Lebohang Masango

I wrote a book with Dr Judy Dlamini

New book alert! Grow To Be Great: Awesome African Achievers by Dr Judy Dlamini and I, is finally here! First of all, do you know how cool it is to collaborate on writing a book with your university’s chancellor? It’s amazing! I actually “met” her in 2019, when she was one of the invited guests for the Zanele Mbeki Fellowship one morning and we all sat in a circle and engaged with a selection of phenomenal women leaders about their life’s work. Little did I know that we would actually meet properly when she was searching for a young children’s book author to collaborate with as she sought to convert her books, Equal but Different and The Other Story into a singular book for younger readers. Even better, we met and discussed this collaboration for the first time only a few weeks before she capped me at my Master’s graduation ceremony in December 2019. If you look at the photo, you’ll see me beaming because I held her hand and she smiled and said, “Wow, you’re wearing a suit. You look beautiful.” I was especially proud of my look that day because I really wore a tailored suit with some Nike Cortez the day I became an Anthropologist.

An Anthropologist; a Master, as capped by Chancellor of the University of Witwatersrand, Dr Judy Dlamini.

Working with Mam’ Judy has been such an enriching experience. Not only was I able to gain some insight into her life journey, because she also features as a character in the book, I was also able to experience excellence and discipline up close in a way that is rarely available to me since I usually work alone across all of my various academic and bookish projects. It also blows my mind that she’s a whole medical doctor, academic doctor, businesswoman who also owns her own publishing house, mother, grandmother and a whole chancellor of the best university in Africa! (I know you know that I don’t care about the official stats. Haha!)

Grow To Be Great: Awesome African Achievers is published by Dr Dlamini and her husband, Sizwe Nxasana’s publishing house, Sifiso Publishers. It is a gift for African children; to inspire them to know that they are the continuation of really incredible legacies and people who have worked tirelessly to fulfil their own aspirations as well as to contribute greatly to the communities around them, benefitting the continent as a whole. By capturing their stories, we hope that African children will see themselves reflected in these great leaders and know that they too are capable of so much more. Here is more about the book:

Co-authored by Dr. Judy Dlamini and Lebohang Masango, Grow to Be Great is an adaptation of Dr. Judy Dlamini’s two books, Equal but Different & The Other Story. It’s targeting young adults. It seeks to inform, empower and validate their dreams. There is a message from each of the 24 leaders covered in the book, from the President of the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa, to the Chairman of the Solidarity fund and Co-Founder of Women Investment Portfolio, Gloria Serobe, the only woman former Deputy President of the country current Executive Director of UN-Women, Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to the late Dr Richard Maponya; amongst others.

Available in English.

Stockists:

Ethnikids (online purchase)

Exclusive Books (online & physical purchase)

Sifiso Publishers (online purchase)

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Thank you, lovely publisher who recommended me! (You know who you are!)

I won a gold Pendoring Award!

The Pendoring Advertising Awards were held on Friday, 13 November 2020. Unfortunately, we are still enduring a pandemic so one couldn’t get dressed up and enjoy the ceremony in real time – like we did this time last year at a different event! My book, Mpumi’s Magic Beads was nominated in the “Publication Design – Whole Publication” category. According to the website, this is what the awards are about:

The Pendoring advertising awards are 25 years old this year – a truly unique initiative that celebrates the 10 indigenous languages of our country – quite simply, at Pendoring, we speak South African. Originally created in 1995 to promote and stimulate the use of Afrikaans in advertising, Pendoring has gone through a number of changes to celebrate all our indigenous languages.
Pendoring Awards’ background.

My favourite thing was seeing that all nominations adhere to advertising conventions so I was credited as the Chief Creative Officer, Masego Morulane as the Art Director and Dusanka Stojakovic as the Content Strategist. Dusanka, Vanessa, Solly and team from David Philip continue to make my journey as an author so remarkable and full of wonder! I was honestly so nervous about these awards but, wow, we actually won! We now have a gold Pendoring Award to add to the three awards that we already have for this book.

From the Pendoring Awards’ nominations list for 2020

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Thank you, Pendoring Awards’ judges and amazing adults who keep buying this book for your babies!

My second publication as an Anthropologist

Anyone who knows me knows how much I absolutely love Johannesburg, in all its grit and grime and glory. I write poems about it. I even write children’s books about it. So, naturally, my academic efforts are dedicated to understanding this city and the people who live and love in it, as I do. My current PhD journey continues from where I concluded my Master’s research. I find myself really fascinated by romantic relationships; what is reflected about them in the media, in music, in movies, in pop culture and how people navigate them to realise their own individual happiness within their couplings. I’m also interested in how grand socio-political occurrences affect the intimacies between people. If you’re interested in that too, you should read my chapter in Professor Nicky Falkof and Dr Cobus van Staden’s new edited volume, Anxious Joburg: The Inner Lives of a Global South City.

This publication is a result of responding to a call for abstracts for Nicky and Cobus’ Urban Anxieties workshop held in 2017 that is supported by my current scholarship, Governing Intimacies. I worked with them, back-and-forth draft submissions and edits, until we reached the point where the chapter was good enough to be published. Academia gives me butterflies in the worst way so even when the act of applying myself feels like moving boulders, I really do try to give it my best each time. My favourite part is that I always come out on the other side having a wealth of new knowledge and knowing new scholars that inspire me and if I’m lucky, they take interest in my work and give me the most amazing advice. Strangely, academia makes me happy. Let’s get back to the book. I really think you’ll enjoy it so get yourself a copy here and while you wait, you should listen to Prof. Falkof’s conversation with Azania Mosaka on Radio 702, here.

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Thank you Nicky, Cobus and Governing Intimacies!

A beautiful handmade Mpumi doll

A few weeks ago, I came across a blog by a mom named Nondumiso who mentions how Mpumi’s Magic Beads is among some of her daughter’s favourite books. While browsing, I discovered that she creates handmade dolls so naturally, I wanted to support her work too! I really love my custom Mpumi doll by Imibongo kaMakhulu. I don’t think you can order this exact doll but maybe you can have her create something based on your own little girl or boy? I think that would be such an amazing gift, especially with Christmas around the corner! Here are her details below.

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Thank you for your beautiful work, Nondumiso!

Co-authors!

Professor Claudine Storbeck and I earlier at the Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Witwatersrand with our new book!

MultiChoice and The Throne present…

Thre Throne 2

MultiChoice Presents: Africa’s Most Loved Storyteller Issue featuring…me! I recently collaborated with media giant MultiChoice in writing a poem that represents the importance of the storytelling tradition on the African continent which also extends to who they are as a company that has been giving opportunities to Africans of all ages to tell their stories for the past 25 years. You can read about my insights and my work in the cover story which was so beautifully written by Gomolemo Lesejane in the latest edition of The Throne as well as more stunning photographs. My gratitude goes to Caron Williams, publisher of the Throne; photographer, Austin Malema; make-up artist, Nureen; hair stylist, Smangele from Indalo Nubian Naturals and Sibu Mabena from Duma Collective for bringing it all together. It was amazing to be on sent with this remarkable group of people who are all so supremely gifted in what they do.

There aren’t enough words to capture how incredible Austin Malema’s photography is.

The Throne 3 — Photographed by Austin Malema. Dress by Maxhosa Africa.

You can watch my poem, Ten Thousand Stories below and read the words inside The Throne.

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Thank you, Multichoice!

Mpumi and Jabu’s Magical Day

Currently available in English, isiZulu, Setswana, Sesotho, isiNdebele and Xitsonga. More translations coming soon!

MJMD - Endpaper

There’s magic in the air

as Mpumi and Jabu play.

They sign and laugh,

as they become friends.

“Oh what fun!” they say.

The sequel to Mpumi’s Magic Beads is here! The story follows the the adventure that unfolds when Mpumi, a hearing girl, and Jabu, a Deaf boy, meet for the first time. They learn that even though we are all different, we are also the same in many ways. We love playing and reading, we love smiling and helping our family and friends. Everything about us makes us special.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Hi Hopes, an early intervention partner for families of deaf and hard-of-hearing babies.
About the co-author

Claudine Storbeck has a PhD in Education Linguistics and has been working in the field of Deaf Education and Deaf Studies for over 27 years. She is a fluent signer and was honoured to be the South African Sign Language (SASL) interpreter for the inaugurations of both Presidents Mandela and Mbeki. Claudine has over 150 academic presentations and publications in almost 20 countries and has recently starting publishing children’s literature. She was named a world specialist in Deaf Education by the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and is the Director and Associate Professor of the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Stockists:

Bargain Books (physical purchase)

Book Circle Capital, Melville (online & physical purchase)

Ethnikids (online purchase)

Love Books, Melville (physical purchase)

New Africa Books (online purchase)

Reader’s Warehouse (online purchase)

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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I’m a published Social Anthropologist

Connected Lives: Families, Households and Care in South Africa edited by Professors Nolwazi Mkhwanazi and Lenore Manderson is finally here. This means that I am officially a published Anthropologist – let me go update my CV! It seems like a lifetime ago when I was navigating the public health section of my university’s medical campus in search of the venue that they had organised for the Families, Households and Care Workshop. I just remember feeling really intimidated about being one of the youngest (and least credentialed) people in the room so I mostly kept quiet and kept to myself while trying to learn as much as I can. My favourite part about being involved in workshops and conferences is seeing how people working in similar areas of research can be gathered together to think together about what a collective contribution to knowledge production can look like and then being part of that process over time; editing and communicating for years until everything is has been checked off the list and all that’s left is to receive the copies from the publisher. Here is more information about the book:

Connected lives: Families, households, health and care in contemporary South Africa, illustrates the changing constitution and the variability of households, fluid understandings of family, and the impact of these in the context of life changes and health problems. Through 29 case studies of people of diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, class, sex and gender, of varying ages and from both urban and rural backgrounds, the authors explore the household as a site for the production of health and care. The book illustrates the impact of economic, demographic and social changes on households and families, and considers how these factors influence everyday life, health, wellbeing and care in contemporary South Africa. This book will interest those in global public health, anthropology, and population and demography studies.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to cancel the physical book launch and find a way to create a virtual one instead. So, here is the book launch, a series of 1 minute long videos from each author. My case study was drawn from my Master’s research on compensated (“blesser and blessee”) relationships. My summary is below:

You’ll notice that the Youtube page that the videos are hosted on reads Medical Health Humanities Africa. It is an African network of medical and health humanities academics, artists, healers and activists that Professor Mkhwanazi has been involved in creating – if that sounds like you, you can check out the website and join. And, you can purchase Connected Lives: Families, Households and Care in South Africa here.

Nolwazi & Lenore

Thank you, Nolwazi and Lenore, for believing in my work and helping me to shape my contribution into something worth publishing!

Parasite: it is as brilliant as everyone says it is

At first, it was hard to believe that the film Parasite was as deserving of the waves and waves of reverence that everyone adopted when speaking about it. I was a firm non-believer, especially because even the best movies seem to have to rely on reproducing Hollywood tropes in order to achieve acclaim. For that reason, I believed that if you have seen one film then you have surely seen them all – it’s just nice to get out of the house and eat loads of popcorn every once in a while. Quite a big deal was made of the fact that a so-called foreign film scooped so many statues at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Even then, my expectations for the film were decidedly low because we all know how the hype machinery of Hollywood can ensnare even the most vigilant people with its hyperbole.

As my blog title shows, I was pleasantly surprised. The plot is refreshingly unpredictable. Set in South Korea, the film explores some stark contrasts in the material realities of the social classes. Considering that this was the first Korean film I’ve ever seen, it was really interesting to explore what poverty means in that context and, of course, to see the familiar and universal aloofness that accompanies wealth. By putting the Kim and Park families in close proximity and entangling their lives so humorously and tragically, Parasite exposes the relationship between the rich and poor; making it even more apparent that poor people’s suffering sustains and energises the lives of the wealthy – in ways that the latter can afford to pay very little regard to because their own survival is not as precarious. Take some time out of your life and watch this film. It’s astoundingly good.

2019 Most Influential Young Africans

I just want to say a big, big thank you to everyone who took their time out to vote in the 100 Most Influential South Africans poll for 2019. You put me at number 39 and I appreciate it! What an honour to be counted among such inspirational people. My passion is words and making worlds for people – recently children – to see themselves in, grow in and be inspired enough to be their best selves in. I appreciate everything everyone does to make this dream-work happen.