It was when the Jacob Zuma rape case was playing itself out that author Kagiso Lesego Molope decided to find a way to write about rape.
“I was struck that feminists were standing up for Zuma,” she said, which she found a slippery road to try to travel. Where does your loyalty lie? Are you going to go against your belief system in the case of certain people? All these were questions she wanted to explore in a book aimed at young adults.
Molope, who lives with her partner and two children in Canada but visits regularly, has her books prescribed in schools and has the sharpest mind when tackling issues.
Titled This Book Betrays My Brother, it’s a title that stops you in your tracks. Knowing what she is writing about gives you some idea of where she is going, but that would be a simplistic view.
Naledi is the sister (and narrator) who is in awe of her brother, Basi. He is the one who seemingly achieves things easily, a township hero, and the envy of many because their family has moved to a more elite section (up the hill) of their township. Both children go to a private school in the suburbs and their mother especially wants her children to find new friends not from the township.
But these friendships have been long forged and Basi especially has a friend in the neighbourhood who is like blood family.
Her books deal with topics that are relevant, but often contentious.
Here, when discussing her narrator’s brother, she says: “Some people live charmed lives. They can’t do anything wrong. They’re often spoilt by the people around them who allow them to get away with things they should take responsibility for.”
What happens so often in these circumstances is that individuals start to feel that they’re above the law and act in that way. There are no curbs on their behaviour and they develop a sense of entitlement that can become dangerous.
These “adored” children are “reprimanded” with remarks like “boys will be boys”, excusing behaviour that shouldn’t be tolerated and things can go awry.
Sticking to stories about her homeland, Molope is aware that, especially with young adults, their reality isn’t often reflected in the real world. She’s thinking specifically about township teens and believes that to read about your reality in a book is a validation, a mirror.
This book, different to her previous ones, has not been assimilated into the school system and she believes it is about the ending. But she wanted to deal with real issues; that’s why she writes these stories.
“I write and deal with reality,” she says.
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Review: This Book Betrays my Brother
It is perhaps difficult to understand how many children living in this country never witness their stories being told.
That’s something this author understands all too well.
In a country where rape has become a pandemic, she knows much confusion will be part of the experience, whichever vantage point you come from.
The author is as shocked as many in the country when women attack the victim, rather than protect them, especially when the facts aren’t known and the rapist is all-powerful.
That’s the story she tells.
Her writing is illuminating and written in a voice that’s close to our soil.
* This Book Betrays my Brother is published by Oxford University Press