Johnny Masilela
Now that the censorship restrictions of the old order are no more, are South African writers tackling political issues with vigour?
No. As they emerge from the influence of the so-called language boards, which directly or otherwise restricted South African writing in the African languages, our new writing is not necessarily about politics.
Judging from the recent results of the Maskew Miller Longman (MML) African Heritage Literary Awards – which gives prizes for drama, short stories and novels in each of South Africa’s nine official African languages – new writing in these languages seems to be about community and family issues rather than political change.
MML’s Thiathu Nemutanzhela observes that the new writing bears the trace of declining standards, which he attributed to new writers “rushing” to enter the competition. This is ironic in that the competition’s aim since its inception in 1992 has been to spur writers to do good work in African languages, a field long dominated by mediocre and unchallenging work aimed (successfully) at the educational market. The retail market for books in African languages barely exists.
“I think many of the emerging writers do it for the prize money, which does not bode well for the industry,” says Nemutanzhela, who co-ordinates the awards.
He said no prize was awarded in the Southern Sesotho language category this year “simply because the entries were not up to standard”. He pointed out, however, that this has happened in all the language groups at one time or another, and that it is often hard to find good new work.
Writing in these pages recently, publisher Dumisani Ntshangase observed that the language boards of yesteryear screened out books that expressed political views too openly or challenged traditional morality. This dependance on the boards’ approval killed talent and individual expression. Publishers such as MML are cautiously moving into the future, but the need to sell to the educational market possibly still hampers truly creative work.
A perusal of the winning works in this year’s African Heritage awards shows an interest in themes such as crime, community and the extended family fabric.
As far as standards are concerned, Sepedi writers excelled, with all three categories of novel, drama and short story anthologies being won jointly by two writers each.
Talking about families, mother AM Motimele and her son MG Motimele were announced joint winners in the categories of short stories and full-length novel respectively in the Sepedi (northern Sotho) language group. And both mother and son seem to have a passion for the subject of family values.
In Tsa Malapa, which, when roughly translated, means “family matters”, AM Motimele explores family disputes about not only wayward husbands (predictably) but troublesome wives as well. Full marks for a balanced perspective!
AM Motimele is a joint winner in the category of the short story anthology with LM Malebana, the latter for his collection Ga le Bapalelwe Lefase (Life on Earth Is Not a Playground). This book, like many other prize-winning works, deals with crime.
AM Motimele’s son’s novel Bana ba Mpa (Children from the Same Womb) shared first prize with Nakana Ya Mokhura Phethelele (Reed Flute) by HS Ramaila, which is about a bitter dispute between two brothers. Here, crime is also an issue.
The same goes for the Sepedi drama category, though LM Monooa’s Hlatlegelang (Raise the Alarm) is a bit different in that he spices distressing situations with light humour. SM Nkadimeng’s Morole o Mofsa (Today’s Youth) grapples with the lives of young people.
The burning issue of standards comes to the fore again in the Siswati (Swazi) category, where the judges awarded a prize only in the novel category. It was given to BA Motau for Emgwaco S’phambano (Crossroads).
The same goes for South Ndebele, which became a written language only recently. The only prize awarded was for drama, to A Jiyane for Isitha Sakho…! (Your Enemy…!).
Prize money of R4 000 was awarded to each winner, bringing the total for all the languages to an overall R108 000.
— Johnny Masilela is the author of Deliver Us From Evil: Scenes from a Rural Transvaal Upbringing (Kwela)
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