Conversation with Kopano Matlwa

Written by Brendah Nyakudya
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 15:10

Kopano Matlwa is an inspirational figure who is already a critically acclaimed author and doctor – and she’s only in her 20s. Author of Coconut and Spilt Milk, she won the EU Literary Award and is a founding member and chairperson of Waiting Room Education by Medical Students (Wrems), a non-profit organisation run by students. She’s among the Rhodes Scholar class of 2010 and won the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award in 2005.

When did you discover your passion for writing?
I’d always read a lot from a very young age, and writing was almost a natural extension of that for me. I never knew it was anything special. I thought everyone wrote! It was so normal, so necessary, so it was quite a surprise when I got a little older and realised that there may be something there.
 
When was your “light-bulb” moment, when you realised you could make your dreams come true?
[Laughs.] I don’t really know if it was a light-bulb moment, but I guess it was when I seriously started thinking about sending Coconut to publishers. But that wasn’t so much about my writing “skill” – as I didn’t really know I could write at the time – but rather about a story that was about to eat me up inside if it wasn’t told. The more I hung onto it, the harder it was to not do something with it.

How did this affect you? Did you change your work habits?
Not really, no, ’cause as I said, I didn’t know I could write. In fact I was at a stage in my life when I was trying out a million different ventures all at the same time. So when Coconut got rejected by one publisher after another, I shelved the idea for a bit and tried my hand at a little business; I opened up a tuck shop at my university residence [laughs]. It was only after Coconut won the European Union Literary Award and people started calling me an author that I was like, ‘Whoa, I’m an author!’

Do you think life affords everyone that light-bulb moment, or is it something that you actively seek out?
I think we’re all blessed with immense talent and potential to do amazing things. I truly believe that God can do incredible things through each of us if we allow him to. Fear is a powerfully debilitating emotion, and if you can conquer that, you can conquer anything.

You managed to complete two books whilst studying for a degree in medicine. How did you manage?
It wasn’t a matter of balance. I was doing the two things I love most in the world. Spending time with people and sharing in their stories – and then writing. In fact, when med school got tough, it was through writing that I made sense of the horror, pain and sadness I saw around me. Writing got me through my studies. It was never a matter of choosing between the two.

But you write about more than just horror, pain and sadness...

I write about what moves me, scares me, excites me at that moment in time. And my books are extensions of where I found myself at certain times in my life.

The assumption is that Coconut is biographical. Is it so?
I try to write from a place of truth, so it’s impossible to keep elements of myself out of my work. But the characters were as new to me as they were to the readers, and I was just grateful that they allowed me to tell their story.

You describe Spilt Milk as an “allegory of love lost between black and white South Africa”. What are your thoughts on the current race relations in SA?
I’d need a whole dissertation to answer that question!

What would your advice be, not only for budding authors but also any young African out there looking to make their mark, personal and socially?
I’d advise them to be true to themselves.

What do you do to improve or hone your skills as a writer?
I read books that challenge me.

Tell us more about Wrems.
It’s an organisation I founded when I was a student to educate patients on common health conditions in the waiting rooms of mobile clinics, so that our communities could be empowered to take their health into their own hands. The organisation has now grown and is run by some amazing medical students at the University of Cape Town. I’m no longer a student so am no longer actively involved and take my hat off to them for Wrems’s success.

People describe you as many things – including an award-winning author and a doctor. How would you like to be known?
Only just as Kopano. I'm loathe to be described by my work.

What life lessons have you learnt from being a doctor?
That life is hard but also beautiful. That suffering is real, but God is real too. That people are good and capable of so much kindness. And that if we work together we can overcome anything.

What does the future hold for Kopano? Any more novels in the pipeline?
I’m always writing and always seeking to improve myself and the space around me. But who knows what God has in store for me. I’m just excited for the journey.