Introduction: Writing South Africa's Yawning Void

Summary

I CAN'T BELIEVE I have been writing for more than three decades. However, even my feeble maths tells me that 33 years ago, To My Children's Children, announced – to those interested in such matters – the arrival of a new writer named Sindiwe Magona: this book was published by David Philip Publishers in 1990.

To reflect on what writing has meant, and continues to mean, to me is, therefore, to go back a long, a very long time. At the start of this rollercoaster journey, let me reiterate, there was a much-surprised person. I was surprised at what I had somehow managed to do – write a book. Even more surprised that a publisher had not only wanted to publish it, but had gone ahead and done just that. Then, as though that were not miracle enough to kill a person, guess what? There were people who bought the book, read the book – from page one to the very last page – and didn't try and find me and laugh at me or, worse still, throw rotten eggs at me. No, they read the book, read it like any normal book. So, the whole thing had not just been a figment of my imagination. How could that be? The whole world shared in my wild, wild dream, my fantasy. It had to be real, then. I had written a book. And the book was published by a reputable publisher.

The book went on to garner great reviews. And thirty years later, it is still in print! Sindiwe Magona – author. But what did this mean to me, then? What does it mean today? What inspired me to write that book in the first place, and what has inspired me to keep at it, keep on writing, ever since? The following poem, found in my collection, Please, Take Photographs (2009), provides some answers to these questions:

Statement

I come to writing with no great learning

Except my life and the life of the people

Of whom I am a part. For centuries,

Others have written about us

I write to change that

Instead of moaning about it.

I write so that children who look like me

In my country,

And my people, dispersed

Throughout the world,

May see someone who looks like them

Do this thing that has for so long

Not belonged to us.