Writing for our times

'... and I didn’t want to go to any other black I knew in London. It's one thing to be comrades against whites and it's totally another to be penniless; the comrades would be suddenly struck by amnesia as far as knowing you went.' p.58 The Black Insider Dambudzo Marechera.

These are the words of Zimbabwean born writer and poet Dambudzo Marechera (1952-1987). He wrote The Black Insider while living in London where he had been offered a scholarship to study at Oxford.

In 1979 his book, The House of Hunger, won the prestigious Gurdian First Book Award.

I think many people living in post apartheid South Africa will identify with his words in. There was a time in my life when I felt alienated and hopeless and when I read these words they struck me like a gem of undiscovered truth.

The late Marechera was a terrific writer. And he would put to words through his incisive writing what many were afraid to say. He spoke truth to power. In post apartheid South Africa we need writers like Dambudzo who can fearlessly capture the state and mood of our nation and challenge the status quo. Notably, we need more young black writers.

I'm going to write a novel and tell about life from the south of Africa.