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Advertising honcho Khaya Dlanga has made his name as one of South Africa’s most popular public figures through his work as an author, copywriter, blogger and Twitter boss. So what turned him into a bookworm?
Have you always loved reading?
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact moment that reading started to influence me, but I do know one of those was when my mother introduced me – actually forced me – to start reading books.
I hated it. Little did I know it was something I would end up loving so much I would cover the light at night so I could read because I didn’t want her admonishing me for still reading late at night.
What book got you reading other books?
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. It exposed to me for the first time to what had truly gone on in the country.
I think I also related to it because it started off in a village, which was where I grew up.
For example, the way he described how people entered a priest’s house, with great respect and fear almost, was very familiar to me. That was also how people entered my grandfather’s house, not because he was a priest, but because he was so well-respected in the community.
What’s your favourite book?
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is one of my favourites.
Although the ending is not what I would have hoped for, the spirit of the character in the book is indomitable.
The fact that he wrote so powerfully that you, as the reader, felt for a fish is extraordinary.
When did you know you were going to be a writer?
There’s a moment that sticks out for me, which made me realise I loved this writing thing.
When I was in Grade 8, our English teacher made us watch a video of a building collapsing.
I later found out what was happening was a controlled demolition, that what we were witnessing had a fancy English word too: an implosion.
We were asked to describe what we saw, what we imagined we smelt, using all our senses to describe those few seconds in 400 words.
I enjoyed describing the event. I got a very high mark for it. That’s when I fell in love with writing
