This Writing Life

I have been reprimanded for being such a slack blogger.  Now that I have survived the first semester of self-imposed immersion, I have a little more time, although I should be thinking about a thesis for next year, and probably starting on it! The real treasure of this course is the exposure to so many different talents and opinions. One good outcome of doing the MA is that I now have a license to write. So spending all morning at my desk and doing what I love, is now legal.

During the course of this semester we will be having weekly workshops, each with a different author, introducing us to various genres, as well as talks about publishing, branding and agenting. So it’s starting to feel a lot more like the real thing. Over the last two weeks I have been depressed by the prospects for publishing (1% of manuscripts actually get published, only 1 million people buy books in SA) and I am worried about whether it is possible to produce a book by this time next year.

This week we had South Africa’s latest shining star, Lauren Beukes come and talk to us. Leonardo di Caprio has bought the movie rights to her book…enough said. I can barely watch CSI if I am alone in the house and the very idea of Dexter or Hannibal is guaranteed to give me sleepless nights. So The Shining Girls is not at all the kind of book which would appeal to me – time travelling serial killers!? I think not. However, I was impressed with her focus and commitment to her writing.  We all know writers who are better than we are, she said, but they gave up.

I also admire her ability to market herself. She showed us a book trailer for The Shining Girls (yes, a video clip to advertise the book). I immediately recognized it as something which would interest my daughter. I showed her the trailer when I got home and by the following evening she had not only gone out and bought the book but was a good bit of the way into it.  It has been a while since I have seen her reading for pleasure… actually, not since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I have been having doubts about writing non-fiction, about what right I have to appropriate other people’s stories, about how accurate my memories are, and other angst-ridden questions. Lauren also had the following advice, which has set me free, in a way. Write what challenges and interests you. Let the book rest and get as much feedback as you can from different people. Don’t think about publishing for at least three months after the thesis is completed.

I realize that I should simply go ahead and write the story I want to write, as best I can, uninhibited by the idea of publishing.  Right now it is my story. I’ll worry about sending it out to the world at a later stage.  

Solutions Journalism

Imagine that every day someone sat you down and told you everything that you had done wrong the day before. Every day you would receive a report on your sensational failures and mistakes; no solutions or insights would be offered and any successes or attempts at good deeds would be ignored. Pretty soon, after a few days, a week or perhaps a month, if you are more resilient, you would start to feel despondent, disillusioned and possibly depressed.

Now consider what it would be like if someone else came along and while acknowledging your mistakes, also reports on what you did right and perhaps suggests ways that you could improve. Or maybe you heard about another person’s report which was more positive and it inspired you to try what he/she was doing.

I get pretty depressed reading the news. It seems as if our country, our continent and our world is one disaster after another – that seems to be the main thrust of the media. I know sensationalism sells but is the role of the media not also to educate and to inspire, to inform and to offer solutions? This topic came up while I was in Sweden and I was excited to be told about Solutions Journalism…

Solutions journalism is critical and clear-eyed reporting that investigates and explains credible responses to social problems. - See more at: http://solutionsjournalism.org/about/solutions-journalism-what-it-is-and-what-it-is-not/#sthash.WkyWbBs3.dpuf

In the video link below, Sarika Bansal tells how Bill Gates was inspired by an article he read in the New York Times on how inexpensive it was to treat diarrhea. Gates credits that article for the reason that he now gives $800 million every year to improve the health-care of children who may otherwise have died. Not only was he informed by what he had read, he was also inspired to make a difference.

Reporter’s Diary: Sarika Bansal’s TEDx Talk on Solutions Journalism - See more at: http://solutionsjournalism.org/2013/03/20/reporters-diary-sarika-bansals-tedx-talk-on-solutions-journalism/#sthash.OMkmVMtu.dpuf

There will always be bad news to be reported on, but there are also many positive stories out there. This has been a thread through the past semester, in the courses that I took and the books which I read. We deserve to get both sides of the story.

Africa - the time has come

It's a small world, after all

I found myself thousands of kilometres from  Cape Town having a conversation with a Swedish woman in traditional Midsummer dress, and the UAE ambassador to Sweden, about Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Adichie’s book, Half of a Yellow Sun, which we had all read and enjoyed.

My son and I have spent four days in a small town in Sweden attending the Tallberg Forum. Tallberg is situated on the edge of Lake Siljan, a three-and-a-half-hour train ride to the north of Stockholm.  It has 230-240 permanent residents and eight hotels, all of which started out as farmhouses. The green hills surrounding the water, and long days of sunshine far from the bustle of the city, are conducive to interaction, reflection and absorption.

Every year since 1981 the Forum has been convened around the theme “How on earth can we live together?” It was established to provide a platform for free and open exchange of ideas and experiences. Participants come from all walks of life, from over 70 different countries. The people who attend are committed to finding solutions to improve the state of the world and are involved in businesses or NGOs which support that commitment. 

This year the focus was on globalization and how it relates to education, technology, culture, religion, race and identity. Huge problems exist globally around issues of the environment, education, health and human rights. I was struck by how South Africa is a microcosm of the concerns around the world.  

Our society is still so deeply divided and we are suspicious of those from whom we have been separated by apartheid. Before we can interact with the rest of the world, we need to learn to interact with the people who we live side by side with. We need to take time to get to know our neighbours, the people we go to school or university with, and the people we work with. We need to create an environment that invites sharing; a sense of community on a local and national level before we can truly be part of and participate on a global platform. Stereotypes and prejudices exist because we don’t take the trouble to move out of our comfort zones to get to know each other.

There’s hard work still to be done, necessary if we want to move forward. While we may not all agree on the issues, it is important to start talking. We may find that we are not all that different after all.

Celebrating Africa

This year Africa Day arrived with a renewed sense of pride and hope for me. I have been immersed in two electives - African Non-fiction Literature and Public Culture. African literature focused mainly on South African books post-1994 and in many ways it was a gift of history far removed from the history that I had been taught at school in the 1970s. While it was painful to plough through the accounts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I was enlightened by the behind-the-scenes revelations of the negotiation process and the run up to the first democratic elections. I was entertained and motivated by stories of growing up in Kenya and Katlehong –  stories which give life to communities, breaking down stereotypes and mass-labelling of people to fit into neat little boxes.  And I will look at Johannesburg with new eyes after reading Portrait with Keys, the tribute by Ivan Vladislavic.

It was Noni Jabavu’s books, published in the early 1960s, which were a special treasure though. They are a portrait of black life at a time when Verwoerd was introducing his draconian laws.  She provides an insight into the traditions, tribal customs and family life from a personal point of view. She straddled two opposing worlds – her roots in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, and her life in England, where she had been sent as a child.  She shows how we can use writing to correct the perceptions of the past, to record the voices of the past and to help preserve the traditions which, in SA, the government attempted to wipe out. I was very fortunate to find both her books at Clarke's in Long Street. This bookshop, established in 1956, is worth a visit if you're looking for South African and African books.

The Public Culture course looked at curating positive images of Africa and South Africa, to challenge the colonial stereotypes which abound. We focused on visual images along the theme of play and were exposed to photographers, archives and exhibitions, both past and present. I had the opportunity to look at the notion of music as a tool of resistance, at how it played a role in uniting and strengthening the community and how it flourished and developed in spite of oppression. 

I was struck anew at how jazz can be seen as a metaphor for the melting pot which is South Africa. It has a truly South African identity shaped by many influences - music of the African people, the Malays who were brought here by the Dutch, the slaves who were part of orchestras on the farms; visiting minstrels from the US which set the scene for the still-popular coon carnival, the  rich choral traditions and so on. It seems ridiculous now that there were laws governing details like whether black and white musicians could play together on a stage or perform to a mixed audience.

 We have developed a rich culture of music, writing and art, and people with spirit and values. What is often overlooked is what African people are doing to help themselves, rather than sitting back and waiting for others to come and solve our problems. Yes, there are starving children and disease, much suffering and oppression in Africa, but this is not the only narrative.

Let's go out with a bang!

Machu Picchu courtesy of TripAdvisor

I was a bit taken aback recently when someone commented that going back to university at my age was perhaps best left to the young ones, and that I shouldn't be cramping my daughter’s style. While my brain may be teetering close to overload, I am not quite ready to be put out to pasture. I cannot remember when last I have been so stimulated by what I am learning.

Last night I met someone, “my age”, who has climbed Kilimanjaro and hiked to Everest base camp. Next on her list is the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Peru. My friend, Kam, has also done the Everest base camp as well the Inca Trail.

I dragged myself away from my books to have a quick look on the internet which revealed that in November 2012, life expectancy in SA was said to have increased to 60 years from 54 in 2009, according to The Lancet health journal. In 2009 the South African Institute of Race Relations said that South Africans would not live longer than 50 years, and World Bank indicators in 2010 put the life expectancy for women in SA at 52.2 years. So it does seem that I may well be in my twilight years…

However, I am not getting depressed by this. Far from it. I am surrounded by inspiring women who are not letting age stand in the way of their goals. My friend, Mary, has just published a cookbook which she did the layout for and took the photographs; Alison, who, recently became a grandmother, has just returned from a trip to the Antarctic, has walked the Santiago and learned to speak fluent Spanish. There are numerous others who have changed track completely and re-invented themselves.

There are many mountains left to climb - let's go out with a bang!

In Remembrance

This morning I had to abandon my plan to read my book for African Literature while I was having a coffee at my local cafe. Not for the first time during the last two months I have simply wanted to weep because of what I was reading. 

This week we are looking at Antjie Krog's Country of My Skull,  her account of the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. It's such a dark place that we get to when we look back at our horrendous past - oppression, violence, torture and death. I have not gotten beyond the first few chapters and already I am horrified by the stories that are being revealed. This is why I have been subconsciously been putting off reading this book.

A community should not wipe out a part of its past, because it leaves a vacuum that will be filled by lies and contradictory and confusing accounts of what happened. Krog writes bravely and sensitively about a horrendous past. 

For my Public Culture course I am looking at culture in Africa through music during the apartheid era. What could possibly make me want to weep when I am looking at music, you may wonder. I came across the story of Vuyisile Mini who composed the protest song, "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" or "Watch out, Verwoerd!". Mini was one of the organisers of the resistance and was arrested in 1963. When he refused to testify against his comrades he was sentenced to death. His booming voice singing that song could be heard by fellow prisoners just as he was about to be executed. 

Birth by Peter Harris, Tomorrow is Another Country by Allister Sparks and Midlands by Jonny Steinberg, have all had me wondering anew at the miracle which got us this far.  We are a deeply damaged society and we need to work hard at building that "rainbow nation" that Archbishop Tutu, who headed the TRC, talked about. As painful as it is, it is important to know our history, so that we may endeavour not to repeat it.