Even as a young child, Angela Makholwa wanted to be a storyteller. Her first story was published at 13 and from then on a lifetime relationship with words was established. After graduating with a journalism degree, Angela worked as a journalist prior to establishing her own PR and events management company. She has written several novels including Red Ink, 30th Candle and Black Widow Society. Her most recent novel “The Blessed Girl “ published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury, was...

Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and has lived in the UK for eighteen years. She studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an M.Sc. in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University as well as an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University of London. The Girl with the Louding Voice won The Bath Novel Award for unpublished manuscripts in 2018 and was also selected as a finalist in 2018 The Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition. Abi lives in Essex...

Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and has lived in the UK for eighteen years. She studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an M.Sc. in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University as well as an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University of London. The Girl with the Louding Voice won The Bath Novel Award for unpublished manuscripts in 2018 and was also selected as a finalist in 2018 The Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition. Abi lives in Essex...

At the Open Book Festival, held in Cape Town in 2019, The Cheeky Natives sat down with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah to discuss his debut collection of short stories, Friday Black. This New York Times’ Best seller explores the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities of life in the US. These stories tackle urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explore the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In “The Finkelstein Five,” Adjei-Brenyah gives us an unforgettable...

Yellow And Confused released in 2019 is the latest offering from cookbook author, blogger and storyteller Ming-Cheau Lin. Yellow and Confused is a memoir that looks into her life as a third culture immigrant in South Africa. In 2018, she released a cook book, Just Add Rice, a book focused on Taiwanese food interspersed with stories from her childhood and growing up. In many ways, she continues this conversation started in the cook book in her memoir. Ming-Cheau Lin’s family emigrated to...

Morgan Parker is American poet, novelist, and editor and the author of the poetry collections Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night (2015), There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce (2017), and Magical Negro (2019), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award poetry prize. Alongside poet Angel Nafis, she runs The Other Black Girl Collective, an internationally touring Black Feminist poetry duo. She sat down with The Cheeky Natives in an extensive conversation to discuss her...

Written about the life and times of Maqoma, the Xhosa chief who was at the forefront of fighting British colonialism in the Eastern Cape during the nineteenth century. The story is told through the eyes of a young South African, Phila, who suffers from what he calls triple ‘N’ condition – neurasthenia, narcolepsy and cultural ne plus ultra. It is touted as an entrancing novel that marries imagination with history in a foray into the rapidly growing genre of historical fiction. Phila, who...

“Today, she’d brought him daffodils to brighten the room. ‘Women can bring men flowers too, you know.’ She smiled, sensing his hesitation as she arranged them in an empty milk bottle. Already, the buds were opening and adding a bright splash of buttery yellow to his room. She placed them next to the neat stack of books and papers and then picked up the one that was marked: A Handbook for Students from Overseas. She studied what he’d underlined and smiled as she read aloud from the section on...

'While there are many feminist strands, which is to say different kinds of feminism, there are also many core principles. The commitment to actively oppose and end patriarchy is one. The recognition that patriarchy works like other systems of oppression, like racism and capitalism, to value some people and brutalise others is another area of agreement. Like other systems of oppression, it also requires the support of many members of the groups it oppresses.'― Pumla Dineo Gqola, Reflecting...

African literature is changing’ - Brittle Paper Brittle Paper is your go-to site for African writing and literary culture. Brittle Paper brings you all the latest news and juicy updates on publications, authors, events, prizes, and lifestyle. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@brittlepaper) and sign up for our "I love African Literature" newsletter. Brittle Paper states that ‘the current generation of African readers are driven more by their tastes and passions than by allegiance to some...

“Just two years shy of thirty, Patsy has nothing to show for it besides the flimsy brown envelope that she uses to shade herself from the white-hot glare of the sun. the envelope contains all her papers — from birth certificate to vaccination records. But most importantly, it carries her dream, a dream every Jamaican of a certain social ranking shares: boarding an airplane to America. For the destination, and for the ability to fly.” – Nicole Dennis-Benn Patsy is a book that chronicles the...

“This is my story. This happened to me. Who he is, is irrelevant. He could be the boy next door, a street sweeper or your son – he could be anyone. I refuse to make this story about him or who he is. He is no different from any abusive man. His name is irrelevant. What he did though, is relevant. What he did to me – over and over again – is very relevant.” – Vanessa Govender Beaten but not Broken by Vanessa Govender is a harrowing story. In recent weeks, we have seen the resurfacing of...

‘But I am done with deceit. Lies no longer hold any allure for me. Now I seek true words that will, somehow, begin to heal that which has broken.’ – Desiree – Anne Martin (@believe_deeply). ‘We Don't Talk About It. Ever' is Desiree-Anne Martin’s powerful, harrowing, and poignant portrayal of her journey from an addict to an author. Heart-breaking in some parts but also so inspiring, she takes us through this journey in an intimate and honest revelation of the road to destruction and the...

‘With razor-sharp insight, Msimang writes in a reflective tone that contains both heartbreak and humour, as she navigates some often-overlooked complexities surrounding race, womanhood and class.’ – Cher Tan, Books and Publishing Just some of the words that come to mind when thinking of Sisonke Msimang’s second book ‘The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela’ Written in response to her passing of Winnie Mandela, Sisonke’s book is haunting and inspiring. In answering the question of redemption as...

‘But humility is a work of progress and there are times when I need to work on practising tolerance. Whenever individuals question my ‘g******s’ I am reminded of how blinkered and obsessed with labels we humans are. Whatever lies between my legs, whether I sit or stand when I pee, my g******s are what they are and they serve their purpose. Whatever the shape, size or name of them, and whether I have chosen to surgically align my body to my identity or not, I remain the man I have always...

“Whiteness seeks to remove us from its embrace because we threaten it. We place its position at the centre at risk when we dare to usurp it rather than simply remain constant in relation to it. Exerting my identity undermines the identity of whiteness. Yet exerting my identity calls into question my commitment to follow this feeling of emancipation from whiteness to its natural conclusion. It challenges whether or not I am willing to dismantle the system in which I exist to place myself in...

“But I’ve had time now to really think about the issue of racism, abuse, and discrimination against black professionals in the workplace, as a system, because that’s exactly what it is. A system. Designed to maintain the status quo, this system ensures that power imbalance remains unchanged.” – Sihle Bolani Sihle Bolani invited us into her life in a deeply personal way. She tells a story about her time in corporate. Her book written in the first person, in a journal/diary-like way, a method...

‘Well-behaved women seldom make history.’ -@malebosephodi writes deeply on the way this quote by Laurel Thatcher has influenced her life and writing. The Cheeky Natives sat down with the magical Malebo Sephodi, author of Miss Behave. Miss Behave is an award-winning text on a Black feminist journey to consciousness. Graceful and so relatable, Miss Behave is in part a journal and a love letter to black womxn of all ages. Far too often, in the age of wokeness, there’s been almost an absence...

Happy 2019!!!!!! The first live recording of The Cheeky Natives features Rosie Motene talking about her memoir ‘Reclaiming the Soil: A Black Girl's Struggle to Find Her African Self’. This book tells the story of a young girl born to the Bafokeng nation during the apartheid era in South Africa. At the time, Rosie's mother worked for a white Jewish family in Johannesburg who offered to raise her as their own. This generous gesture by the family created many opportunities for Rosie but also a...

“A collection of stories about nobodies who discover that they matter.” This is how Mohale Mashigo described her latest offering, Intruders, in one newspaper interview. While this is true, Intruders is also an ode to the stories that coloured many of our childhoods, like the Veras we were all warned about as children late at night. Mohale has rejected the label of Afrofuturism and aptly demonstrated why not only in these 12 brilliant short stories but also in the recording of this...

“This time especially, she was absolutely right, down to the last word. It was still only beginning.” These words end Quarnita Loxton’s sophomore novel Being Lily. We first encountered Lily in Quarnita’s debut novel Being Kari, which was longlisted for the 2018 9mobile Prize for Literature and shortlisted for the 2018 Herman Charles Bosman Prize. The second book is a sequel to the first book. This book focuses on the life of Lily. Dr. Lily De Angelo is a successful doctor who is going to...

‘No one owns their stories and the telling of them like white male writers. They are given endless opportunities for it. They can write about anything. They can pen rants about white-men problems and white-men wealth. They can wax lyrical about cars and boats and spaceships. They can have reams and reams of motivational articles published about being ‘bosses’. Without, mind you, ever having to refer to sexual harassment, unequal opportunities, discrimination or unequal pay. But the cherry on...

“Although this, of course, was not strictly true: I so desired Maureen that at times I temporarily lost my mind, any sense of restraint. That I imagined, with a sudden swell of emotions and enlightenment, how desperately I craved Greek salad: cucumbers. Lettuce, onion rings and baby tomatoes, only dressed with her springs, her womanly eruptions resultant from our imagined carnal sieges.” – Nthikeng Mohlele, Micheal K: a novel This month Nthikeng Mohlele will publish his sixth Novel...

“As I lifted my eyes, they landed on some deep chocolate eyes with long eyelashes right across me. Our eyes locked for a few seconds longer than normal. That was awkward, I thought and looked away.” – Pumza Shabangu With the massive success of the fifty shades trilogy, there’s been a renewed interest in literary erotica. Of course, as The Cheeky Natives, we were particularly interested in literary erotica we could relate to outside of the vanilla world mentioned earlier. This is where...

“I imagined a dying person’s last breath as something resembling an exclamation mark, distinct and hanging mid-air like an interrupted thought. My older sister Fikile’s last breath before she dies is nothing of the sort. There is no rattling noise at the back of her throat. No relentless twitching. No clinging to life. Fikile dies with no more fuss than a switch of a light bulb.” — Nozizwe Jele Nozizwe Jele first caught our attention with her debut novel “Happiness is a four letter word”...