THE 2022 SUNDAY TIMES LITERARY AWARDS SHORTLIST

This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the non-fiction award which has, over the decades, showcased the most acute and incisive non-fiction writing in SA. The fiction prize, now in its 21st year, honours the authors who enthral with their imagined worlds. In proud partnership with Exclusive Books, the winners will each receive R100,000 THE NON-FICTION AWARD

CRITERIA

The winner should demonstrate the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power; compassion; elegance of writing; and intellectual and moral integrity.

JUDGES:

Griffin Shea (chair), NomaVenda Mathiane, Bongani Ngqulunga

CHAIR OF JUDGES GRIFFIN SHEA SAYS: Current events have become so overwhelming, we created the word doomscrolling to describe the despair the news of the day leaves us to wallow in. This year’s shortlist takes a few steps back to put things in perspective. Three of the books give a broad sweep of history, told with fresh perspectives that give insight into how we got to where we are today.

Thula Simpson’s History of South Africa takes in the entire 20th century, and most of the 21st. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi covers more emotive history in Land Matters. He excavates the past in a way that lays the groundwork for thinking about the future. In The Poisoners, Imraan Coovadia takes stories we may have heard before, but layers them with context and nuance. He finds toxic distrust within society a deeper cause of deadly potions. Bloody Sunday reveals a horrific episode largely forgotten from the history books. Instead of merely recounting a massacre, Mignonne Breier finds an intimate narrative infused with the conviction that one person can make a difference. And in Scatterling of Africa, Johnny Clegg reminds us with humour and joy of the music that defined the turbulent years leading to democracy. There is a vibrant, if complicated, cross-cultural friendship which produced music that gave hope for the possibilities that were to come.

BLOODY SUNDAY: THE NUN, THE DEFIANCE CAMPAIGN AND SOUTH AFRICA’S SECRET MASSACRE

BY MIGNONNE BREIER

(Tafelberg)

Few people know of the massacre at an ANC Youth League event in Duncan Village, East London where police killed 10 people, including an Irish nun and medical doctor Sister Aiden Quinlan. Judges said that in this “stunning book, the author left no stone unturned, which brings into sharp focus the hard life residents led in those days and goes a long way to illustrate the persecution of the leaders by the police.”

SCATTERLING OF AFRICA: MY EARLY YEARS

BY JOHNNY CLEGG

(Pan Macmillan)

The origin story of the 14-year-old boy who became one of the most famous South African artists worldwide. Judges said: “The book goes beyond the story of the floorstamping white musician to opening a window into the real Johnny Clegg. It is written without airs even though his life seemed full of excitement and wonder. What stands out about this book is the fact that Johnny Clegg was truly phenomenal.”

THE POISONERS: ON SOUTH AFRICA’S TOXIC PAST

BY IMRAAN COOVADIA

(Umuzi)

Coovadia exposes the political life of poisons, toxins and diseases in southern Africa, from the Rhodesian bush war and “independent” Zimbabwe with its apparent connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks in the US, apartheid state’s covert chemical and biological weapons programme known as Project Coast to Jacob Zuma’s accusation of poisoning by his fourth wife. Judges called it an “outstanding achievement” and “compelling reading”.

LAND MATTERS: SOUTH AFRICA’S FAILED LAND REFORMS AND THE ROAD AHEAD

BY TEMBEKA NGCUKAITOBI

(Penguin Non-fiction)

Ngcukaitobi examines the land issue through several different historical lenses, including . communal ownership and colonialism, the effects of the Land Acts, Bantustans and forced removals. He unpacks the government’s achievements and failures in land redistribution, restitution, and tenure reform, and makes suggestions for what needs to be done. Judges said: “This is an impressive book on several accounts.”

HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA: FROM 1902 TO THE PRESENT BY THULA SIMPSON (Penguin Non-fiction)

Simpson explores SA’s tumultuous journey from the Second Anglo-Boer War to 2021. Drawing on diaries, letters, oral testimony and diplomatic reports, the author follows the South African people through the battles, elections, repression, resistance, strikes, insurrections, massacres, crashes and epidemics that have shaped the nation. Judges felt, “that this was a fascinating, immensely readable and entertaining view on history that offers a window into how SA was lost/vanquished”.