Indigenous language works need to occupy pages of staple SA literature
If you could influence governmental policy around literacy education, what change would you most like to see?
That affordability and access be increased and monitored annually for every child. Pregnant mothers should be guided toward reading for the children they carry, the babies born to them and then the children themselves. This should be linked to other government programmes working towards transformation, development and nation building.
What has changed since you first started out as a writer? Are the barriers and challenges fewer or just different?
The barriers have multiplied, but so have the opportunities. Publishers are spoilt for choice but the publishing industry has also changed, has less heart as everyone is after the next bestseller with an eye on the bottom line.
Community writing groups can be good places to encourage people to begin writing books – and to carry on doing so! Can you tell us a little about your experience encouraging people to take up a pen?
There are lots of new upand-coming writers, as people from areas not awash in books have started seeing characters just like them appear in print. I’ve supported informal community writing groups who have gone on to have work published and am even approached by young people in primary school, excited because they have written a book. Success? That depends. Writers have emerged, got published, won prizes … but getting sales is tricky. That means most writers are opting to write only in English because publishers are reluctant to take manuscripts of works in indigenous languages unless they are certain the book will get CAPS approval … pity the poor writer, indeed!
What needs to happen to find and publish new talent? How do we get our children reading and our teens writing?
We need a reading public that has enough savvy to see the link between reading and advancement; between mother tongue and political development. Children will not read if their parents and teachers don’t. You cannot infect anyone with a bug you do not carry!
You’ve been incredibly active in encouraging people to write. What kind of responsibilities do we all have to help diversify the South African literary landscape?
Language diversity is so important that we even have a worldwide Mother-Tongue Day. Languages do die and, sadly, with them a whole way of thinking about life – a philosophy, if you will. It saddens me that, post 1994, students have the dubious privilege of ‘choosing’ mother tongue instruction. How our policy makers allow this is beyond me. Writers, translators and publishers should be busy producing indigenous language works that become ‘staple’ South African literature.
Reading and telling stories with your children is a powerful gift to them. It builds knowledge, language, imagination and school success! For more information about the Nal’ibali campaign or to enter its national multilingual storytelling competition, ‘Story Bosso’, running this September, visit