Sarah Lubala is a Congolese-born poet and writer based in Cape Town. Her writing explores themes of displacement, memory, and identity, drawing from her family’s history of relocating to South Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Her debut collection, A History of Disappearance (2022), won the 2024 Ingrid Jonker Prize and the 2023 NIHSS Award for Poetry. Lubala’s work has also been recognised by the Gerald Kraak Award, the Brittle Paper Award, and the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Award, and has appeared in publications including the Mail & Guardian 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.