Photo by Dave Mann
Lidudumalingani Mqombothi is an award-winning writer, photographer, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of the Caine Prize and Miles Morland Scholarship, and is currently completing a novel. He lives and works in Johannesburg. The following exchange took place between Book Reviews Editor Didintle Ntsie and Mqombothi via email over a period of 10 weeks.
Editor’s note: “I can’t pinpoint the moment I met Lidudumalingani. Throughout my time in Cape Town I encountered him at film festivals, talks on creativity, live music events, book gatherings and around the dinner tables of mutual friends. Recently he had a conversation over coffee with Dillion Phiri. What I heard sparked my curiosity into what else he was working on and his process.”
12TH STREET: What drew you to writing?
LIDUDUMALINGANI MQOMBOTHI: It wasn’t until late in my life that writing appealed to me. Before that not much did, to be honest. I think that the turn came when I began to read voraciously. I can’t remember the exact book now. I’m inclined to think that it was more than one book–that all of the books I read lead up to that moment. The attraction to writing continues even now. But I think now it is much clearer. I’m now far more interested in poetry. Anything I read, be it political or personal, must be wrapped up in the beauty of poetry.
STREET: I find that the shape and influence of poetry has evolved quite a bit over the past couple of years. Are you working on any poetry? How does poetry show up in your life and your work?
MQOMBOTHI: My introduction to writing was poetry. It was only after being a poet that I gravitated towards fiction and non-fiction. I do not consume poetry in any other way but it does show up in my own work. It shows up in two ways, in the text, and that I find poetry cannot be confined into a specific genre in the same way that fiction can. That appeals to me and I write with that liking, that what I am writing has blended many genres into one, and because I love poetry, I feel no obligation to explain it.
STREET: Do you ever feel inclined to explain, unpack, or justify any of the work you have put out? Any experiences where you’ve felt pressured to do so? What did you end up doing? And why did you or did you not oblige?
MQOMBOTHI: It’s a delicate balance. I insist always on how I want to think and write. It’s important to me, it’s at the center of it all, the very thing I hold dear, the thing that keeps me awake at night. But then every work has to go through edits and that is negotiating what I hold dear. I’ve been writing long enough to know what I can compromise on and what I will not.
I was pressured once on a piece for an American publication. It was a small issue but also huge. They wanted a word that was familiar to US readers but it didn’t quite make sense describing a South African delicacy. I refused and my argument was that this is the kind of writing that I prefer. Writing that is specific, capturing the sensitivity and nuance of people and place, nudging me out of my comfort zone, but giving me a detailed enough world that I’m completely in it.
STREET: How much of a role does your African-ness play into your experiences as a writer for publications? How do you navigate these spaces as an African, specifically South African writer? Do you feel that there is a large disparity in treatment or expectations due to this part of your identity?
MQOMBOTHI: I think that I have been to some degree quite lucky with my writing. I came into the world already with my own formed ideas and a conviction in the stories that I want to tell. I think that if a writer at any point in their writing life feels obliged to conform, it is not difficult to find writers who have not. Writers who have made an attempt at writing out of expectations and do it well. I do not write to be appear African, or to appear Worldly, I write simply to please myself. I suppose in a selfish way. I write what I want to read and that ties into the specificity that I prefer.
STREET: Which non-conformist writers do you find appealing? Which writers have made the greatest impact on your own writing journey?
MQOMBOTHI: It’s not really an issue of being non-conformist, which, if done deliberately, can be quite performative. The idea that I’m speaking about is a stance on being true to what one creates, not writing to any trends or labels. I’ve read many writers and many I’ve learnt a great deal from. Ben Okri, Dinaw Mengestu, Chinua Achebe, Seffi Atta, Bessie Head, Zadie Smith, Teju Cole, Emmanuel Iduma. The list is long and with enough time thinking about it, it can even be longer.
STREET: Thank you for sharing that list. Your own writing has been recognized for its brilliance and promise. Most notably, The Miles Morland Scholarship and the Caine Prize for African Writing. What do these, and any other accolades, mean to you?
MQOMBOTHI: I think awards are great in nudging a writer forward. Writing, any creative work, is an everyday negotiation and I think that these awards have allowed me to think of my own writing as brilliant even on the days that I do not. Knowing that there are other people out there, even if it is only one person that liked my writing. That is important.
STREET: What advice would you give to aspiring and emerging writers?
MQOMBOTHI: This is when I’m at my most useless. I think there’s multiple advices, wide-ranging and specific. One that I always insist on is that any writer, or anyone wanting to be, should read voraciously. Sadly, the world of reading is narrowing, people are reading work that’s more closely related to their own realities. I think not. I think that people who want to be writers should read more widely. More seriously. Less seriously. They must read poetry and magazines, literary and not. They must read literature by non-white writers. They must read translated literature. And then write.
Read Mqombothi’s 2016 Caine Prize for African Writing-winning short story, “Memories We Lost”.
(Of “Memories We Lost,” Mqombothi says, “I am fascinated by mental illnesses, and having seen my own extended relatives deal with it–a sort of ongoing journey–I was trying to find ways, or invent ways, that could help me write about how one family is dealing with it.”)
Follow Mqombothi:
On Twitter @lidudumalingani
On Instagram: @Lidudumalingani