lopsided smile has grown on her.