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| Photo credit: Fungai Machirori |
Zukiswa Wanner is
a South African writer who was born in Zambia to a South African father and
Zimbabwean mother and now makes her home in Nairobi. Her novels include The
Madams, Men of the South, Behind Every Successful Man, and her most
recent, London Cape Town Joburg, which won the K Sello Duiker Prize.
She’s also written
two children’s books: Jama Loves Bananas and Refilwe.
She is active in numerous Pan-African writing initiatives including being on
the board of Writivism, a judge for the Etisalat Prize, and a judge for our
very own Bessie Head Short Story Prize for two years in a row.
She is one of
Africa39, a list of African writers under 40 years of age who the Hay Festival
organisers believe have talent and potential to define the trends of literature
from the continent. I was happy to have a chance to ask her a few questions
about her career and her activism on behalf of African literature.
Me: I read that you purposefully
choose the point of view of characters who are not like you. Can we write about
people who are not like us? When does it become cultural appropriation? Is
there anything like cultural appropriation for writers?
Zukiswa: Look at you
starting with the difficult questions. I
think there can be cultural appropriation if writers in particular and artists
in general fail to do due diligence and have enough research on their work of
art. My little thing is that I tend to seek, among my readers when the book is
still a first draft, at least three people who may have similarities or be
familiar with the background of my character so I get that little edge in where
authenticity is concerned. That said, it amuses me no end how social realism,
as a fiction genre, always requires one to be more realistic than creative
nonfiction.
Me: Are you the human
definition of the Pan Africanism? Is that important to you?
Zukiswa: I probably need
to stay in Brazil before I can be the human definition of a pan-African but
yes, as a social observer, it is pretty important to me. The downside is that
in some ways, I am always an outsider-looking in but it’s also very much the
upside because all these countries have been generous enough to allow me
certain intimacies with them that are not often given outsiders.
Me: You are active in writing
initiatives around the continent, why do you think such initiatives are so important?
Zukiswa: I recently did a
keynote at the Fourth Writivism Literary Festival and I explained why I feel
these initiatives are important. In short, I think given the space that we are
in as writers in Africa, our literary landscape has never been as fruitful as
it is now. For that reason, we need to ensure that those of us with voices let
others know about the exciting works that are coming from here. When other
writers win, all writers win and the continent wins. Because more readers means
more people who question. It is that simple to me.
Me: Do African writers have to
be published overseas to be considered a success?
Zukiswa: I think this has
been the case for a long time but this is changing. I know book clubs that I
introduced some books published on this continent to and they loved them so
much they now read African-published literature frequently.
Me: In a perfect world what would your writing career look like?
Zukiswa: I think it would
look mostly like it does now but with a monthly salary for my bills because
someone would have recognised that what I do is work. I know Lorenzo and
Catherine de Medeci, less as members of the Florentine ruling family and more
for being patrons of the arts... maybe this is something our African billionaires
and gazillionaires should think of (sends a message out to the universe that
Dangote, Motsepe and co read this). Their legacy would live forever. It saddens
me that Miles Morland is doing something that African philanthropists should be
doing with his grant. And that none of them have seen why it’s necessary that
they have something similar or better.
Me: What one
thing could our publishers on the continent do to make our lives as writers
living and writing here easier and more lucrative?
Zukiswa: There still needs
to be better work done by publishers on the African continent on editing (some
books have atrocious editing) and distribution. It breaks my heart that it is
still easier to get a book that is published in the United Kingdom when one stays
in Kenya than getting one published in Uganda or Tanzania which are
neighbouring countries. They need to do better on this because, no matter how
well-written the books are, so long as readers in different African countries
do not have access to them, African writers published on the continent may as
well not be writing.
Me: What are you working on at the moment?
A travel memoir
and a historical fiction novel.
(This first appeared in my column, It's All Write, in the 23 Sept. edition of Mmegi newspaper)
