BLACK FREE STATE LITERATURE IN 2014

At a chance meeting with some writers this week a couple of them voiced their belief that Free State Black Writing was on the wane. One of them blasted: "The situation there (in the province) is now like a desert; gone are the days when the literary scene there was dynamic and exciting," Then a lady among them added: "It's like the people are no longer writing there, though I hear poets are still performing that side," It might well be, as Mark Twain might couch it, that rumours of the demise of FS Writing are being exaggerated. One has to agree though that the year 2014 has been a very disappointing year in terms of clear literary production. What this translates to practically is that very few quality books if any have been published - quite surprising when one considers the fact that there are many black writers and published authors in the Free State. The big names have apparently delivered very little this year. Observers might well believe that the writers were not motivated...or/and writers' block crept in for most.

Yet this would be unfair to a number of spoken word poets in the province who remain as enthusiastic as ever. Nobody would accuse the likes of Charmaine Kolwane, Jah Rose and Hector Kunene in particular of not being dynamic. This year they did their stuff as usual, waving the flag for poetry all over the place. Various reports in the media indicate their effectiveness in this wise. Charmaine in particular is almost a force of nature with her enthusiasm and unlimited energy in propagating literature and poetry. To her credit she also published a book in an African language this year. We await serious reviews and criticism of the work. Matshidiso Taleng, another female poet also deserves praise for her poetic input this year. In terms of authentic literature though, Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga stands out for his never-ending literary articles, essays, critiques this year. To crown it all he also published an eponymous book of this genre.

What strikes the observer is that Soqaga really loves the world of reading and writing. His vision bears allegiance to the Free State, but also to national, African and world literature; that is why his essays include tributes to the likes of Lorraine Hansberry and Obi Egbuna. One hopes Mr Soqaga can keep it up. Teboho Masakala earned praises for publishing yet another book - a religious book. Earlier in his career he published a lot of fiction. And it is not as if other established essayists wrote nothing at all this year; though their output has been minor. But Paul Lothane, Raphael Mokoena, Tiisetso Thiba, Leke Giwa, Pule Lechesa etc wrote the odd literary essay this year.

I found Thiba's essay "transferential displacement in Bolaji's Far up! Far out! Far more!" quite interesting. So all in all it can't be said FS writing did not exist at all this year...