A gargantuan eight-storey second-hand bookstore in the heart
of downtown Johannesburg, not far from the city’s hipster havens, has for over
four decades stocked nostalgia and hidden treasures on its shelves.&nbsp; FORBES AFRICA stepped into the time capsule
that is the Collectors Treasury.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



In the mid-1970s, Rissik Street in downtown Johannesburg was
a tranquil road featuring an important landmark – a second-hand bookstore that
offered an escape from the city’s orchestrated chaos. It was a true literary
world in a period devoid of the sensory overload of today’s technology.



Books were the only source of knowledge for the young intellectuals in bell-bottoms and halter dresses that trickled in to spend hours pouring over the treasures in this bookstore called Collectors Treasury.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 It has since moved shop from Rissik Street, and today, 45 years on, a little over a kilometer away, the same wonders, and much, much more can be found at 223 Commissioner Street. The 3,000 books, records and antiques collected since 1974 have now grown to over two million items. 



All the vintage collectables are housed in an eight-storey building bursting at the seams with the sheer volume of material in it. 



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Brothers Geoffrey and Jonathan Klass, the co-owners of Collectors
Treasury, have come to this realization, that the books are literally
everywhere. From the entrance to the office where the men have to walk around
them with caution, and from there, to the elevator, the staircase, the passages
and even the restroom that has been turned into an impromptu storage space. 



“People are definitely reading, and they are reading more.,”
offers Geoffrey. 



“We are at a stage where reading is not for pleasure.
Reading is for utilitarian purposes because it is something that we seek to
learn, something we have to know in order to advance.” 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="927" height="615" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books2.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40945" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books2.png.png 927w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books2.png-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books2.png-600x398.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books2.png-768x510.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" /><figcaption>Collectors Treasury bookstore, owned by brothers Geoffrey and Jonathan Klass. Picture: Gypseenia Lion</figcaption></figure>



Also a recording engineer and musician, his brother Jonathan
remarks that growing up with a doctor for a father, and a mother who collected
antiques, inspired them to start the business.&nbsp;




Jonathan shies away from talking about his own personal
collection of antiques because people always end up bargaining for him to sell
it.



&nbsp; Their upbringing
taught the men the value of history. This is the backbone of their business.



&nbsp;“Whenever we get anything into the shop, the first thing we want to know is what its origins are and where it comes from,” Jonathan says.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“You can’t know where you are or who you are in a particular context unless you know what has come before you. It is becoming part of a culture amongst the youngsters now, the so-called ‘hipsters’; they are the population coming in a lot.”&nbsp; </blockquote>



Young, inquisitive minds, in search of a deeper
understanding of the world, feed their curiosity here while others walk in to
simply explore the massive bookstore. Jonathan says it provides a much-needed
alternative and relief to today’s smartphone-obsessed world. 



“People are stuck in an electronic loop and they can’t get
out of it. They haven’t studied the people who are the masters of their craft
to know where they should go. I absorbed as much material as I could, and I
still do it all the time. 



“That is what our shop is about. You can’t come in here for
five minutes and expect to absorb what is in here.



“It doesn’t matter what you read, so long as you read
because ultimately the book is the theater of the mind.”



Geoffrey argues that despite the vast amount of information
shared on the internet, it won’t ever replace the simplicity of a book. 



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-2 wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="924" height="618" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books3.png.png" alt="" data-id="40946" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=40946" class="wp-image-40946" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books3.png.png 924w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books3.png-300x201.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books3.png-600x401.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books3.png-768x514.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px" /><figcaption> The 3,000 books, records and antiques collected since 1974 have now grown to over two million items. Picture: Gypseenia Lion </figcaption></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="925" height="610" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books5.png.png" alt="" data-id="40947" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=40947" class="wp-image-40947" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books5.png.png 925w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books5.png-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books5.png-600x396.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books5.png-768x506.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 925px) 100vw, 925px" /><figcaption>The Klaas brothers remarks that growing up with a doctor for a father, and a mother who collected antiques, inspired them to start Collectors Treasury. Picture: Gypseenia Lion </figcaption></figure></li></ul>



“People’s knowledge is not as in-depth as it used to be, which is why this particular generation of youngsters is more enthusiastic about older stuff than the generation that came 15 years ago,” he says. 



Books on African history are the top-sellers at the store
because people are looking to make sense of their place in society. 



By preserving what is often discarded, the store can become
a repository of tradition while it allows the bookseller to determine what to
sell. 



“If I banned half the books, I’d be cutting out half the
cultural influencers that someone could be exposed to. We cast our net widely,
and limit it simply because of the volume of material there is. We make our own
choices,” Geoffrey says. 



Although digital innovations continue to grow in popularity,
the culture of reading for the brothers will never be substituted for the
sensory experience provided by a book. 



“The world does not stand still. What we often think is the
beginning of the revolution is the end. I think in a lot of ways the digital
experience is in the decline. It goes back to the hipsters wanting to know what
came before because they want to be hands-on. They want to feel, touch and see
it. 



“They don’t want the black box effect. Nobody is going to
come in here with something the size of a cellphone with 7,000 books loaded on
it and say, ‘I want to sell my library’. No one else will buy it,” Geoffrey
says. 



Jonathan says the shop has hidden treasures in the form of
collectables that aren’t sold by regular retailers.



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“As a toy collector, when I see the tin toys I used to have
and played with as a child, it just brings back all those memories.” 



“Nostalgia is a big part of it. So many times when I am in a
market stall [selling goods], somebody will come along and say, ‘this is so
nice, I remember it from when I was five years old’. It may be a vase or a
piece of furniture or a gramophone. It could be anything and people will
remember it,” Jonathan says. 



Going out on Sundays for window-shopping at any time of the
day is an activity the brothers certainly miss.



Since the early 1990s, the inner city changed from being an
upmarket commercial space to an area rife with crime and dilapidated buildings.
But the high levels of crime and population density have not hindered the
brothers’&nbsp; love for the inner city and
the time capsule they step into daily. 



When asked how the business survived the advent of the internet, an excited Jonathan explains the exclusivity of the store and its organic growth that few can imitate. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Nobody can start Collectors Treasury if they wanted to. It developed on its own like a chemical reaction. We started collecting some stuff and it developed into what it is now, rather like a volcano. You can’t create a volcano,” he says. </blockquote>



A unique passion for selling second-hand books and
understanding collectables is needed to stand the test of time. For Jonathan,
the online model is not feasible because it is expensive on the one side, and
on the other, it minimizes the effort it takes to acquire knowledge or a
skill.&nbsp; 



“It has got to be an educated thing. There are people
trading from their homes, making it look easy. The same way people who write a
book using spellcheck, or musicians using apps to write music who think they
are musicians and they are not.



“The online experience is that anybody who can use a
computer can become an instant ‘expert’, at times, they steal descriptions off
the net, they steal inventory and market it. They do this to make out more than
they know. They sound like they have a bookshop where, in fact, they have a
garden shed,” Jonathan explains. 



Understanding how the internet works helps buyers and
sellers spot scammers from a mile away. With about 85,000 books up for sale on
the internet, the brothers have expert knowledge on how to identify a
legitimate seller. 



Over the years, the few dealers and buyers have increased to
over a million since the duo began selling online.&nbsp; 



“You need to build a business, and not just sell. We buy
what people want, and sometimes we reject books. People usually ask why we
reject, but we need to check the market and know what they will buy,” Jonathan
adds. 



Geoffrey shares a different sentiment about their business
model.&nbsp; 



“There is a model; it is going with the flow. If someone
wants to make money, they need to do something else. It is for the passion; as
long as you are making enough to eat, the rest doesn’t matter. The stock is
appreciating. If you sell it, you make money. It appreciates in value if you
buy correctly,” he says. 



He argues that people need to avoid the get-rich-quick
syndrome as businesses differ. 



“If I made a million, and I write a book on it, how many
millionaires would there be? If Warren Buffet made a million, it is because the
conditions at that particular time, plus his input, added up to making a
million. You could give somebody the same amount of information now but time
has passed and the river has flowed. 



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="926" height="617" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books4.png.png" alt="" data-id="40948" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=40948" class="wp-image-40948" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books4.png.png 926w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books4.png-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books4.png-600x400.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Books4.png-768x512.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" /><figcaption>$3,000 kettle was designed by a leading early 20th century German architect and industrial designer, Peter Behrens. Picture: Gypseenia Lion </figcaption></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="925" height="614" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books6.png.png" alt="" data-id="40949" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=40949" class="wp-image-40949" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books6.png.png 925w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books6.png-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books6.png-600x398.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/books6.png-768x510.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 925px) 100vw, 925px" /><figcaption> Collectors Treasury sells porcelain and antique figures from the early 1900s’ fashionable movement; items rarely sold by local dealers. Picture: Gypseenia Lion </figcaption></figure></li></ul>



“You are not the same person that you were at the time that
you made the million. I don’t think Bill Gates could make a million today
because it was [under] different circumstances,” Geoffrey says. 



The store houses items that are priceless from a bygone era.
The brothers sell porcelain and antique figures from the early 1900s’
fashionable movement; items rarely sold by local dealers. 



“The markets for the antique porcelains have dropped so
much. The classical antiques that were fashionable 50 years ago are not wanted
by the modern collectors to the same extent as the generation before,” Geoffrey
says. “In a way, the subsequent generation tends to concentrate on buying back
their youth. They buy the things that they couldn’t afford when they were
younger and didn’t have any money. 



“Collecting fashions shift so much. Modern collectors look
for different things, but pretty is out!” The rustier and older the item, the
more people want it. And they don’t mind stepping into a bookstore bursting
with nostalgia and with motifs and messages from an era that has been long
gone.

bookstore

The Bookstore That erupted Like A Volcano

One of West Africa’s richest men and a formidable force in banking, Jim Ovia conveys some key lessons for Africa’s entrepreneurs in his first book.

In Africa’s business and banking world, a man like Jim Ovia is a textbook case study.
As the founder and chairman of Zenith Bank, and with a net worth of $825 million according to FORBES, Ovia’s prolific banking career spans almost three decades.
His book, Africa Rise and Shine: How a Nigerian Entrepreneur From Humble Beginnings Grew A Business To $16 Billion, launched in August, which marked his debut as an author, details this trajectory, building the bank from the ground up, brick-by-brick. Ovia started with a single branch in Lagos on the ground floor of an impoverished residential duplex that he shared with a private tenant.
“At the time, there were no high-rise office structures in the area and we were not able to afford any standalone structures,” says Ovia to FORBES AFRICA when we meet him at the iconic Civic Centre building located on Ozumba Mbadiwe in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The sprawling high-rise office structure we occupy on this rainy Saturday morning is a far cry from the early years.
Ovia recalls erecting a signage and the company logo in the impromptu commercial space where they could carry out the banking business.
<div id="attachment_37227" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37227" class="wp-image-37227 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545.jpg 1365w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Photo by: Kelechi Amadi-Obi</div>
He worked at Barclays Bank in Lagos from the age of 18 for three years as a clerical officer before enrolling to study business administration at Southern University, Louisiana, in the United States, and subsequently proceeding to the University of Louisiana, Monroe, where he completed his MBA.
After graduating, he joined Union Bank to complete his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Ovia subsequently joined the Merchant Bank of Africa, which was then owned by Bank of America, and worked for over three years before applying for a banking license. And with that, came the birth of Zenith Bank.
“We knew it was going to be a bank that was well run. We knew it will be a bank that will be very efficient and we knew it will be a bank that will offer good and excellent service because that is one of the reasons we set up the bank in the first place,” recalls Ovia.
From those days, he had decided Zenith was going to be run differently from any other bank.
“When you go to many Zenith Bank offices, you will still not see any crowds in the banking hall, yet we are still providing the best quality service,” says Ovia.
The banking major is a London Stock Exchange-listed company with operations in the UK, China, the UAE, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and with more than 400 branches and business offices in Nigeria.
The institution has become a byword for credibility in the Nigerian banking industry.
Many of his peers and competitors call the Zenith Bank success story one of hard work, grit and focus.
But what distinguishes Ovia from them is an abiding belief in his entrepreneurial instincts, one that has been validated many times over.
But that is not the reason he has a spring in his step these days. In Ovia’s new chapter as an author, he chronicles the key lessons entrepreneurs can learn from the meteoric rise of Zenith Bank.
<blockquote>“Among the most important of those lessons may be my experience that it is not necessary to be born rich or in influential circles in order to achieve success,” says Ovia.</blockquote>
It augurs well for a man who for 30 years has constantly adapted to changing environments and opportunities, whether it was being an early investor in the internet space, through his company Cyberspace in 1995, or setting up his telecommunications company Visafone and his expansive real estate portfolio. Ovia’s intuitive timing is something a lot of Nigerian entrepreneurs who look up to him as a mentor have been reading about in his book.
Says Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, in a blurb on the back of the book: “Jim Ovia’s entrepreneurial flair demystifies Africa. Africa Rise and Shine shows his meteoric rise from humble beginnings to building a formidable bank. This is a wonderful African success story,”
Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, founder and president, Dangote Group, also echoes those sentiments.
“Jim Ovia has been my friend and a trusted banker over the last twenty-five years. Africa Rise and Shine lays bare the secrets to Zenith Bank’s success from one of Nigeria’s most respected businessmen. Jim’s inspirational tale of success against all the odds is an important lesson of how adversity can always be surmounted. His principles of doing business can be applied globally as demonstrated by Zenith Bank’s London Stock Exchange listing. This book is an essential read for anyone that wants to do business in Africa.”
Ovia believes it is imperative to rely on one’s own instincts in taking stock of one’s capabilities, and in evaluating new business opportunities.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/08/02/36923/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Nigerian Who Runs His Business On Luck</a>
The book seeks to encourage entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity to invest in Africa by abiding by guidelines such as prudence, due diligence and being able to respond quickly by cultivating the capacity to react effectively.
“I think the readers of this book will gain the spirit of commitment, empowerment, focus, hard work and discipline. They will learn that if you are disciplined and work hard, definitely you will do well. The book is about passing on these principles and documenting how it is to do business in Africa, particularly Nigeria,” says Ovia.
He hopes his book, which is more like an entrepreneurs’ manual than an autobiography, will guide the next generation of industrialists and game-changers to change the narrative of Africa from a hopeless continent to a rising continent.
From boardroom deal-making to creating an impact in the lives of Nigerians, Ovia is a business icon who continues to evolve.
His book is a call to tomorrow’s titans to follow their gut instincts, so hopefully one day, they too can reach their zenith.

Photo by: Kelechi Amadi-Obi (www.kelechiamadiobi.com)

‘Not Necessary To Be Born Rich’

At the well-attended launch of her book Good Morning, Mr Mandela in Johannesburg in June, Zelda la Grange, Nelson Mandela’s trusted aide who he called ‘Zeldina’, was introduced “as the person who walked in the same steps as one of the greatest legends”. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a televized message on the occasion: “Your utter devotion to Madiba was so obvious to anyone…In many ways, it was a symbol of hope for the new relationships in our country.”
La Grange says ‘Khulu’ (grandfather) or Madiba always knew she would write a book. The Afrikaner, who was brought up in apartheid South Africa, started as a typist in the office of the first democratically elected South African President in 1994 at the age of 23, going on to work with Mandela in various capacities for 19 years. She started penning down her thoughts in 2009, “not for the purpose of it becoming a book, but to offload memories”.
“It’s a personal memoir and I want people to read the book and be inspired by my change,” said la Grange, ahead of the launch, when we caught up with her for more:
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6395" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/8-300x212.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="212" />
Can you describe your first meeting with
Madiba in 1994 at the Union Buildings?
I bumped into him, he extended his hand and I said ‘Good morning, Mr Mandela’. That was the turning point of my life.
He broke all my defenses. I was brought up to believe this person is my enemy, and when he spoke to me in Afrikaans, I felt guilty and started crying. I felt responsible, that my people and I were brought up to believe that he is the enemy. And yet you can see the sincerity on his face, his smile; and [I was thinking] why was I so afraid of him. It was in complete contrast to what I expected and I cried. He told me at that first meeting I was overreacting.
Did you draw any criticism in the early years when working for him?
At first, there was a lot of criticism within his own political circles, about why he chose a white woman. He was very careful to relate that story to me at first, knowing I was sensitive and after a while, he would joke about it. He would repeat the entire conversation and say: “Can you believe they would say this?”
It also provided people with entertainment. Madiba’s and my sense of humor had a strange similarity; so we would joke about even these things. He was always looking for humor in any situation. There is nothing laughable about being in prison for 27 years, but he was always trying to find the lighter side of things.
Did he ever get angry?
He had vices and virtues like everyone else. He was a very determined, almost hotheaded person. You couldn’t sway him once he decided something. You knew not to mess with him when he was angry. [But] Madiba didn’t hold grudges, he would get over something very quickly but you would know exactly how he felt. If you look at the CODESA negotiations, he was really angry at F.W. de Klerk at some point – the photographers managed to capture his body language beautifully. He managed to change the narrative. He always had this mindset of reconciliation, of unity, and there was a strategy behind whatever he did.
How was the transition once he retired from the Presidency?
The morning after his retirement was quite a wakeup call. We thought we would pretty much have access to state resources, and we could rely on certain things from the government, but any retiring head of state is in for a full surprise. We had no media protocol, no foreign affairs – all of that was gone.
You have traveled widely with him. Any memories?
I am reminded of our visit to Iran, during President Khatami’s presidency. In the book, you will see how important women’s empowerment is for Madiba. He insisted on me going to the palace where women are not allowed. So we went to dinner at the President’s residence, and there were only male bodyguards and security. I was fighting off photographers, as Madiba’s eyes were sensitive to flashlights. I tried staying in the back so not to offend anybody with my presence. It was very noticeable I was the only female there. A butler then sent for me, and Madiba said, “Oh Zeldina, the President wants to have supper with you.” The whole time, the President asked about South Africa, and Madiba would not answer; so I had to speak. I was put on the spot.
Did you get to spend enough time with him in the final years?
The later years, from 2008, when he started slowing down, he stopped all public appearances and meetings. There was no business any longer to discuss. I tried to go once a week to Qunu [to meet him], more on a personal basis.
How did you come to terms with his passing?
Those ten days of the funeral, I will never want to relive again. You have to deal with the outpouring of emotions from the outside world, and you don’t have time to deal with your own emotions. I still find myself thinking, has it really happened, is he really not there anymore? I have never lost anyone close to me. I am very fortunate. Both my parents are still alive. This is a very new experience for me.
Are you still in touch with
Graça Machel?
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6394" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/36-300x205.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="205" />
I am very close to her. She is true to her name; she epitomizes grace and strength and has been an emotional stronghold for all of us, through his illness. She was not there only for Madiba, but for us as well.
What kind of work are you
involved in now?
I am still contracted with the Nelson Mandela Foundation; at present [I take part in] leadership courses for the foundation, and I do a bit of motivational speaking, just telling people my story and conveying the lessons I have learnt.
Did you ever think you put your life on hold?
I think I have gained so much, and have been so exceptionally privileged that I wouldn’t say I put my life on hold really. It evolved into something greater. My working hours were nonstop. When Madiba was President, he would call at 2AM and say, can you get hold of Minister Trevor Manuel? I didn’t go for a movie for 10 years. I was too scared he would call and I wouldn’t be able to help him.
You were very special to him?
It would be incorrect to say I was the only one, or the special one. There were other people who played vital roles in his life. My role was confined to his public life, so people need to see it in the context of my duties.

How Madiba Changed Me

<h4>Ghana Must Go</h4>
<h4>by Taiye Selasi</h4>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5946" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ghana-must-go-195x300.jpg" alt="" width="195" height="300" />
Afropolitan Taiye Selasi has a way with words, not words themselves, but their emotional coloring when they are woven into syntax. Her vowels shape into afternoon orange, her consonants thread into hues of an exposed heart, wounded pale pink. Memory, with all its good and all its regret, is the main theme of Selasi’s delicately modulated book. Ghana Must Go is beautifully convincing in its flashbacks and forward-thinking dialogue – the romance and rot of the West combine when seen through the eyes of uprooted immigrants. America is noisy, angular and assuming. But gradually it is muted as Selasi’s characters come into the foreground. In essence, this is a consciousness novel, yet the shadow of immigrant insecurity hovers over it. When one of Selasi’s protagonists looks back at “a world that considered her irrelevant with a look that said she considered the world irrelevant, too”, we understand the baggage. It is a collective past; Selasi carries the history of Africa in her lyrical, yearning prose.
<h4>The Shining Girls</h4>
<h4>by Lauren Beukes</h4>
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Winner of science fiction’s prestigious Arthur C Clarke award, Lauren Beukes is probably one of the continent’s best genre writers. The Shining Girls, her third novel, is a thriller about a time-travelling serial killer. It transcends the simulated thriller style, however, because Beukes finds a way to express the realism underneath the murder and sci-fi. At its most basic level, the excitement of the story is in how creative Beukes’s writing can be. Her descriptions and rhythms, the expletives, the improvised twists and turns make The Shinning Girls an authentic global novel, in a way that allows us to realize just how much writing is an art.
<h4>Endings And Beginnings</h4>
<h4>by Redi Tlhabi</h4>
Redi Tlhabi has an extraordinary gift for jotting down personal truths that read like arias. In her quasi-autobiography, Endings and Beginnings, she relates scenes from her childhood that sing from the heart. Tlhabi’s story of her youth and befriending a local gangster, Mabegzo, a 20-something murderer and rapist, is miraculously unfussy. She tells it, not from an embarrassed corner, but out in the open, with none of the flourishes that tend to bog down South African writers of the new millennium. By purifying Mabegzo of stereotype, she brings his character a unification of soul. Their relationship feels so real in its brokenness, their characters so close, that we dare not take our eyes off the page.
<h4>We Need New Names</h4>
<h4>by NoViolet Bulawayo</h4>
NoViolet Bulawayo’s freshness, her sense of ideological ingenuity and her innate understanding of the corruption of Africa’s innocence, gives her debut novel a unique radiance. Her sentences are emotionally strenuous: “leaving their umbilical cords underneath the soil, leaving the bones of their ancestors in the earth, leaving everything that makes them who and what they are, leaving because it is no longer possible to stay”. And they place her firmly among irresistibly visceral writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Bulawayo’s thoughts are open to the reader, yet she seems unconcerned by our needs. Like a cat, she is working out her own catharsis. The immigration/refugee question pervades all African writers in one way or another, but the Zimbabwean writer re-conceives the issue by relating it from millennial eyes. One of her protagonists is pre-teen Chipo, raped and pregnant. She is no pan-Africanist lioness. She is innocent, yet subtly unprincipled, overtly conscientious and shallow, yet wise. Bulawayo’s narrative pits readers as naïve outsiders who are no match for the nightmares and hopes that encapsulate this continent. We Need New Names was shortlisted for the 2013 MAN Booker Award, one of the world’s most prestigious literary prizes.
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<h4>Sister-Sister</h4>
<h4>by Rachel Zadok</h4>
Sometimes writing needs come from a place of improvisation instead of consciousness. Rachel Zadok reads not like a writer, but like an instin-ctive storyteller. Her second novel, Sister-Sister, unfurls like an intriguing journey of self-discovery. It relates the story of twin sisters, Sindi and Thuli, who are forced to leave their village and return to their mother’s home, a place of hostility, fear and dark superstition. The narrative sounds simple, yet it is dreamlike and impromptu; it lets loose the subliminal. That is what makes Zadok’s book such a surreal series of surprises. Here is a writer who feels free enough to reach into herself, who listens to her inner voice and who understands the mystery of what it means to be characteristically South African.
<h4>Kabu Kabu</h4>
<h4>by Nnedi Okorafor</h4>
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At first Kabu Kabu, which takes its title from the name given to Nigeria’s illegal taxis, plods along easily, but it quickly becomes about the fantastic and the mystical that sit snugly in the recesses of reality. Nnedi Okorafor is an acclaimed Nigerian fantasy and sci-fi author. This, her debut short story collection, is difficult to get out of your system. Be warned: her pseudo-folktales, which are simultaneously fantastical, sensual and emotionally violent, are likely to upset some readers.
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Tag: Books

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