The South African literary scene appears to be rather limited. We have the likes of Wilbur Smith, John van de Ruit, Nelson Mandela, Alan Paton, and a whole cavalcade of nonfiction writers.
Such is the case with Bruce Witfield, Mandy Weiner, and Trevor Noah. All who have done excellent work in making sense to the world or revealing their own experiences, such as with Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime.
But there is one area I do believe we lack in comparison to historical fiction or nonfiction. And that is speculative fiction, genres like sci-fi, fantasy and horror.
There aren’t a lot of big-name novelists from South Africa who are genre fiction; the most popular, from what I have seen, is Lauren Beukes. You might know her as the author behind such novels as Moxyland and Zoo City. These are South African-centric, dealing with cyberpunk dystopias and urban fantasy, respectively.
The other one of major significance is Charlie Human, whose delightfully punkish attitude to Xhosa and Zulu myth has made him a good exporter of South Africa’s cultural diversity.
Then you go a bit further down the totem pole with stories like Mermaid Fillet by Mia Arderne and The Down Days by Ilze Hugo, and then you start getting more obscure.
I would also like to highlight Sentinel Creatives for doing good work with making solid horror with talent like Mitchell Lüthi of Pilgrim fame and Justin Fillmore of The Jethro Parables.
But they are comparatively small to the talent mentioned in the first paragraph. South Africa has a demand for local literature, but is still very focused on the real, against the fantastical.
I do believe that this is changing; the authors I mentioned are part of a small but growing movement of artists using the power of their imagination to create worlds impossible for us.
But once you remove those who are taking advantage of South Africa’s rich, multifaceted cultural traditions and histories, you will find that the number of these authors who are simply going to the European tradition is larger than those who are not.
And I think that this is something that aspiring authors should take advantage of (including yours truly).
Europe, America and Asia have a strong genre base for the fantastical inspired by history and tradition. Think about everything from Tolkien to Martin to Morrison, Miura and Milton. South Africa should take its place with its own brand of horror, fantasy and science fiction.
We should do this to enable us to explore parts that cannot be expressed through conventional historical drama, crime thrillers, or nonfiction. The power of the metaphor and the allegory cannot be understated in its ability to convey the writer’s ideas and feelings to the reader.
South Africa is in a unique position for the author to tap into the cultural influences that make up the rainbow nation.
The epic narratives that influence us, be it the Afrikaner or the Koi San myths of old, I think, should be used to enrich the domestic and international markets.
South Africa can and indeed should be used to inspire stories that express the cultural and historical identities outside of history itself.
We should strive to produce our own Martin, our own Issac Asimov. To step onto the stage of imagination and allow the world to see something outside the European, American, and Asian paradigm of genre fiction.
While I know that the current demand is primarily for non-genre fiction, demand changes, along with supply, and we are seeing it right now.
We just need to uplift and inspire our artists to reject absolute reality and use imagination to create whole new worlds, to convey more than what can be said with our own flesh and bones.
