BY FLAXMAN QOOPANE
(Speech delivered during MACUFE WORDFEST 2012, BLOEMFONTEIN, FREE STATE)
Ladies and gentlemen, this is an epoch making occasion, and I must confess that the topic, I am adumbrating on today is one that titillates my intellectual buds.
The topic for those not in the know is titled Writings for Excellence, Fusion of Journalistic and Fictitious Writing. In my mind thank to this topic I can feel the snippets and glimpses of world class writers like Tom Wolfe, Alex Haley, J.P Clark, Ola Rotimi, Gomolemo Mokae, Aryan Kaganof, Kole Omotoso, e.t.c and of cause my own sundry contributions to these genre over the decades.
I do not want to go in to boring, tedious details at this juncture, but I am sure we all know that in essence journalism is anchored on fact, whilst, fictitious writing brings in the quality of imagination despite the encouragement of artistic licence.
When we talk of fusing journalism and fiction, we owe a debt to the extra-ordinarily vibrant writing in the United States of America. It was American writer like Tom Wolfe, who started to combine features normally associated with imaginative fiction in journalism.
When we talk of literary, imaginative features, what do we have in mind? I am sure our young poets like Dr Cool, Skietrekker and others will appreciate the figures of speech, metaphors, similes, personification, litotes and meiosis, e.t.c.
The interesting thing is that as Africans our writers, journalists, and essayists have always been taking a cue from American trends- that is why Africa already has quite a number of powerful writings which are fusions of journalism and fiction.
In South Africa we are familiar with the distinguished Professor of English Kole Omotoso who has been based here for about 20 years. Those of us in the literary fraternity however realise that perhaps Omotosho’s greatest published work is titled- Just Before Dawn.
What makes the work Just Before Dawn remarkable is that it is an extraordinary fusion of historic journalistic and fictitious writing, a very remarkable book indeed which I recommend for everybody to read, Just Before Dawn.
Interestingly we see vignettes of this in the work of Prof Njabulo Ndebele in his mesmerising book titled The Cry of Winnie Mandela.
What about one of the greatest African/American writers the world has ever seen: Alex Haley? He has gone down in history for his masterpiece titled Roots, which combines a lot of journalistic and fictitious writing.
But not many of us might know when Haley, was younger (before writing Roots), he mainly was famous for writing, superb interviews and features for American newspapers and magazines.
Let us also look at the great African writer, J.P Clark, famous for his plays, and the superb work - America their America. Clark was one of the early black African writers who were highly educated, imaginative, yet he was also a journalist at the time!
This essay can not be complete without reference to the extraordinary contributions of early South African Drum magazine writers with their sparkling fusion of journalism and fiction. Indeed this has entered history and folklore as part of our literary heritage. The likes of Bloke Modisane, Lewis Nkosi, Can Themba, Es'kia - kudos to them!
Another writer worth mentioning in this wise is Dr Gomolemo Mokae, the other day I was doing some research on him at the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown, and I was very impressed to see how Mokae did very well in journalism, essays and imaginative writings early in his career. Hence these elements can be seen in Mokae’s celebrated two works of fiction -The Secret In My Bosom and Short Not Tall Stories.
We also see some fusion of journalism and imagination in Aryan Kaganof’s work. In Uselessly, the detail of treatments for chemotherapy; cancer e.t.c. allied to other excellent prose, Is very admirable.
I was also exceedingly impressed to read Omoseye Bolaji’s 2011 book, titled Miscellaneous Writing, as a critic, this is a work which is tantalising; it is no surprise that critics around the world seem confused as to how to categorise this work. Some call it essays, some call it short stories, some call it journalism; others call it features. But inline with our topic today, I think it is useful to describe Miscellaneous writings as an impressive fusion of journalism and fictitious writings.
I am also satisfied that many literary critics have been bemused by my book titled Reneiloe Mpho Story. They always ask how can a 2 year old girl write a book (Laugh……..) as the author of this well famous book I can reveal that a useful approach to examining the book is to take it as fusion of journalistic and fictitious writing. Short works of mine like the Quack Of Qwa-Qwa (2003) also to a certain extent combine elements of journalism and fiction.
CONCLUSION
It is exhilarating that our times have been witnessing an accretion of the best in writing- journalism and fictive techniques... long may it continue!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
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