Kopano Matlwa

Kopano Matlwa (born 1985) is a South African writer known for her novel Spilt Milk, which focuses on the South Africa's "Born Free" generation, or those who became adults in the post-Apartheid era[1] and Coconut, her debut novel, which addresses issues of race, class and colonization in modern Johannesburg.[2] Coconut was awarded the European Union Literary Award in 2006/07 and also won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2010. Spilt Milk made the long list for the 2011 Sunday Times Fiction Prize.[3]

Kopano Matlwa
Born1985 (age 35–36)
South Africa
OccupationNovelist, physician
GenreFiction
Notable worksCoconut, Spilt Milk
Website
www.kopanomabaso.com

Background

Kopano Matlwa Mabaso (née Matlwa) was born in township outside of Pretoria, South Africa. She began writing in 2004 when HIV was devastating South Africa to "debrief myself [Matlwa] to try to make sense of the crazy times." [4]

Education [4][5]

She got her medical degree from University of Cape Town and then went on the complete her Masters in Global Health Science and Doctorate (PhD) in Population Health from Oxford University where she was granted a Rhodes Scholarship.

Books
  • Coconut (Jacana, 2007), ISBN 9781431403899
  • Spilt Milk (Jacana, 2010), ISBN 9781431404018
  • Period Pain (Jacana, 2017), ISBN 978-1431424375. As Evening Primrose (London: Sceptre, 2017), ISBN 978-1473662261
  • Period Pain/Evening Primrose was in 2017/18 shortlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Award, the South African Literary Awards and South Africa's Humanities and Social Sciences Award
  • Coconut won the Winner of the European Literary Award (2007) and was a joint winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa (2010)

Matlwa is influenced by her youth when writing. She was nine or 10 years old in 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa, and she told NPR that she remembers it as an "exciting time": "We were the 'Rainbow Nation,' and kind of the 'golden children' of Africa." As she grew up, however, she says that sense of hope and newness fell away to the reality of a corruptible government.[1] She is also a Rhodes Scholar and physician, who wrote her first novel, Coconut, while completing her medical degree.[2]

Her many non-literary honours include: Young Physician Leader by the Interacademies Medial Panel in 2014, 2015 class of Tutu Fellows, Aspen Institute's New Voices in Global Health Fellow, and co-founder of Ona Mtoto Wako, an initiative to bring antenatal health care to pregnant women living in remote and rural parts of the developing world which won the 2015 Aspen Idea Award.[6]

Matlwa has been cited as the emerging voice of a new generation of South African writers, dealing with issues such as race, poverty and gender.[7] Coconut has been noted for its exploration of women's appearance, including the political aspect of black women's hair.[8]

Coconut

This novel is set in post-Apartheid South Africa and is built around the concept of "coconut" which is a person "who is black but who speaks like a 'white person'".[9] It delves into the complex society that was supposed to be free but "as new freedoms are born with difficulty, [they] often reveal fresh problems or create them".[10] The novel is divided into two narratives, Fifi who is apart of the black middle class and Fiks, a poor black orphan. Both of these protagonists struggle with finding their identity in the new multiracial society; they experience the divide between various African ideals and global Western values of whiteness.[9]

Spilt Milk

The novel’s protagonist is Mohumagadi, a black principal of her own successful school. The novel explores the relationship between Mohumagadi and her students and also the relationship between Mohumagadi and a white priest who is living through hard times. While writing this novel, Matlwa felt disappointed with the new post-Apartheid era politics and with personal feelings; it wasn’t everything that was promised. The characters in the novel and their interactions with one another are representative of the feelings of disappointment that the South African “born free” generation experienced. They soon found "deceit and greed and corruption creeping into society" [11]

Period Pain

In 2016, Matlwa published her third novel Period Pain. This novel discusses how South Africans discriminate against foreign nations and how “xenophobia exists within households and institutions”.[12] It follows Masechaba’s story as she grows up in South Africa dealing with how South Africans are perceived by other Africans as enslaved and spoiled. Through her struggles and marked events in her life, we are given a look into the mental health challenges that not only affect patients but also the professionals who deal with the patients. Matlwa’s Period Pain was shortlisted for the 2017 Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize, the South African Literary Awards and South Africa’s Humanities and Social Sciences Award.

Leadership

While still in medical school at the University of Cape Town, Matlwa co-founded the Waiting Room Education by Medical Students (WREM). This service educates patients and their families on common health conditions in the waiting rooms of mobile clinics.[13]

Matlwa is the executive director of Grow Great, a campaign aimed at mobilizing South Africa towards achieving a stunting free generation by 2030. Stunting is a medical condition where a child has impaired growth and development as a result of "poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation." [14] Matlwa is also the founder of the Transitions Foundation, an organization that seeks to help South Africa's youth transition from hopelessness to personal fulfillment through education.[13] Matlwa co-founded Ona-Mtoto-Wako along with her friend Chrystelle Wedi. This is an initiative that seeks to take lifesaving antenatal care to pregnant women in remote and rural parts of developing countries to reduce preventable maternal deaths in these regions. The Ona-Mtoto-Wako ("see your baby" in Swahili) won the 2015 Aspen Idea Award.

In 2016, Matlwa gave a TED x talk in Johannesburg about her Ona-Mtoto-Wako project. She talked about her experience setting up these clinics in dire African communities and how the people there didn't let their situation determine their attitudes. She spoke of their desire to help their community which Matlwa also possesses and how “one cannot hang one’s hopes on the brightness of the moon, instead one must derive one’s motivation from a dissatisfaction and impatience with the dark night, whatever that dark night might be for you." [15]

Grow Great [16]

Grow Great provides two different programs; Flourish which provides support for new and expectant mothers with classes about health and care and Champions for Children where health workers that provide households with interventions to support maternal and toddler nutrition.

Transitions Foundation [17]

Matlwa is also the founder of the Transitions Foundation, an organization that seeks to help South Africa’s youth transition from hopelessness to personal fulfillment through education. Matlwa was inspired to start this foundation after being invited to the Young African Women Leaders Forum in conjunction with Michelle Obama, the former US first lady. She knew that she wanted to give back to her community, and one way of accomplishing this was through education. Matlwa “knew from her own personal experience [that education] can change not only the trajectory of an individual life but that of an entire family” (Transitions Foundation, Our Story). The foundation offers three different services to children and families; community engagement, academic tutoring, and personal development. Community Engagement offers programs for children in the Allanridge Secondary School in the township of Rabie Ridge, Midrand. Academic tutoring offers students intensive math and science tutoring in problem areas (so these are pretty tailored to the student’s needs). Lastly, Personal Developments seeks to empower these children and families through life and career skills. They offer educational field trips, mentors and book clubs to provide an array of opportunity and possible career interests.

Awards
  • 2007 European Literary Award (for her novel Coconut)
  • 2010 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa (joint winner for her novel Coconut)
  • 2014 Young Physician Leader (selected by the Interacademies Media Panel)
  • 2015 Aspen Idea Award
  • 2015 Tutu Fellowship[18]
  • 2015 Aspen New Voices Fellow[5]

References
  1. "In South Africa, No Crying Over 'Spilt Milk'?". Tell Me More. NPR. 4 September 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  2. "I Dislike Those Of My Kind: Kopano Matlwa's Novel 'Coconut' Deals With Colonized Consciousness Among Other Social Themes". Ruby Soup with Pearl Juice. 25 November 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  3. "Sunday Times Fiction Long List". LibraryThing. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  4. Gates, Bill. "This doctor/novelist is tackling malnutrition". gatesnotes.com. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  5. "Kopano Matlwa Mabaso". New Voices Fellowship. 2020-01-03. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  6. About - Kopano Matlwa, http://www.kopanomabaso.com/about-me/
  7. Malecówna, Jennifer (6 July 2015). "Practical Action to Decolonise the 'White Literary System': The African Flavour Books Case Study". Books Live. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  8. Murray, Jessica (1 May 2012). ""Pain is Beauty": The Politics of Appearance in Kopano Matlwa's Coconut". English in Africa. 39 (1): 91–107. doi:10.4314/eia.v39i1.5.
  9. Spencer, Lynda (May 2009). "Young, black and female in post-apartheid South Africa". Scrutiny2. 14 (1): 66–78. doi:10.1080/18125440903151678. ISSN 1812-5441.
  10. Goodman, Ralph (May 2012). "Kopano Matlwa'sCoconut: Identity Issues in Our Faces". Current Writing. 24 (1): 109–119. doi:10.1080/1013929x.2012.645365. ISSN 1013-929X.
  11. "In South Africa, No Crying Over 'Spilt Milk'?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  12. "Book review: Period Pain – The Journalist". Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  13. "About – Kopano Matlwa". Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  14. "Stunting In A Nutshell". World Health Organization.
  15. Matlwa Mabaso, Kopano (2016). "What to do when a moonshot falls". Youtube.
  16. "South African Author & Doctor Kopano Matlwa Featured in Bill Gates' Heroes in the Field Series for Her Work in Fighting Malnutrition in Children". Brittle Paper. 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  17. "Transitions Foundation".
  18. "Kopano Matlwa Mabaso". AFLI Institute. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
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