Zukiswa Wanner, author of Men of the South and The Madams, has written an article for Guernica in which she explores how the politics of class and language have weighed down South Africa’s education system.
One of the problems identified by Wanner is what she calls “politicizing language”. While she sees the value of teaching students in their mother tongue, she stresses that English instruction is vital for a student’s future in higher education.
Wanner’s article is from a collection of essays about education systems around the world, commissioned by Guernica‘s Writers Bloc project:
During the course of my research on education for Writers Bloc, I went to the North West of South Africa with a friend. Her sixteen-year-old sister, who was in Grade 10, had written a list of some school necessities she needed her to purchase. The list read:
My friend, in her sister’s presence, showed me this list. I asked the young girl about the spelling of “Dikshinari.” “I was just joking. I decided to spell it in seTswana.”
I gave her a paper and a pen. “Could you spell it in English for me this time around?” She did not do much better. “Dikshinary” is what she wrote.
Tom Learmont, author of Light Across Time, spoke to Nick Wood about the challenges of writing a love story using scientific speculation as a backdrop. Learmont reveals that he often writes on location and conducts thorough research of the historical locations. To achieve the “first hand experience” of Calais in the 1530s, Learmont says he referred to the “Lyell papers” , which he bought for R10 from Pick ‘n Pay:
I picked Tom Learmont up from Finchley Central tube station in North London and we made our way to a nearby pub for a conversation. Tom asked if this was my ‘local’ and I professed to not yet culturally assimilating into Britain, even after 13 years — the pub had been chosen purely for convenience’s sake — and was empty, bar a couple of people and a pile of discarded bottles! It must have seemed like a far-cry indeed from the reported vibrancy of his more familiar drinking space, the Radium Beer Hall in Johannesburg: http://www.theradium.co.za/
In good spirit though, Tom did not let the dullness of our surroundings phase him and we passed the time in lively conversation, while he nursed a pint of the local bitter. Tom spoke initially of the immediate inspiration for Light Across Time — he’d been gripped by Philip Jose Farmer’s book Tarzan Alive, which uses a biographical and scientific approach to transfer the legend of Tarzan into the realm of apparent credibility. Tom himself had a freewheeling range of ideas linking evolution and the geology of ‘weird events’ — such as strange lights and reported alien visitations — into a scientific narrative, providing the dramatic backdrop for a love story.
Jele advises aspiring writers about the process of publishing a novel. She says rejection is part of the process and that you must learn from your mistakes. In answer to the question of what we should be reading, Jele recommends Téa Obreht’s, The Tiger’s Wife, To See the Mountain and Other Stories and Siphiwo Mahala‘s African Delights:
Did you start off by writing short stories and develop your writing from
there? Or did you start with a novel?
I started my writing career with short stories. Happiness is a Four-Letter Word
follows a similar format as it’s made up of four distinct stories woven into one.
How do you keep going when you reach a block with your book? What
inspires you to find ways round the problem?
With Happiness is a Four-Letter Word it was easier to deal with the ‘block’
because the book is really made up of four interlinked stories. Each time I
struggled with one character’s storyline, I simply picked another character and
started a new story.
Roy Aronson, known for his books on his work as a wildlife veterinary surgeon, has tried his hand at a young adult novel steeped in African mysticism, titled Jamie James and the Curse of the Ancestors. With the help of a powerful sangoma, Jamie James attempts to lift an age-old curse placed on his family, while interning at veterinary clinic near the Kruger National Park.
Books LIVE visited Aronson at his clinic in Cape Town, where he read to us from his book. He also answered some of our questions via e-mail:
Carolyn Meads of Books LIVE interviewed Aronson about Jamie James and the Curse of the Ancestors:
Jamie James and the Curse of the Ancestors draws a lot on African mysticism and culture. Where does your knowledge of this come from? What kind of research did you have to do?
I made an amateur study of this wonderful subject. I also had intensive discussions with some of my Xhosa staff who have all been marvellous resources. I used the internet extensively and have been to the Natural History museums whenever I have had the opportunity.
The descriptions of the two visits to sangomas are told vividly. Have you ever been to a sangoma and if so, could you tell me about the experience?
I have in fact been to sangomas and I’ve had marvellous mystical experiences with them. Phillip Kubukele is based on a real sangoma who is the head of the Traditional Healers Association of the Western Cape. He is a wonderful character. All the information in the book regarding burning Mpepoh to aid communications with ancestral spirits is accurate. The trance state is also accurately described.
In the book Jamie James interns at a veterinary clinic. How did your own experiences as a vet help you to write this part of the book?
All the veterinary information is accurate and if my colleagues read my book I’m sure they’ll find no fault with this aspect of the book. Being a vet and having extensive wildlife experience was a very good resource to draw on in this regard. We also offer internships to students and scholars and this gave me an insight into their wonder at the profession.
You have written other, biographical books about your veterinary experience. Why did you decide to write a youth novel this time?
Now that is a difficult question. I guess I had heard that a good novel resides in each one of us and I wanted to give it a try. I enjoyed writing the novel immensely and have had more satisfaction from it than from the other books. Jamie is “alive” and I can’t wait to find out what he will get up to next.
There is a current trend of young readers wanting stories about fantasy and magic. Your book gives them that, but in a uniquely African way. Was this something you set out purposefully to do?
Whilst I loved Harry Potter, it is really absurd. Muggles and Wizards and other nonsense. I wanted to write about magic, but TRUE magic. In the black culture there are amazing mystical beliefs and experiences. I wanted to write about this and also to educate people about the mysticism that millions of our own countrymen not only believe in but experience daily.
The book seems to also have a strong conservation theme, especially where wild animals are concerned. Would you say this is true and is this an issue that is close to your heart?
One of the core themes is conservation and it is very close to my heart but we must tread softly and lead with a carrot not drive with a stick. We must educate our young people about the value of our wildlife heritage. In a few years the youth of today will be the custodians of this country. If they are sensitised to our wildlife and African heritage the country and this planet will have a far better chance of weathering the storm.
Jamie James and the Curse of the Ancestors also deals with the importance of one’s history and ancestors, especially in determining your own identity. Is history and family important to you? I saw that you mention your own “ancestors” in the acknowledgement in the front of the book.
If you know where you come from, you will know where you are going. Our ancestors and our heritage are an essential part of our lives. I have tried to reconstruct my own family tree and have discovered amazing things. Everyone should have an understanding of where they come from.
Also in the acknowledgement I saw that your son’s name is Jamie. Is that were the character’s name comes from?
My son’s name is Jamie, but that is where the similarity ends. My son is 12. He may (I hope) grow up to be like Jamie James. It’s not a bad act to follow. The name Jamie James is in honour of the men in my life. My father, my father-in-law and my son.
It seems as if there could be a sequel to Jamie James and the Curse of the Ancestors, as you write in the book he will remain in the service of the ancestors until he is 25.
In the next book, Jamie James and the Horn of Africa, Jamie goes back to Dr Ashman in his December holiday between grade 11 and 12. He gets involved in trying to stop rhino poachers from doing their dastardly deed. After finishing grade 12 he will, I hope, get into veterinary school. There are December vacations between each year of veterinary school. With luck, Jamie will let me know what happens with his life and he gets older.
You also mentioned a possible film deal? Could you say anything more about that possibility?
I have been approached by a well known Hollywood producer. He has read the book and loves the story and has clearly indicated that his company wants to buy the rights to make the movie.
Eve’s first memory is from when she’s four years old: they’re playing under the mulberry tree in the back yard of her grandmother’s house in Kensington.
When she laughs at her father’s jokes, he and his friends chortle with her. Until he tells her to fetch his belt from the bedroom. So begins Eve’s story — her exploration of men, and the mixed messages they send.
Her curiosity gets the better of her: first with the babi around the corner who gives her her first pasela sweets, then the Jewish shopkeeper who likes to watch her try on dresses in the fitting room, his hands in his pants. It all just seems like fun, until she crosses a line with Mr Simon, her standard-five art teacher.
Playing Lolita is a dangerous hobby, she learns. And no one will believe in her innocence, least of all herself.
Eve is an An engrossing, disturbing and highly readable novel set in Kensington, Cape Town in the sixties and seventies.
About the author
Sandra Charles was born and raised in Kensington, Cape Town.
In 1975 she left for Brazil and opened a beauty salon there at the age of nineteen. Three years later she moved to Austria, where she still lives today, and started a business as a make-up artist.
After her fourth child was born in 1986, she began to expand her business to include photoshoot production. It was at this point that she started to playfully scribble on Eve.
If an author has done a lot of research on a historical period, as she did on Ancient Egypt for The Double Crown and the Byzantine Empire for The Colour of Power, there is the temptation to include too much information in the novel. “There are all of these lovely things you know and want to include, but it can cause the novel to sag, so it’s a fine line to tread,” Heese told Natalie Bosman:
It’s a talented author that can write about the past with such ease and accessibility that it seems as though the plot is taking place in the present. In her latest historical fiction novel The Colour Of Power, South African author Marié Heese whisks her readers through the incredible rise to power of Empress Theodora, one of the Byzantine Empire’s most powerful women figures.
Her lengthy academic career – including an MA (English) (cum laude) and D Litt et Phil – explains her love of the research element required to write a book of this magnitude, but there’s another reason behind Heese’s choice of the historical fiction genre.
Colleen Higgs (author of Lava Lamp Poems) caught up with Agaat author Marlene van Niekerk who hinted that it may be time for a “genre change”. Says Niekerk, “If I am not laughing, crying or shuddering with excitement or grimacing with perverse sadistic imaginings, or shocked beyond belief by what I come up with, while I am writing, I know that I have lost the reader.”:
Van Niekerk’s prize-winning novel, Agaat, which was translated by Michiel Heyns, was shortlisted for yet another award: Amazon’s Best Translated Book Award. And one of her plays, Die kortstondige raklewe van Anastasia W, featured recently at the KKNK (Klein Karoo Nationale Kunstefees) in Oudtshoorn. We dragged her away from her writing desk for a quick catch-up.
‘I feel as though I might have reached a turning point in my career, maybe a genre change?’ At 56, Van Niekerk feels time is running out. She is one of South Africa’s foremost writers – a poet, novelist, playwright, critic, and academic. Her first novel, Triomf, published in 1994, went onto win the CNA Literary Award, the M-Net Prize, and was awarded the prestigious Noma Award for the best book in Africa.
The Power of Colour is an unputdownable novel about the Empress Theodora, considered by many the most influential and powerful woman in the history of the Byzantine Empire. The reader follows her journey from her humble beginnings, the loss of her father, the compromises she must make between her personal sense of honour, faith and survival, and we watch with fascination as this strong woman fights her way through the ranks, from public entertainer and high-class prostitute to empress, to rule alongside her husband, Emperor Justinian. Heese unwinds a story of immense intrigue and historical detail. Her previous novel, The Double Crown, won the Commonwealth Prize (Best Book: Africa) 2010.
Once again we are reminded that power tends to corrupt (and absolute power corrupts absolutely). And significantly, the colour of power is not the purple of royal robes, it is the colour of blood …
About the author
Marié Heese was born in Cape Town on September 27, 1942. She went to school in Cape Town and studied English and political philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch. She also obtained a diploma in drama at the Academy for Drama, also in Stellenbosch. She taught, among others, at Empangeni High School and Richards Bay High in KwaZulu-Natal. Marié lectured at the Universities of Durban-Westville, Zululand, Pretoria and Unisa.
…and the firebrand columnist doesn’t pull his punches during their conversation:
“You need to be dead and white to make the headlines in Beeld,” says Deon Maas. “If you are dead and black you won’t make Beeld. What this does to Beeld readers is it makes them think that there is a genocide going on against them. The media perpetuates a lot of the old apartheid thinking with its divisive content.”
Maas, who refers to himself as De(m)on Maas isn’t going to win any love with this one. But Maas should be used to being the centre of a storm. The author of “Witboy in Africa” was fired from Rapport in 2007 for writing a column on religious tolerance. Maas called for the Constitution not to discriminate against Satanists and did so in a media read by Christian zealots. Positioned as provocative, perhaps the reality is that Maas says the unspeakable to those who don’t want to hear his truth.
Mamphela Ramphele, renowned South African academic, doctor and anti-apartheid activist, recently featured on CNN’s African Voices programme. Ramphele says that South Africans have a lot to be proud of – but that “the quality of leadership in the public and private sectors is weakening … from having leaders who have lost the dream of greatness”:
Zukiswa Wanner, author of Men of the South and The Madams, has written an article for Guernica in which she explores how the politics of class and language have weighed down South Africa’s education system. 
