Imraan Coovadia

PROFILE FEATURE Falling through the cracks... In conversation with Imraan Coovadia

he rich, multi faceted issues. me ask what or who inspired feelings on the current and diverse Here is what he had to say; you to take up the pen. In an #FEESMUSTFALL movement combined persona of attempt to buck the trend I and it’s impact on the country, the South African Q: You are considered and would like to know what else we were met with a distinct tone people has always been referred to as a "Social you explored that added clarity of disappointment as he a reliable source of experiences Scientist". What, by your through it being what you did proceeded to say “I think and stories that will take you on definition and based on your not want. funding for any critical service a rollercoaster ride. life experience is a "Social is tight. We don't fund schools, Our textured past and ability to Scientist"? A: I wanted to (and should have or housing, or health at the level believe in a better tomorrow been) a physicist. I also had a they require (and we can't). birthed a wealth of creatively A: I'm not actually a social ZX Spectrum computer when I Economic growth has slowed to skilled individuals, Imraan scientist. But at a certain level was 15 or so and I should clearly nothing and we can't make the Coovadia being one of them. of abstraction everybody in have continued playing around choices required to put it back the Humanities and Social with it. Just didn't seem like on track. It's hard to see why Winner of "Best single Sciences (HSS) is interested in there was much of a future in middle-class university students authored" Fiction Book at the the past. I guess, the human IT. should have priority over rural Inaugural National Institute for past. And that separates us mothers and children. the Humanities and Social from sciences which allow us Q: As a participant and winner, Sciences (NIHSS) Book, to control objects or predict aside from the hard earned It's even harder to see how the Creative and Digital Collections outcomes. recognition by your peers, what use of arson and violence Awards 2016 for Tales of the Having said that, I'm a writer would you say is the relevance against laboratories and Metric System, Imraan is and I'm interested in social of the institution and more libraries does anything but indeed an accomplished author, change over significant specifically the awards in collapse the scientific and academic and social activist periods of time, and across reshaping the literary technological base of this whom through his published different strata of society. landscape going forward? country for generations to works presents us with an Wonder and amazement at come. And speaking personally, opportunity to explore a those processes is probably A: The arts and social sciences hardest for me to see how some textured cast of characters and where any kind of social can't make humanity academics insist that nothing their unforgettable individual science begins. progress-that's really the job of can be done to prevent assaults stories. science, technology, and above on unarmed working-class Q: If you were to envision an all business-but they can help guards (up to and including A child of the seventies, Imraan alternative life, which would create a wiser middle class. trying to burn them to death or currently resides in Cape Town Imraan be? dropping rocks on their heads) where he lectures and is the Q: You have set the benchmark because their view of Marxism director of the creative writing A: Writers especially, probably and like Simon & Garfunkel it's or post colonialism forbids it. program at the University of all social scientists, spend a tough act to follow. A word of One of the correlations political Cape Town. their lives thinking about encouragement to the 2017 scientists note is between the Born in Durban, he spent his counterfactuals. I'm not entrants... willingness to use or tolerate early years in South Africa totally convinced in an force in a democracy and the before moving to the United alternative life I would be A: I'm sure they'll do just great onset of authoritarianism. The States to study at Harvard much better off. I wish I'd with the support from the fact that we're facing College where he majored in know a little more about the NIHSS and their commitment to authoritarianism on campuses Philosophy. Later, he attained future. And thought about the fostering and developing the which comes under the banner his doctorate at Yale University. kinds of imagination and excellence within Humanities of Biko and Fanon doesn't make As an academic at UCT, his creativity that you see and Social Sciences. it any more attractive, or any research interests include: expressed in certain careers less likely, if unchecked by the Eighteenth- and nineteenth in science, technology, When asked what inspired Tales law, to end in national disaster.” century English and American economics, where you really of the Metric System, Imraan literature, philosophy and have the chance to help expressed his passion for telling With a sullen smile and a glint literature and political and millions of people and change the stories of the lives and of realisation in his eyes, social thought of the eighteenth things on a real scale. I mean, people who fall through the Imraan chose to share a pearl of and nineteenth centuries. I very much like the kinds of cracks that exist as a result of wisdom before parting ways – individual connections with our efficient “As I have grown older, I now Arguably the most students and other academics Pigeon holing and segmentation appreciate that sometimes being underrepresented genre in our that working at a university of society. conservative is a good thing.” literary landscape, the NIHSS allows. But I also feel awards were well-timed seeking intensely the sensation of It should come as no surprise As one of the successful to address this by providing a being confined in an Imraan Coovadia: Winner of "Best single authored" Fiction Book at the Inaugural National Institute for the Humanities that when asked about what he pioneers, Tales of the Metric platform of recognition. As a institution which doesn't work and Social Sciences (NIHSS) Book, Creative and Digital Collections Awards 2016 for Tales of the Metric System values most in his current role System is testament to the vital Photo credit: Victor Dlamini component of their overall very well and with some as the director of the creative role that a re-imagined, mandate, the awards people whose interest isn't in writing program at the redefined and recognised acknowledge and celebrate shaping the future in a being the NIHSS award. All of be translated into one more University of Cape Town, he contribution that the those undertaking the realistic and interesting way. them are equally important language and you could make responded “Being a part of humanities and social sciences necessary labour of creating We're letting but if you had highlight one in “As I have grown older, I now the choice, what language would mentoring and positively faculty plays in promoting post-apartheid forms of narrow-mindedness and relation to a milestone, which you choose and why? contributing to the success of social cohesion. scholarship. bloody-mindedness take over is closest and most meaningful appreciate that sometimes being the next generation of creative our productive lives. Can we to you? A: Latin. It's concise. And, as a writers.” With the 2017 process underway Sunday Independent spent some imagine Elon Musk working conservative is a good thing.” language, lacking in interesting one can only speculate in time in conversation with the in South Africa? A: Hard to say. I think my PhD comedy if you don't like Plautus It is because of his concern for anticipation of the talent that winning author getting to know degree is the one which marks and Terence much. students and academia at large, will be showcased in the next the man; his thoughts on Q: You boast a list of me the most (though as much of holders. It's when you leave Q: Your debut novel - The that when Sunday Independent annual NIHSS Book, Creative perception, inspiration and a bit accolades from first a curse as a blessing). This is humanity and join the Wedding, was translated into Q: Predictability and an innate solicited an answer to the and Digital Collections Awards. on topical and not so topical publication to the most recent probably true of most doctorate observers forever. Italian and Hebrew. If it were to addiction to habit would have question on his thoughts and By: Zunaid Omar

From a Natal boarding Background Ama-Boeke Prize (2003). school in the seventies and Soviet spies in London in the His early writing is eighties to the 1995 Rugby Imraan Coovadia was born considered an important World Cup and intrigue in the in Durban, in 1970, South addition to Indian-South Union Buildings, Tales of the Africa to Jerry Coovadia and African literature, in that it Metric System shows how 10 Zubie (Zubeida) Hamed. deals with the issues of days spread across four migration, historical decades send tidal waves His father is a well-known concerns, loss of culture and through the lives of ordinary AIDS activist, member of the nationality. and extraordinary South UDF and doctor. His mother Africans alike. is a dermatologist. He is a His style is comedic and An unforgettable cast of regular contributor to various thoughtful. His later writing, characters includes Ann, newspapers, journals and The Wedding (2001) such as the Institute for Taxi who is trying to protect her Green-Eyed Thieves magazines such as N+1, Poetry, is set in Cape Town husband and son in 1970, (2006) Agni, The New York Times, and explores both the taxi and Victor, whose search for Boston Globe, Times of industry and the intricacies a missing document in 1973 India, and South Africa's The of life in Cape Town. will change his life forever. Mail and Guardian Rock guitarist Yash takes his and Sunday Independent Awards boy to the beach on Boxing (South Africa). Day in 1979 to meet his revolutionary cousin, while His debut novel, The Shanti, his granddaughter, Life and Writing Wedding, was shortlisted for loses her cellphone and falls the 2002 Sunday Times in love twice on a lucky Imraan has travelled and Fiction Award, Ama-Boeke afternoon in 2010. lived widely, as extensively Prize (2003), as, London, Melbourne, Playwrights, politicians, Boston, New York City, IMPAC Dublin International philosophers, and thieves, all Durban and Cape Town. His Literary Award (2005), and caught in their individual writing reflects this in its stories, burst from the pages was chosen as book of the of Coovadia’s Tales of the diverse themes and week by Exclusive Books Metric System as it measures influences. (South Africa) and Asian South Africa’s modern history Authority and Authorship Week.com. in its own remarkable units of High low in-between in V. S. Naipaul (2009) His early novels were imagination. (2009) focused more on South He has also won The Sunday “Simple in concept, complex African Indian experiences. Times Fiction Prize and the in construction, a novel He was also influenced University of Johannesburg which is so much more than stylistically by V. S. Naipaul Prize for his 2010 novel, the sum of its parts, one and others. His first novel, which purports to examine High Low In-between and the randomness of life while “The Wedding” was the English category of the Winner of "Best single delicately drawing the eye to published in 2001. M-Net Literary Awards for his the butterfly effect of 2012 novel, The Institute of authored" Fiction Book at individual acts and exposing The novel was well received, Taxi Poetry. the Inaugural National the interconnected¬ness of garnering a variety of people. In pristine prose and accolades such as runner-up Winner of "Best single Institute for the Humanities with a telling eye for detail, in the Sunday Times Fiction authored" book at the and Social Sciences Tales of the Metric System Award (2002), long-listed for inaugural National Institute leaves the reader with a the IMPAC Dublin (NIHSS) Book, Creative and sense of having undertaken for the Humanities and a journey through the familiar International Literary Award, Social Sciences (NIHSS) Digital Collections Awards only to arrive somewhere a finalist for the first annual creative and digital awards completely new.” Connecticut Book Award, 2016 for Tales of the Metric 2016 – Aminatta Forna, author of The Institute of Taxi and short-listed for the System The Memory of Love Transformations: Poetry (2012) Essays (2012)