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Tjieng Tjang Tjerries by Jolyn Phillips
Modjaji Books
87 pages
R150 at takealot.com
If you are looking for a read that encompasses colourful Western Cape culture meshed with themes of womanhood, love and family, Jolyn Phillips’ debut collection of stories is for you. Even if those themes do not interest you, you will find yourself enjoying reading Tjieng Tjang Tjerries.
By making use of typical Afrikaans colloquialisms in her storytelling, Phillips drew me in with her words. Despite not being an Afrikaans speaker myself, the familiar colours that were painted between English and Afrikaans were easy to understand, and a joy to read.
This collection of 13 short stories, each written and set in and around the town of Gansbaai in the Western Cape, shines a light on life in the small fishing town. Even though the stories are works of fiction, one cannot help but wonder about the actual characters that inform the work.
In documenting daily trials and tribulations faced by the mostly female characters in the book, Phillips gives a voice to the voiceless in this eye-opening collection.
Ultimately, the book speaks of overcoming one’s circumstances despite the challenges involved. And, as the cultural life of rural Afrikaans homes is delineated, Phillips’ narratives emerge like a breath of fresh air – and fill a missing chapter in local literature.
She has succeeded in satisfying my appetite for home-grown and proudly South African content.
WRITER PROFILE
It is said that good writers should write about what they know, and Jolyn Phillips seems to be mastering this art beautifully.
She was born in Blompark, Gansbaai, a small fishing village in the Western Cape and, in a striking fictional debut, the talented writer has penned shared experiences that occur within her home town – and has impressed critics nationwide.
Her book – a compilation of 13 short stories – sees 13 unique characters come to life in a linguistically rich narrative using Afrikaans colloquialisms – adding particular colour to the way in which one reads each tale.
After being “discovered” at the Franschhoek Literary Festival last year by Colleen Higgs, publisher at Modjaji Books, Phillips has seen immense success almost overnight, with Tjieng Tjang Tjerries chosen to be on Exclusive Books’ Home Bru list and then receiving a second print run within months of its release.
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I dial the number on the speaker phone from the City Press “Green Room”, and wait eagerly. A friendly voice answers, “Hello”. Phillips is chatting with me from Cape Town, where she is completing her PhD in language education at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). She is also a 2014 Mandela Rhodes Scholar and in 2013 completed her master’s in creative writing at UWC.
Speaking of her foray into writing and the journey she has embarked on, she says it began in the third year of her BA degree.
“I applied to join a creative writing module, which was launched in my third year. I got in and that is where it all really began.”
Phillips grew up in an Afrikaans home, and once she moved to Cape Town to study, found that her muse was homesickness. “Writing was really a place for me to relinquish myself. Also, not being able to go home all the time allowed my writing to remind me of home and how I speak.”
Coming from a modest household and having a close relationship with her family meant that being able to write down familiar memories and moments brought comfort to her. “There were a lot of times in Cape Town that I was unable to recognise myself, just because it was so different from home. So writing helped me to escape.”
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Over the speakerphone, I am captivated by her story. “I did a transition series course when I was in my honours year, where I learnt about culture,” says Phillips, “and this book is also an exercise in what we see as the standard [spoken] language and what we see as the written language in publishing,” she says about the use of Afrikaans in Tjieng Tjang Tjerries.
“I wanted to see, when I was writing this book, how the two languages would work with each other and coincide, since I had not seen any other books like this. So, the language really comes to life in the characters I have written about and how they are able to express themselves in the stories.”
Even though her fiction writing began as a personal escape, she soon felt it evolving into something much bigger.
“You know, it was only as I went on that I realised the words that I was writing were not just about me any more, but became more and more about the characters which were coming to life before my eyes.”
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When it comes to her readers, she feels that she cannot tell people how to read her book. “As an avid reader myself, and someone who has studied literature, you cannot tell people what they should get out of it. It was a labour of love.
“I went home this past weekend and asked my aunt if she read the book. She said she had, and that there were three things she experienced: ‘You laugh sometimes, you cry sometimes and sometimes you get hurt.’
“I wasn’t able to tell her how to feel because she knows where I grew up and she knows me. The book has a lot to do with women characters and how they are able to get through trials and tribulations – and I was able to capture this as a work of fiction. This is, I guess, what people would identify with.”
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Phillips feels the characters “needed their own voices” in the fictional work.
“Going forward, I understand that writing is a craft that encompasses a lot of lonely days, because it is a lonely profession. It is a great discipline that has grown into a love and passion for me. I would love to introduce people to my mother tongue of Afrikaans through poetry and I have that in the pipeline, since language offers great insight into our lives.
“I am in love with Afrikaans poetry and I am working on an Afrikaans poetry collection. It is going to be about my own womanhood and where I am from, a focus on the way I talk and do things. I have become a complete student of the arts.”
