“This award serves to affirm my stability as a writer who has just started writing in my mother tongue after endless discouragements from older writers.”

A talented author and Limpopo Mirror freelancer, Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho, has just returned from Cape Town, where he won the prize as overall winner in the Tshivenda category during the Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards last Thursday.

“At some stage I was made to believe that no young people like me could produce literary works in Tshivenda, because it is not easy to do,” he lamented. “I received discouragement such as only the old could write: youths lacked the knowledge and writing tools to produce passable, publishable writings. And I say that has been proved wrong.”

The title that won this young writer an award is Mveledzo na Zwigevhenga, which is a children's story. Pearson published the book, which will be available in bookshops soon. The award also came with a cash prize.

“The book tells the story of a nine-year-old Mveledzo who uses her mobile phone to snap a short video clip of gun-wielding criminals at a local supermarket,” he said. “The robbers felt that they had a legitimate right to rob Ahmed of his hard-earned money and items, because he was a foreigner who operated a successful shop in their village.”

Mukwevho said that he failed to grasp the logic behind the actions of people who attacked foreigners who operated businesses in South Africa. “Many people, including learned scholars, cite a lack or scarcity of job opportunities as a contributing factor to incidents of xenophobic attacks. Such stereotypes, which we attach to foreigners who come to this country, will not do our kids any good.”

Mukwevho started writing some 12 years ago, and his books include A Traumatic Revenge and The Violent Gestures of Life.

“As a writer, the whisperings and chief voice follow me wherever I go,” he said. “At times I may try to ignore the voice or else postpone writing due to some pressing work, but the voice keeps singing in the backroom of my mind. And when I can no longer contain the loudness of the voice, all other matters have to stop and I sit down to write.”

Mukwevho had expressed his excitement about having written a book in the language which his people, including the elderly, would understand. “Even if they cannot read, their grandchildren can still read out loud for them,” he said.

He thanked editor and mentor at FunDza Literacy Trust, Rosamund Mary Haden, who helped him hone his writing skills as a children's writer. “Ros (Rosamund) has been such a darling and without her help, I believe, I may not have written a manuscript which eventually turned out to win an award,” he said.

Mukwevho has so far enjoyed some benefits of being a writer, among them, travelling to Beijing in China, and Dakhla Camp and Algiers in Algeria.