BOOK SA – News

Alert! Last Saturday, author and activist Fatima Meer, who had died the day before, was formally remembered at two ceremonies in her hometown of Durban. The second, which I attended, was the relatively low-key mosque funeral and burial in the city centre; the first was a rather more elevated affair, a memorial service cum state funeral at the Durban ICC.

At the time, I was writing a piece on the SA Lit and publishing scene; here are a few notes related to the ICC event from the cutting room floor:

South Africans have just marked twenty years since Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, and the recombinant strands of history, literature and politics spun out of that moment produced a bizarre episode for the annals of each. It centred on Nelson Mandela’s former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who, earlier in the month, bore the brunt of an unlikely attack from the wife of Nobel laureate VS Naipaul. Lady Naipaul published the contents of a conversation she and VS supposedly had with Madikizela-Mandela, during a visit to South Africa in mid-2009, which made the latter out as viciously disparaging of her former husband. The scandal raged in the South African media, forcing a statement from Madikizela-Mandela, who denied ever having granted Naipaul an interview.

Then, on Friday, a source of redemption presented itself in the form of a loss to the fraternities of South African writers and political activists alike. Fatima Meer, Nelson Mandela’s first official biographer, passed away in Durban. Meer’s Higher than Hope – published in 1988, when Mandela was still in prison – preceeded the monumental Long Walk to Freedom by some six years, and was based on material famously smuggled out of Robben Island. Muslim rites dictated that her body be laid to rest on Saturday – and Madikizela-Mandela was in Durban in a flash for the state funeral. Her tearful keynote, one could not help but speculate, was meant as much to restore her place in the narrative of Nelson Mandela’s life, cancelling out the Naipaul disruption, as it was to commemmorate Meer’s.

In retrospect, it sounds horribly cynical – but I was glad to learn, via an unprompted email from a friend, that I was not the only one under the impression that Madikizela-Mandela’s move – and by extension the ANC’s – smacked of rank opportunism. The Nation’s Dave Zirin, who attended the ICC event with author Ashwin Desai (The Race to Transform: Sport in post-apartheid South Africa), relayed some interesting comments on his blog:

Given her stature, it’s not surprising that the African National Congress rushed to claim her legacy, giving Fatima Meer a public, state funeral, which I attended. Winnie Mandela herself was present and spoke about their decades of friendship. (Dennis Brutus, suffice it to say, did not receive a state funeral. As his friend Patrick Bond said to me, “If Dennis had a state funeral he would have gotten up and left.”) The ANC’s embrace of Fatima in death raised more than a few eyebrows at the service. Many remarked how bizarre it was seeing the very politicians she lambasted, singing her praises and the very police she confronted, carrying her casket. Fatima’s ally, Ashwin Desai, said archly, “I love Monty Python movies and therefore I had no problem with the service. Because that’s what it was: Monty Python.” Another friend whispered to me, “The last time Fatima was near so many police, there was tear gas.”

• Complete article: The Notion @ The Nation

Zirin’s complete post is certainly worth the click-through, as it doubles as an obituary for both Meer and her activist colleague Dennis Brutus (RIP 2009).

Very nice to know that one is not alone in one’s political blasphemy!

Photos of Meer courtesy Victor Dlamini

Taking her inspiration from Tom Chatfield’s Fun Inc. and a 10-hour experience with Myst 15 years ago, Ann Donald strays slightly from the world of books to the world of games in this week’s column.

About 15 years ago I bought my first Apple Mac, which came with the computer game Myst installed on the hard drive
 
In what turned out to be my first and only experience of computer games so far, I sat rapt for 10 hours straight, lost in the alternative game-world. When finally I looked up blinking, I realised I had completely ignored my family for an entire day. I was shocked at myself, and swore I’d never play the game again. Somehow, it never occurred to me that losing myself in a computer game for hours on end was not much different from doing so in a book. But then I am of the generation that understands computer games are Bad and books are Good.

• Complete article in the Sunday Times

Book details

• Fun Inc.: Why Games are the 21st Century’s Most Serious Business by Tom Chatfield
  EAN: 9780753519851
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Alert! Cameroonian novelist Léonora Miano – lately in South Africa at the Time of the Writer – is not happy with her US publishers, Bison Books, aka The University of Nebraska Press. Seems the press has tacked a foreword on to its translation of Miano’s L’Interieur de la nuit (Dark Heart of the Night) without first consulting the author. The Guardian’s Richard Lea picks up the story:

I’ve heard of novelists disagreeing with their reviewers, but this is something else entirely. “Cameroon does not have the worse human rights record in Africa … Cameroon is not the setting of the novel … I did not leave Cameroon to France to flee from a violent place … My novel is not a criticism of Negritude or Panafricanism … I’ve not just written another novel. Three more have actually been published …” It beggars belief that Miano didn’t get a look at this before it was stuck on the front of her book – now she’s asking for the foreword to be withdrawn.

• Complete article at Guardian Blogs

Here’s Miano’s letter to the Complete Review on the offending foreword, which first drew Lea’s attention:

But now, UN Press also felt entitled to add a foreword. Why not, if the aim was to help the readers know the writer and understand the novel? The problem is that the foreword is full of misleading information. Let’s say it frankly, it’s full of lies:

[...]

Cameroon is not the setting of the novel which was, as I’ve said it many times, inspired by a documentary that I saw on children at war. We don’t have those in Cameroon nowadays, and if we ever had, I never heard about it.

• Read the complete letter

Book details

• Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano
  EAN: 9780803228238
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Photo courtesy the Centre for Creative Arts

Alert! Continuing with its mission to boost Kenya Lit, the Kwani? collective will launch four new titles in Nairobi on 24 March:

• To be a Man – A Kwani? Poetry Competition Anthology
• Tales of Kasaya: Let us now praise a famous woman By Eva Kasaya with Jackie Lebo
• Cock Thief By Parselelo Kantai
• Stone Hills of Maragoli By Stanley Gazemba

From Kwani:

A launch of these titles will be held at The Kenya National Museum on Wednesday 24th March 2010 at 7pm. The launch is part of a double header event between Kwani Trust and the Caine Prize For African Writing Workshop 2010. The evening will also include readings by Kenyan and African writers from the Caine Prize workshop.

Here are the blurbs for the books:

‘Tale of Kasaya’ by Eva Kasaya with Jackie Lebo.

In 1991 a girl of 13 years by the name of Eva Kasaya dropped out of school in rural Western Kenya and came to Nairobi to work as a domestic servant. For several years she was consistently harassed by subsequent employers. When she turned 19 she managed to go back to school and thereafter train as a dressmaker. She also started writing about her life during this period, having never given up on becoming a published writer. Tale Of Kasay” Let Us Now Praise A Famous Woman traces Eva’s journey from girlhood to the present, her memoirs reflecting the plight of hundreds of domestic servants across Kenya.
“Once I told her my child story she was really inspired to that extend and asked if I could write it down for her. So one night after I did my dishes for the evening, I took out a small book I had taken from the child in the house, and I started writing. And I wrote for 3 days, it had some very strong meaning for me. I did in a small notebook; to my amazement she told me it could be a big book if I got it published.”

• Click here to read all the blurbs

Congrats to Kwani? and the authors; BOOK SA will keep an eye out for pics of the event!

Alert! KwaZulu Natal’s Witness newspaper appears to be the first of SA’s free-to-web media outlets to scurry behind a pay wall. Literary punters visiting the Witness books section and clicking an article – say, an interview with Thando Mgqolozana – are, as of today, if they’re not subscribers to the newspaper, confronted with this:

(Either that, or they’re confronted with an ad for the Witness Maritzburg Matchmaker, which, for those of a certain bent, could provide hour upon hour of literary pleasure.)

Previously, nearly all content on the Witness was free-to-read online. BOOK SA couldn’t find a notice warning subscribers of any imminent change, but perhaps the newspaper has been secretly sold to Rupert Murdoch, and is being used as a test case for the “gain market share as you retreat into a provincial enclave” strategy.

It would appear, then, to be goodbye, but hopefully not adieu – given the nature of the web, which is a helluva shapeshifter – to our reviewing and profiling friends Margaret von Klemperer, Anthony Stidolph, Carol Brammage, Moira Lovell, Nalini Naidoo, Christopher Merrett, Stephen Coan, Sharon Dell, Hazel Barnes, Janet van Eeden and the other members of the Witness‘ lit team. We’ll miss ya!

• More media watch

Alert! The winners of the 2009 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature – given biennially – were announced last night in Cape Town. Two gold and three silver prizes were dished out – and BOOK SA member Alex Smith was amongst the gong-ees, winning a silver award in the English category. Congratulations to her!

The other winners were Dumisani Sibiya (Zulu – gold), Adeline Radloff (English – gold), Derick van der Walt (Afrikaans – silver) – all pictured above – and Mabonchi Motimele Goodwill (Sotho – silver). All the medalists will have their works published by Tafelberg Publishers, an imprint of the NB group, in October 2010. It’s not certain whether there are other prizes involved (i.e., cold hard cash).

One note of interest is that it’s Sibiya’s third Sanlam win, and van der Walt’s second.

Here’s the release from NB:

Press release

A unique relationship between Sanlam and Tafelberg Publishers has over the years fostered the publication of new titles in youth literature: the biennial Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature. The names of the 2009 winners were announced at a gala evening held at the Officers Club in Century City on Wednesday, 17 March 2010.

The theme of the winning stories, and the evening as a whole, was humour, and there was no shortage of laughs and smiles as the audience was regaled on a choice selection of contrasting tales by master of ceremonies Marc Lottering. The event marked the announcement of the thirteenth Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature after its inception in 1980, when it was initially awarded only every three years, later transforming to a biennial event.

This year, two gold and three silver prizes were awarded. The judges in the English- and Nguni-language categories were especially impressed with the quality of entries they received.

The gold medal winner for 2009 in the Nguni languages category is the Johannesburg author and publisher Dumisani Sibiya, for his story Ngiyolibala Ngife (IsiZulu). The moderator, Professor Bheki Ntuli, recommended that this story be awarded the highest honour. It is the third time that Dumisani Sibiya has received a Sanlam Prize.

In the English-language category debutante Adeline Radloff was named as the winner of a gold prize for her story Sidekick, which the judges described as “a well-plotted adventure story written with a sure hand, a very competent grasp of dialogue, and a fine-tuned sense of irony, which gives the story its rather dark humour”.

The silver award in the English category went to Alex Smith for her story Agency Blue, described as follows by the judges: “Whacky and sophisticated with an accomplished sense of magic realism…sassy and highly original.”

Adeline Radloff and Alex Smith both live in Cape Town.

In the Afrikaans category only one prize was awarded. Derick van der Walt from Pretoria won again, after debuting in 2007 with Lien se lankstaanskoene. This time he received a silver prize for Willem Poprok. The judges were impressed by the flowing story development, fine characterisation and surprising twists that readers will find consistently captivating. They added that “it is an exciting and strong attribute of this story that it also has an underlying theme (that does not impose itself) of diversity between the genders, races and generations”.

In the category for Sotho languages, debutante Mabonchi Motimele Goodwill from Limpopo received a silver prize for his story Ke a hwa, ke a ikepela, written in Sepedi. It is the first time a Sanlam Prize has been awarded to a Sepedi work.

All the winning titles will be available in bookstores from October 2010.

Sanlam and Tafelberg are extremely proud of the positive reaction that the Sanlam Prize elicits. Over the past 13 years many of the winning works have been awarded other prizes, among them the MER Prize for Youth Literature, the Scheepers Prize, ATKV prizes (awarded by young readers), the CP Hoogenhout Award, and M-Net prizes. Some of the works have also been published internationally. Through this competition Sanlam helps develop both readers and authors, providing a much richer literary landscape for young readers.

In her speech, Eloise Wessels, chief executive officer of NB Publishers (of which Tafelberg is an imprint), announced the theme for the next Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature, to be held in 2011. This time round the organisers will be looking for stories in which hope plays a role. The closing date for entries for the next competition is 30 June 2011.

Ends

The jury is out on the intentions of the mysterious “Free the Web” Campaign that has nuzzled its way onto networking sites and advertising spaces across the net – including taking up prime Google ad space on BOOK SA (see images above).

What exactly does it mean to “Free the Web”? One ADSL discussionista has proposed that this could simply be another promise of cheap uncapped internet. But, with 12,568 fans to their Facebook group, we think there’s more to it than that. This could be good – if Free the Web were getting Telkom to slash its 4mb line rates, for instance. Or it could be cynical and awful – if it amounted to just another guerilla marketing campaign along the lines of the National Skirt Extension Project or the CanYouTwist promotion.

Do fans of Free the Web really know what they are backing or are they simply clicking and following blindly? There are zero – zero – organisational details available online, just a lot of happy-clappy Orwellifying like this:

The purpose of this page is to highlight the effect of high bandwidth costs on ordinary South African small and medium business owners as well as the man on the street.

Something big is on the horizon… the time for change has come.

It’s time to Free the Web! Be part of this movement for change!

But the fog of Free the Web’s surreptitiousness is slowly lifting: a “whois” search on thewrightidea.co.za, which redirects to the Free the Web Facebook page, reveals its registrant to be Grant Wright of Quirk e-Marketing. Finally, some real finger-pointing can commence! Grant, alternatively Quirk, what the hell is going on here?

Grant’s answer would likely be: “Wait till tomorrow” – that’s Thursday, 18 March, when more on the campaign is set to be “revealed”. BOOK SA’s money is on: Free the Web is either driven by iBurst (in which case: fail) or an iBurst-like service that’s slightly cheaper than iBurst (in which case: fail again, unless the speed is 4mb and the bandwidth is essentially uncapped). BOOK SA’s hopes are pinned on: Free the Web will blow us out of the water with a truly innovative offering that will actually bring about the unshackling of web users in SA. Ooh, can’t wait. Now, about Telkom’s line rates…

Source links

• Seabrook007 @BOOKSA
• MyBroadband.co.za Forum
• FreeTheWebSA on Twitter
• Free The Web South Africa on Facebook

• More Media watch

Exclusive Books invites you to the launch of Hello South Africa, TONIGHT Wednesday, 17 March 2010, at the Nelson Mandela Square store. The book, like the recently link-loved The Real Soccer Fields of Africa, appears to be positioned to take advantage of the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

Here’s more:

Johann Gautschi, assisted by his wife, Jenny, commissioned their daughter, Michelle – a Voice and English Pronunciation Coach – together with her husband, Mark MacDonald – a Graphic Designer – to create this uniquely South African product.

It is an essential communication tool and a visually exciting celebration of South Africa’s languages and cultures, created with passion! The product enables its readers to communicate, on a basic level, in all of our official languages. It also serves as a souvenir of South Africa’s rich diversity of languages, cultures and magnificent natural beauty.

The translations, pronunciation guides and pseudo-phonetics have been done by top academics in the African Languages Departments of distinguished South African Universities. The introductions on the history of language in South Africa and its diverse cultures have been written by leaders in the fields of Linguistics and Social Anthropology.

Speaking to someone in his / her mother tongue fosters a mutual respect and lays the foundation for a welcome reception, which makes the experience of being South African or of visiting our beautiful country all the more pleasurable.

Event Details

• Date: Wednesday, 17 March 2010
• Time: 6:00 PM for 6:30 PM
• Venue: Ecxlusive Books Nelson Mandela Square, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton | Map
• RSVP: Exclusive Books Nelson Mandela Square, thesquare@exclusivebooks.co.za, 011 784 5416

Book Details

• Hello South Africa: Phrasebook 11 Official Languages by Michell MacDonald, Mark MacDonald
  EAN: 9781934293065
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

The blurb, notes and links related to a new book published for the upcoming FIFA World Cup:

If we can learn anything from our unique, energetic Mzansi style, which was created in such unsuitable surroundings of the township streets, then we should have hope.
– Jennifer Malec, Kick-Off Magazine

Soccer is more than a game for entertainment or a sport for prestige in South Africa. And there is more to a soccer field than a flat, open area with neatly trimmed grass.

In South Africa, a soccer field is a place of camaraderie and fun, a community hub, an alternative to crime, a sporting battlefield. It may be a road, a parking lot, a beach or purposely built pitch. And it might be used by children, club teams, carefree strangers passing by, or cattle.

The Real Soccer Fields of South Africa explores all of these fields through a collection of photographs by Christiaan Vorster, young South African photographers, the DreamFields Project and Kick-Off Magazine, as well as a few international photographers.

Beyond the fields themselves, specially written articles and features focus on the meaning of these spaces, highlighting the obstacles South African soccer players face, and celebrating their passion and determination.

10% of net sales will be donated to the DreamFields Project.

Contributors:

Christiaan Vorster, The DreamFields Project, Kick-Off Magazine, The Extra-Mural Education Project, Grant Veitch, The Richard Allen Foundation, The Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography, St Andrew’s School for Girls, Michaelhouse, Westville Boys’ High School

• ReadHill Publishing Home

• More link love

Book details

• The Real Soccer Fields of South Africa by Christiaan Vorster and others
  Publisher homepage
  EAN: 9780986975400
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Alert! The longlist for the £30 000-plus-a-statue-named-Bessie Orange Prize for fiction, the UK’s (world’s?) premiere women-writers-only literary award, has been announced.

When I first saw it, my bleary eyes deceived me into thinking that there were no African longlistees. Two rapid-fire tweets from @BOOKSA friend @urbanrenewal quickly put me to rights, however (click here and here). There are in fact at least two writers of African provenance on the list: Nadifa Mohamed, who was born in Somalia and Laila Lalami (@lailalalami), who was born in Morocco. Lalami is currently listed as living in Los Angeles; while Mohamed apparently lives in the UK.

Here are the blurbs for their longlisted books:

Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed

A stunning novel set in 1930s Somalia spanning a decade of war and upheaval, all seen through the eyes of a small boy alone in the world. Aden,1935; a city vibrant, alive, and full of hidden dangers. And home to Jama, a ten year-old boy. But then his mother dies unexpectedly and he finds himself alone in the world. Jama is forced home to his native Somalia, the land of his nomadic ancestors. War is on the horizon and the fascist Italian forces who control parts of east Africa are preparing for battle. Yet Jama cannot rest until he discovers whether his father, who has been absent from his life since he was a baby, is alive somewhere. And so begins an epic journey which will take Jama north through Djibouti, war-torn Eritrea and Sudan, to Egypt. And from there, aboard a ship transporting Jewish refugees just released from German concentration camp, across the seas to Britain and freedom. This story of one boy’s long walk to freedom is also the story of how the Second World War affected Africa and its people. A story of displacement and family.

Secret Son by Laila Lalami

When a young man is given the chance to rewrite his future, he doesn’t realize the price he will pay for giving up his past…Casablanca’s stinking alleys are the only home that nineteen-year-old Youssef El-Mekki has ever known. Raised by his mother in a one-room home, the film stars flickering on the local cinema’s screen offer the only glimmer of hope to his frustrated dreams of escape. Until, that is, the father he thought dead turns out to be very much alive. A high profile businessman with wealth to burn, Nabil is disenchanted with his daughter and eager to take in the boy he never knew. Soon Youssef is installed in his penthouse and sampling the gold-plated luxuries enjoyed by Casablanca’s elite. But as he leaves the slums of his childhood behind him, he comes up against a starkly un-glittering reality…

Click here for the Orange Prize longlist in full (it includes the likes of Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel). The Guardian has a nice slideshow of the 2010 longlisted covers, meanwhile; and probably also has the best overall Orange Prize feature page.

The 2010 Orange Prize shortlist will be announced on 20 April, and the winner on 9 June. Good luck to Mohamed and Lalami!

Book details

• Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed
  EAN: 9780007315741
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Secret Son by Laila Lalami
  EAN: 9780670918294
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!