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?
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,
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