This programme takes us straight to the troubled heart of South Africa and the people who write about it. 'The Urchin' by Can Themba is part of a collection of short stories 'Hungry Flames' published  and edited by Mbulelo Mzamane, the South African writer himself. He is as much at home with the short story form, 'My Cousin Comes to Jo'Burg' was his first collection, as with the novel and 'The Children of Soweto', a fictional account of the 1976 Soweto riots. He taught literature and politics at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. When he was in London he went to Bush House, and talked to Florence Akst about the thinking behing 'Hungry Flames', the collection of short stories he edited.