Zukiswa Wanner

During Women’s Month in 2006, a friend of mine and fellow scribe, Siphiwo Mahala wrote an article prior to Women’s Month lamenting the lack of women writers in prose. Mahala, who did not know me at that time, was not to know that I was at that time putting the final touches to my first book, The Madams, which would emerge on the South African market in November 2006. In the piece Mahala observed and lamented, and I quote

‘As South Africa is witnessing the bourgeoning of new writings, women voices are a critical component of this development. Casting a view on gender representation in our literature of English expression today, one realises that there is paucity of black women’s voices with regard to novel writing. Women’s voices are a fundamental factor in the renewal of a society, and more so in the reconfiguration of a nation’s literary contours.’

It is now two years since Mahala wrote that piece and he has just re-posted that piece on his Blog SA – highlighting that the literary world has changed speedily since then. Absolutely true too. Since Mahala wrote that piece, I am not the only black woman writer on the market. Names like Caine Prize winner Mary Watson come to mind. There are also others like author of Holy Hills, Angelina Sithebe; Angela Makholwa of Red Ink fame; EU Literary award winner and the youngest literary voice we have in South Africa today among women of all races – Kopano Matlwa; Futhi Ntshingila and Commonwealth Africa Prize Region winner for Best First Book, Maxine Case.

A certain Michelle – who I suspect to be my former publisher Michelle Matthews – comments on Mahala’s blog that there are still not enough black women writing. In my opinion, I do not think the list I have compiled above is shabby for a space of two years though. There are those who will question the inclusion of Case and Watson on the list but then Mahala did say black women writers and NOT African women writers and using this as a gauging point, I think the only group of black women not included in this list are the recently black-ised Chinese but I am sure we will be seeing them on our lists soon.

I think that part of the reason people may not be aware of the existence of black women writers (or even many South African writers at that of whatever race) is because marketing of writers and their books tends to be bad and this is something that publishers, booksellers and writers need to sit down and see how they can improve on. I know I am often met with surprised looks when I show people in a restaurant a book written by a South African writer. I personally only got to know of the existence of Angelina Sithebe’s Holy Hills when I bumped into her at a function and someone introduced her to me as a fellow writer. I have since bought and greatly enjoyed her book but I would never have known of its existence if it was not for that incidental meeting.

Michelle further states in her response,

‘Every year we had to SEARCH for black writers for our anthologies, while requests from white women to be included flooded my in-box. Why is it that every white suburban housewife who can string a few sentences together thinks she has a story the world wants to hear, but black women can barely bring themselves to put pen to paper?’ 

And there is the rub and may be a little explanation is in order. There are very few black suburban housewives…it’s all a matter of having time really. The black woman in South Africa is generally working be it as a domestic, an office cleaner or even an executive. The amount of time the white suburban housewife has on her hands can never be equated with that of the black woman (except of course with a few rare BEE housewives who are just now emerging but their numbers are so small they do not warrant a mention). When a black woman is at home she probably does not have a computer in the house to dream and be a potential writer – I know this because I wrote my first novel at the office where I used to work and would put a work-related screen every time the boss came around – while a white woman has one. If the black woman decides for instance that she was going to literally put pen to paper, she will be discouraged if she calls a publisher unsolicited and is told that she has to send three chapters of double-spaced typewritten work to them and she knows she does not have access to a computer. These may look like minor problems but they are very major to a black woman who is probably a single mother and wants to know where she will get funds to feed her children.

Given all this then, I do not think that black women are doing too shabbily in the world of literature in South Africa. There is definitely room for improvement but a little under ten writers in two years should be nothing to scoff at.