Homebru 2006 author: Shaun Johnson

Shaun Johnson is the author of The Native Commissioner, published by Penguin.

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

   A very great deal, as I am irretrievably South African, have devoured South African literature all my life, and while doing other things always harboured the hope of being some part of it. I’ve left it late to be so, but am enjoying it hugely, nonetheless.

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

   Yes, I’m sure that’s so, in my case in the belief that the individual stories of the incredible miscellany of ordinary people of our country – Everyman stories – should now come into their own after what I think of as the “Struggle” and “Truth Commission” periods of our literature. I really hope my story about The Native Commissioner is one such story.

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

   What I think it should encapsulate – or rather, what I thought I was trying to do with mine anyway – is authenticity within a clear understanding of that story’s own limitations.

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

   Not for me, it isn’t. For others? I don’t know.

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

   I am too new to fiction to know. I hope there is such a community; I certainly enjoyed being part of the community of writing journalists when I was one.

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

   Terrible question, because I would like to make a long list. But forced, in my own case, to name the two names that have most influenced me, they would have to be JM Coetzee (from Dusklands all the way through), and JM Coetzee.

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, and why?

   Again, five is unfair – why not 50, or 150? But among my personal favourite 50 authors off the top of the head would have to be Coetzee, as above, Bosman, La Guma, Fugard, Campbell. Why? Because they moved me greatly at the times of my life that I read them. There are many, many others.

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

   Not nearly enough of them yet, but the following so far, which I enjoyed: Gem Squash Tokoloshe, Rachel Zadok; The White Africans, Gerald L’Ange; and, although I haven’t bought it yet, I think I know I am going to like Tom Eaton’s The De Villiers Code. I also need a couple of days off because I particularly want to read The Shadow Follows, A Quilt of Dreams (I have a soft spot for Grahamstown), Body Bereft, Myth of Iron, Bitches’ Brew, Ice in the Lungs, Dancing to a Different Rhythm, and Seven Battles. Maybe more than a couple of days off.

9.  What makes you a South African?

   Braais, beers, rugby (and soccer and cricket), but also a sense of much wider wonder at having been privileged to have lived through these strange days on the southern tip of our continent..

10.  What is your favourite South Africanism?

    The situation is vrot with danger.

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.