Hunger for reading, and writing, about black lives

For a black reader growing up in South Africa in the ’90s, the idea of walking into a bookstore and easily finding a book that related to black lives was a foreign concept. But recently African and South African literature has begun filling bookstore shelves.

The trend has sprung up amid the emergence of an energetic generation of writers armed with social media savvy and demand for these types of books from black professionals.

Isabel Hofmeyr, professor of African literature at Wits University, said the commitment of local publishers to the genre, and the fact that it had become widely taught in universities, also aided interest. Authors Niq Mhlongo’s Soweto, Under the

Apricot Tree and Zukiswa Wanner’s Hardly Working have sold out their first print runs only weeks after being launched.

Mbali Sikakana from the Jacana Literary Foundation said South Africans were also hungry to write. Jacana has received more than 150 unsolicited manuscripts in the past three months alone.