On the one hand, a storied celebration to honour those who probe our psyche with the written word. On the other? A hip-hop meet-up where rhyme masters waxed lyrical about a seriously saucy stack.
Thursday evening on the social whirl, smack in the heart of the silly season, proved a fitting reminder that Joburg is an eclectic city, powered by its unusual contrasts.
Let’s open this chapter a little more elegantly. The Sunday Times Literary Awards, in partnership with Exclusive Books, are the granddaddy of the local written word — a hallowed acknowledgement to writers that their solitary toil was worth the angst.
As the sun set on an unusually brisk afternoon, the literary cognoscenti gathered on the rooftop of Parktown’s Hill on Empire. They included:
- writers such as Joanne Joseph (a fiction finalist in 2022 for Children of the Sugarcane) and Sven Axelrad (fiction finalist last year for Buried Treasure and this year for God’s Pocket);
- publishers, including Pan Macmillan’s denim-jacket and long hipster-skirt loving Terry Morris; and
- booksellers such as Grattan Kirk, CEO of the mighty Exclusive Books, and Kate Rogan (of Love Books).
At the cocktail mixer ahead of the main proceedings, I greet veteran broadcaster, serial author and book lover Jenny Crwys-Williams who, I would wager, has attended more of these events than anyone else present (perhaps Michelle Magwood — many times a judge, including this year — will be able to confirm it).
Hello also to another familiar face, Michelle Constant, who shares that she has hung up her SAFM mic after 30 years.
“How do you find another hobby when your work was your hobby?” mused the blond dynamo, to which talent agent and actor Kevin Narain, standing nearby, listed a few options.
Jennifer Platt, our books editor, introduces me to two writers who are both historians by day — Hlonipha Mokoena, an associate professor at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, and Khumisho Moguerane, who is at the university’s Southern Centre of Inequality Studies.
I later learn that Khumisho — wearing a colourful patterned dress reminiscent of what guests wore when this was a more sparkly sit-down dinner affair — was one of the night’s finalists in the nonfiction category for her book, Morafe: Person, Family and Nation in Colonial Bechuanaland 1880s–1950s (Jacana Media). Other titles in the category were:
- memoirs by Jonathan Jansen and Margie Orford;
- Hunting the Seven: How The Gugulethu Seven Assassins Were Exposed by Beverly Roos-Muller; and
- One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My Family’s Quest to Reclaim Our Land by Lebogang Seale.
Meanwhile, we can thank Hlonipha for the night’s keynote address, in which the acclaimed writer urged us not to ignore the female writer’s gaze. One line from her speech that will stay rent-free in my mind for a long time is: “Women have to continue writing not just because we are feminists but because we are interesting and interested, not just in other women but … in telling stories, retelling old stories, rewriting the world and inserting the many contorted souls who were never given a hearing before.”
The proceedings were again helmed by Simmi Areff, while we were welcomed by Sunday Times deputy editor Mike Siluma, who reminded us that the night was “about honouring the craft of writing and the profound impact that it has on our lives and society”.
Grattan painted a picture of the state of the printed word across the country (sales in rand up, but volumes down compared to 2021), with the Irishman encouraging the publishers and writers present to think more about talking to a younger audience. And one whose first language is not English.
Shubnum Khan is awarded the fiction prize for The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil (Pan Macmillan). Hers is a sweet and teary speech, thanking her seven aunts, one of whom is still alive.
“I think if they were here today they would be so proud, I mean, yes, they would want me to be married more than anything, but I think this would be second best for them,” she says, to laughter from the audience.
Meanwhile, Khumisho’s work is announced as the winner of the nonfiction prize.
“What made it possible for me to be standing here this evening — and what makes it possible for my book to be written in the first place — was the amazing archive of the Molema family,” she says of the work, which is centred around two male patriarchs, Silas Molema and Solomon Plaatje, and which explores themes of the value of human connectedness and the concept of botho (personhood).
No time to congratulate the winners, though, because I had to slip out and head down the road to Braamfontein, to a club called Drama, where words were delivered not on the page but in a rhythmic flow to an often grinding beat.
The words “pass the aux” might have been what you said to someone if you wanted to connect to their sound system — but among today’s young ’uns, it’s come to mean giving new talent the mic to allow them to be heard. It is also the title of a regular get-together by Nasty C, a hip-hop prodigy who has worked with an impressive roster of global superstars — and who is now giving the opportunity for others to shine. The night promised the taste of new music but I was more interested in the artist’s collaboration with KFC. This was revealed as waiters entered the club with sparklers and no bottles of champagne, but trays of the Nasty C KFC burger.
There’s been much hype about how the artist with the 2015 break-through hit Juice Back has gone big on sauce to make sure this chicken fillet in a bun drips — but my favourite bit was the surprising inclusion of a hash brown. For someone usually served arancini balls week in and week out, it was a welcome change.
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