Homebru 2006 author: Gabeba Baderoon

Gabeba Baderoon is the author of A Hundred Silences, published by Kwela.

1.  What does it mean to you to have your writing recognised and celebrated as "South African"?

   I'm delighted. As someone who hunts for South African books in any bookshop I enter, it's brilliant to be included among such a prominently and proudly identified cluster of writers.

2.  As a South African writer / poet / storyteller did you set out to write a story South Africans will recognise as their own?

   I set out to write my own completely individual and idiosyncratic stories and I've found that to be the most honest and direct way to connect with people. When I try to write with an agenda, usually that shows up in stiff and unconvincing work.

3.   What, to you, does a South African story encapsulate?

   South Africa means variety and subtlety and surprise, as it should with everyone's stories.

4.   Is it possible for a South African's writing to be free of political and historical influence?

   If you are a person in love with one other human being, someone who keeps a tattered photograph in your purse, a person who notices the landscape in its sudden, insistent beauty, you are in history and place, and that is part of your wholeness. I find the division between the personal and the political awkward and false.

5.   Is there a writing community in South Africa, or is writing in this country a solitary journey?

   I've always felt like part of many communities - of students, of women, of friends, of family … I didn't think of myself as a writer until seven years ago - and I've found them to be a welcoming and supportive group. Such friendship is very productive - a community of writers can be a factory of new writing.

6.   Who do you think is the most influential South African writer today? And who is your favourite local author?

   I think John Coetzee's reputation as a novelist and thinker keeps him in pole position and, in addition, he is increasingly important because of the short story competition he judges every year. Probably my favourite author for the sheer intelligence and beauty of his craft is Rustum Kozain, the author of This Carting Life.

7.   If you could choose five works (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, performance poetry, etc) from South African literature that would be able to communicate the "South African experience", which five would you choose?

   K Sello Duiker's The Quiet Violence of Dreams
   Zoe Wicomb's David's Story
   Tatamkhulu Afrika's Night Rider
   Nadia Davids' At Her Feet
   Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom
   Other works that deserve a mention: Waiting for the Barbarians, The Heart of Redness, You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town, Call Me Woman, This Carting Life.

8.  Have you read any of the other Exclusive Books Homebru 2006 titles?

   Yes, Body Bereft so far. I'm looking forward to reading all of them. Even as a writer myself, and knowing that the relationship between an author and a book is an oblique, complex thing, I find it makes such a difference to meet the person who has written the book concerned. Of course, I'd want to read Fred Khumalo's work anyway, and meeting him confirmed the desire to do so, but having spoken with Rozena Maart, I'm very interested to find out how she's conveyed the texture of Rosa's District 6. Pamphilia Hlapa, Nakedi Ribane, Zarina Maharaj and David Medalie have similarly intrigued me.

9.  What makes you a South African?

   That description is the opposite of me, so that's not what makes a South African, I think. It's because there is a rightness to being here in all its complexity and difficulty and loveliness.

10.  What is your favourite South Africanism?

    Jaaa.
    Jo.
    Salaam.

Moenie ons Homebru 2006-kompetisie misloop nie! Wen 'n lekker Suid-Afrikaanse boekpakkie! Klik hier om meer uit te vind.

LitNet: 16 May 2006

Click here to read answers of the Homebru 2006 fiction writers
Click here to read the answers of the Homebru 2006 non-fiction writers

Have your say! To comment on this interview write to webvoet@litnet.co.za, and become a part of our interactive opinion page.

Click here and subscribe to our fantastic free newsletter - for your weekly cultural fix! Click here to see the latest edition

to the top / boontoe

© Kopiereg in die ontwerp en inhoud van hierdie webruimte behoort aan LitNet, uitgesluit die kopiereg in bydraes wat berus by die outeurs wat sodanige bydraes verskaf. LitNet streef na die plasing van oorspronklike materiaal en na die oop en onbeperkte uitruil van idees en menings. Die menings van bydraers tot hierdie werftuiste is dus hul eie en weerspieël nie noodwendig die mening van die redaksie en bestuur van LitNet nie. LitNet kan ongelukkig ook nie waarborg dat hierdie diens ononderbroke of foutloos sal wees nie en gebruikers wat steun op inligting wat hier verskaf word, doen dit op hul eie risiko. Media24, M-Web, Ligitprops 3042 BK en die bestuur en redaksie van LitNet aanvaar derhalwe geen aanspreeklikheid vir enige regstreekse of onregstreekse verlies of skade wat uit sodanige bydraes of die verskaffing van hierdie diens spruit nie. LitNet is ’n onafhanklike joernaal op die Internet, en word as gesamentlike onderneming deur Ligitprops 3042 BK en Media24 bedryf.