FOREWORD BY OMOSEYE BOLAJI

Omoseye Bolaji wrote this Foreword to the book, Omoseye Bolaji's Tebogo Mokoena...

FOREWORD BY OMOSEYE BOLAJI

(Creator and author of the Tebogo Mystery series)

In the western world essentially, over the course of time certain fictional characters become larger than life and assume lives of their own far beyond the ken of their creators (writers) - like the Rabbit series created by John Updike. Or Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Or Charles Dickens' Uriah Heep...             

In the genre of detective fiction we think about Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple and hundreds of thousands of readers believe these fictional characters more or less exist! And the literary world has noted that when author Conan Doyle dared to kill his own great creation, Sherlock Holmes, the readers "revolted" and the author had to resuscitate the character!     

And so it goes on in the western canon. Shakespeare - imagine just two or three of his major protagonists - Othello, Macbeth or Hamlet, how many countless studies have been written and published on these characters over the centuries? 

Or if you are a lover of the James Bond series – the novels or the movies - when author Ian Fleming created Bond he could have never imagined the world wide fame he would go on to command; or the legion of studies that would focus on the character, often conflated with author Fleming himself...           

Not many works created by African authors can enjoy this type of global fame – but certainly Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart is world renowned. Okonkwo, the central character of the novel is known around the world. There is the fact of a young student in Europe who identified with Okonkwo so much that he even shouted: "Okonkwo is my father!"...never mind the fact that the student in question was white and had never been to Africa in his life...

When I started writing the Tebogo Mystery series (2000) of course I did not envisage writing eight adventures (books) at the time. Actually between 2004 and 2008 I did not write any pertinent adventures, and probably thought it "was all over bar the shouting". Yet I would go on to write four more adventures - the last one came out in 2012 (Tebogo and the bacchae). Since then I have not written any major fiction, but it's not something that worries me!    

Certainly I am satisfied and proud that I have published eight adventures of "Tebogo Mokoena, so-called detective" (I can be sarcastic, you know). I find it even more satisfying that many readers enjoy the series, and a fair number of critics/pundits/reviewers have written fairly extensively on the character and his adventures over the years.

Here I must commend - and say a big thank you to the ever-dynamic Charmaine Kolwane who decided that a work containing many essays and perspectives on Tebogo Mokoena deserves to be published. She has selflessly scoured through such pertinent essays and articles and put them all together for readers, scholars and researchers - and for posterity. 

I must thank all the contributors to this work; it is gratifying that their studies and impressions can now be found in a single monograph like this. Raphael Mokoena, Pule Lechesa, Paul Lothane - they have written many fine essays on the character, Tebogo Mokoena, over the years. Others like Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga, Peter Moroe, Mpikeleni Duma and Leke Giwa have also weighed in with powerful write-ups in this wise. On behalf of Ntate "Sleuth" Tebogo Mokoena, we dedicate this book to all the contributors!

- O Bolaji (below)

 

CHARMAINE KOLWANE ON TEBOGO STUDIES

 

Charmaine Kolwane is the editor of a new work, Omoseye Bolaji s Tebogo Mokoena, which is scheduled for publication in November. Charmaine is one of Africa s outstanding younger black female writers having published major literary studies, monographs, poetry, and works for children. Here she talks about how this new work celebrating the Tebogo Mokoena Mystery series came into fruition.

 

(Questions & Answers)

1     What inspired you to put this new book together - one of the very few African books, if any, focusing on a fictional character (Tebogo Mokoena)? 

Of all the publications of Omoseye Bolaji Tebogo series has been one of series that I personally lingered in my brain, I still have memories of how every time I read one of the series I will be left with questions and still wanting more, Tebogo as a character is  a combination of different personalities and I always had a suspicion that the character Tebogo might not be fictional and thus kept wondering of the author will one day reveal his secrets and tell us the real name of the fictional character of Tebogo, once you read series of Tebogo you can’t help but fall in love with the character, he represents a Superman cartoon character and as a woman you have fantasies of  him being a hero,  the aim of the book is to somewhat profile Tebogo and to put him out there .

2   How did you originally get to know about, and read the Tebogo Mystery books, and can you comment generally on the series?

I first read Tebogo series at Bloemfontein Public library (Souith Africa) upon one of my visits to the library, I came across one of the titles titled Tebogo investigates. I took the book from the shelves with the aim of just perusing over it because I was awaiting a friend, the idea was not to read it at all but  I read the back part synopsis, and started to read few pages of the book and upon reading and coming across familiar mention of township places in Bloemfontein including Bochabela, I got quite excited, I almost jumped and shouted inside the public library , as I was pleasantly surprised that name of my township was mentioned in the book, I continued to read the book until I finished it that day at the public library.

3     Some pundits/critics claim that the character Tebogo, has rather changed over the years. Do you agree with this?

I agree, each series proved Tebogo  to be more experienced and more confident in cracking the different cases, I think it’s only natural that for each solution get more matured and confident.

4.     How important is a series like the Tebogo Mokoena one, in attracting local people to read, and appreciate relevant African literature

It's vital so that people like myself who are born and 'bread' in a small town can be inspired to know that role models are found within our communities, growing up in ThabaNchu I thought that Authors are only on Television  and that literature can only be local if it mentions or covers places like Johannesburg, so Tebogo series  story line is mostly based in Free State, the mere mention of places I can relate to as well  use of vocabulary and names of local people on its own has the ability to grow self love and African unison.

5.     The author of the series, Mr Bolaji has published 8 adventures (books) involving this fictional character. Do you personally think he should write more adventures (books) involving this character, or scrap the series altogether?

We (READERS) want more, as a reader of short stories myself for each short story I have read I’m left wanting more and my imagination always runs with me, even with Tebogo series after reading each new edition we keep wanting more, themes in Tebogo are fresh, characters not obvious, perpetrator’s surprising , so as a reader the feelings you go through need to be experienced again and again , and hopefully beyond the book, the author should consider adapting the series to stage and we can get the fantasies of seeing Tebogo character personified.

You have done very well to boost African literature yourself - publishing general books on major writers like Bolaji and Flaxman Qoopane, and also poetry and children's books. What is it that keeps your incredible passion growing in respect of literature, which most pundits believe is a very frustrating pursuit?

I am  and I have always been inspired by Sir Omoseye Bolaji , the ability that he was able to write, publish, promote and create such wealth of African Literature in Free State, amidst the challenges of publishing, the costs back then when he started , he won the odds and continued to write and encourage local publication and publishing and as a result in the Free State we now have an active writing and publishing environment, I continue to write  and create books amidst the challenges because I realize that what I’m doing now it’s not for me to benefit and enjoy, but its for generations to come, as we write we archive and create so that coming generations may not perish. I take my passion for sacrifices made by those who came before me and created an empowering and inspiring writing environment,