It didn’t seem too difficult a thing to do. I invited three friends — Colleen Moroukian, Anne Schlebusch and Russell Kaschula — to join me in trying to put together such a venture.
We decided what was needed was a series of short, easy-to-read novels, mainly intended for young people with English as a second or third language, in which South African young people would be able to recognise themselves and their lives. There shouldn’t be too many words on a page, and there should be plenty of white space; dense text looks very forbidding. The books would have to have really cool covers.
We decided to set the series in a dance studio, as dancesport is hugely popular with young people at the moment. This would allow us to bring together a diverse set of characters; and dance exhibitions and competitions would allow us to “travel” the series to other parts of Southern Africa and even abroad. Russell coined the word siyagruva (we are grooving). And so The Siyagruva Scene dance studio came into being.
We decided on a cast of eight characters, who would feature in each story, sometimes taking a lead role, and sometimes a supporting role. The books would be non-sequential; readers could read them in any order.
At that point we each went off to write a story featuring two of the characters. (One of us forgot that, and wrote about only one character, but it was such a good story we left it as written and so the eighth character made her first appearance on the cover of the fifth book!)
The first four books were Breaking Out (Moroukian), Divine Dump Dancer (Kaschula), High Heels and Hijack (me going as Nibor Nalam), and Troubles, Taxis and Toilets (Schlebusch).
We did some trialling of the four books: they were read by about 200 students from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Soweto. We were especially pleased that students felt that the books were authentic, and that the issues dealt with were real.
A 14-year-old reviewer, Mooniq Shaikjee, said of the series: “It deals with matters that are present in an adolescent’s life, such as racial and religious discrimination, people with disabilities, living with HIV/Aids, teenage pregnancy, drugs, issues about sexual orientation and over-protective parents. Despite tackling weighty issues, the books are not grave and humourless. They’re exciting and funny, with unexpected things happening all the time.”
There is some cross-cultural lan- guage-switching and code-switching in the texts, which helps to make them accessible to new or reluctant readers of English.
We were lucky enough to be able to choose our publisher — we made a good choice in New Africa Books, who committed themselves to publishing 12 books in 2002/03, with four a year after that. We talent-scouted eight models for the vibey covers. The books went into production.
I have been keen to involve new writers. Love, Chocolates and Shopping is written by a young Swazi scriptwriter Gcinaphi Dlamini; In the Fast Lane by Johannesburg’s Nokuthula Mazibuko [see story alongside], winner of the Bessie Head Fellowship for 2003. Mom’s Taxi is written by Mteto Mzongwana and Onele Mfeketo (a university student, whose work was first published in English Alive), and Girl Goes Missing by Clive E Smith (who manages a fast-food outlet in Cape Town).
A Sunday Times writing competition triggered by the characters in the series was won last year by an Afrikaans-speaking matric student. I thought his response to the characters so interesting that I asked him to try a full Siyagruva novel, and so in 2004 Ian Fritz’s first novel, Taking the Rap, will be published.
The Siyagruva series is being read now by young South Africans (both second- and third-language English speakers and reluctant readers), by immigrant students from the rest of Africa, from Taiwan and from Korea, and increasingly by newly literate adult readers.
So, kô ons waai, ek sê! Siyavaya! We’re really grooving.
Siya-gruuuuuva!
Shedding light
Author’s notes
Nokuthula Mazibuko (below), author of In the Fast Lane, has written for television, and has been awarded the Bessie Head Fellowship. In the Fast Lane is about living with HIV. She is featured at the Centre for the Book’s Turning the Page event.
Describe yourself in a sentence.
Creative.
Describe your book in a sentence.
A journey through teenage sexuality.
Describe your ideal reader.
Enchanted with words.
What was the originating idea for the book?
Growing up in Soweto, deciding who to love and how to live.
Describe the process of writing the book.
Robin Malan, the editor, asked me to contribute a novella. I spent three days writing literally day and night. (I had already done the research because I knew the context and characters well, and through writing for Soul City and covering youth sexuality in current affairs programming.) Robin came back with notes for a second draft, and a third … He edited it, and a few months later I got my copies in the post!
Name some writers who have inspired you, and tell us why.
Bessie Head for her simple, beautiful, courageous prose. Zakes Mda for his mad sense of humour. Clarence Hamilton for teaching me to write for TV.
What is the purpose of fiction?
To keep us company, trouble our souls and shed light.
Is there anything you wish to add?
Please can the taxes on books be lowered?