What does it mean to be a woman in contemporary South Africa?
My first thought is “endangered”. Violence against women in South Africa is an overwhelming reality for all of us, and almost eclipses the many opportunities we now have to express ourselves, take empowerment, and choose who and what we are going to be. There are so many possibilities for us that our grandmothers, and even our mothers, could never even reach for. To be living the impossible has to fill you with gratitude for the strides other women have made to get us here, along with the appreciation of the strides we still have to make to ensure that the women of the future are in an even better position.
Which book(s) by a South African woman writer made the single biggest contribution(s) to your literary work?
Dianne Case’s Love, David was an awakening for me at 11 years old. Before then everything we had read at school had been European or American and none of it had even featured black characters.
At home my parents always tried to bring us books by African writers, but for this book to be a setwork at school was a huge deal for me. It told me that our stories were important too, that the life of black children in the township were worth knowing about.
Even though my life was very different to that of David and his family in the book, I could recognise elements of the story, and related more to Love, David than anything else we read at school. It was also the only South African book we ever read as part of the English curriculum.
I aim for that level of recognition and relatability in my own work, and felt the same feeling of mattering when I wrote Love, Zola.
Margaret Atwood wrote: “A word after a word after a word is power.” How do you reclaim your power as a woman writer in South Africa?
Being heard is a privilege I don’t take for granted. Contributing to how we are seen by ourselves and others feels almost like a super-power. Winston Churchill said: “History is written by the victor.” As part of a growing generation of woman authors, our contribution to what will become history means we have definitely won.
