Author not afraid to tackle controversy

Published Nov 26, 2014

Share

Kagiso Lesego Molope is a South African author living in Canada, who has written three novels: Dancing in the Dust, The Mending Season and This Book Betrays My Brother. The latter recently won the 2014 Percy Fitzpatrick Prize for Youth Literature. She spoke about winning prizes, the difficulty in making the characters in her novels more nuanced and what to expect in her first adult novel.

...

Tell me a bit about yourself and your background, where you come from, what you do and how you ended up as an author.

I’m Motswana from Mabopane. I went to school in Pretoria and then to UCT. I think I was in English class one day when my teacher pointed out that I had some skills worth looking into. As soon as she said it, it made sense. I’m a storyteller at heart and it was just a matter of working out which medium I’d use.

For years, I thought it was film-making but even when I studied film it was always writing that I was drawn to the most.

It was easy falling into it, I write to get through the day. Any writer will tell you they go mad when they can’t or don’t write, and once you realise you’re nothing without writing then you just keep going. So I guess I became an author because I had no choice.

I discovered your work only through your third book, This Book Betrays My Brother. Can you talk a bit more about your other two books and the reaction to them?

Dancing in the Dust was my first novel. I fell in love with Tihelo probably when I was about 16 and I think she just stayed with me and wouldn’t let me rest until I wrote her story.

The book has had a great reception, being the first by an author of African descent to represent South Africa on the IBBY list.

The Mending Season was my second one and that was made a setwork for schools. Both books are read throughout southern Africa in schools and at varsity. The Mending Season’s also been translated into German and has been read in schools in Germany and Switzerland.

This Book Betrays My Brother is so nuanced. It quietly deals with issues facing young people in South Africa without being too preachy. So we have the gay friend, the brother who commits sexual assault, the sister who knows, family pressures to conform, social mobility in the townships, feminism, etc. Was this intentional?

It was such a big challenge – probably my biggest so far – making it nuanced. It took me years to get it right, to layer it. Probably my biggest challenge was getting the reader to love Basi (the male character who commits sexual assault) as much as Naledi (Basi’s little sister) does, as much as I do. We’ve simplified crime in South Africa. We’ve created floating criminals.

By “floating” I mean that we don’t attach them to anything – not history, not family, nothing. So, it becomes easy to dismiss them. But crimes are committed by people. Basi had to be human, you had to see a person with different layers. At the same time I couldn’t defend him. So it required bringing all the things you mention into play: family expectations, sexuality, feminism, sibling bonds, etc. The biggest compliment was hearing that some readers empathised with Nedi, that they also wrestled with the decision to tell.

What has been the most surprising response to the book so far?

The way people keep telling me about their own experience with abuse. I didn’t think, as an author, that people would think a book gave them room or permission to speak about their own sexual assault. That’s been surprising.

Regarding your 2014 Percy Fitzpatrick Prize for Youth Literature, how did it feel to win that? Are prizes important to you as an author?

Yes, prizes are important, I won’t lie. You’re plugging away in a room alone for years producing work after work and no one pays you much for it, so it’s nice to be acknowledged in that way. Particularly, as an African woman.

Our work doesn’t get as much recognition as it should. Not even close. People are their stories. If you don’t tell your stories, your history is erased. So yes, I welcome and hope for prizes. They’re one more way of putting our work on the map.

Is there any South African black female author whose work you rate highly? And why?

Miriam Tlali. Zukiswa Wanner is hilarious while demanding the reader’s integrity. I like a writer who demands integrity from everyone. She doesn’t let you get away with overlooking injustices both in the world outside and in your own home.

What are you working on next?

It’s my first love story. I’ve really been wanting to do one for years, so this is exciting. If published soon it would be the first full-length novel with a love story between two African men. I mean, that’s as far as I can tell. I haven’t been able to find any other one.

Related Topics: