Sarah Lubala is a Congolese-born poet and writer based in Cape Town. Her family’s history of fleeing political unrest in the DRC informs her work on forced migration, gender-based violence, xenophobia, and identity. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics.
Her debut collection, A History of Disappearance (2022), won the 2024 Ingrid Jonker Prize and the 2023 NIHSS Award for poetry, following recognition from Open Country Mag and The Africa Report.
Lubala also won the international Castello Di Duino XIV Prize. Her poetry has been twice shortlisted for the Gerald Kraak Award, shortlisted for the Brittle Paper Award, longlisted for the Sol Plaatje EU Award, and published in the Mail & Guardian, Brittle Paper, and Apogee Journal.
A History of Disappearance
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Sarah Lubala is a Congolese-born poet. Her family fled the Democratic Republic of Congo two decades ago amidst political unrest as militant factions tried to overthrow the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. She relocated first to Cape Town, then Abidjan — the capital of the Ivory Coast — before settling in Johannesburg.
Working at the limits of language and human experience, in the place of Celan’s Sprachgitter — her debut collection, A History of Disappearance, examines what happens to humanity at the margins and in the far places of experience, pain, and love.
Achingly humane, and characterised by a fine and gracious empathy, this work draws the reader into a greater fellowship with and understanding of the world and themselves in it.