“They are mini-books. Short enough to read in a sitting, long enough to tell the whole story. Shorter than a novel, longer than a magazine article. Long enough to satisfy, short enough to grip your attention.” This, in short, is what a MampoerShort is, and is what you'll find under the “about mampoer” tab on the website.
MampoerShorts is a venture in which leading South African writers have launched a fresh approach to storytelling. Four of these South African talents (including South Africanised Dutch writer Fred De Vries) spoke about the Mampoer project and their own contributions to it at the Franschhoek Literary Festival (FLF).
Wits professor of journalism and author Anton Harber introduced the audience to the ins and outs of the venture. Harber explains that MampoerShorts is an experiment in a new area, “focusing mainly on non-fiction as this sells better than fiction in South Africa”. One can access any of the available e-books via the MampoerShorts website by downloading the Apple or Android applications, or through the Kalahari and Exclusive Books websites. Harber says that Amazon “is a huge and ugly monster” which “treats some countries better than others; South Africa not being one of them”. And so one will not find a Mampoer short on Amazon.
The other three writers at the event were as excited about this new platform for publishing awkward-length pieces, which are either too long for newspaper or magazine print, or too short for book publication. Each of them gave a “tot” of information about the stories they had written and had published on MampoerShorts.
Justin Fox wrote a piece on his time spent with leopard lover and conservationist Quentin Martins. The story, titled Unspotted, is 9 700 words long, and is a remarkable account of the madness and monomania of one man’s search for the most elusive of creatures - the Cape mountain leopard.
Read more about this captivating tale.
Black Anger, White Obliviousness is the provocative title of To Molefe's short. Molefe explores this topic in more than 10 000 words. At FLF, Molefe explained that he wanted to understand and recount, via this story, what apartheid meant for him; he wanted to narrate such things as “the visceral effect of the word kaffir”. He also wanted to illustrate three things: black anger, the reasons for this anger, and white obliviousness.
Find a blurb on this intriguing piece here.
Dutch-born writer Fred De Vries reworked a chapter from his novel Rigtingbedonnerd into a Mampoer short. The piece, The Great Trek, tells of the ambivalence felt by many South African emigrants who have (uncomfortably) settled in Australia, Perth in particular. The story is 9 500 words “short” and will resonate with many locals who have emigrated, or who are considering doing so.
Sneak a quick peek here.
It was interesting to hear what these writers felt about the available length for their narratives. Fox said it is a “comfortable and natural length” for him and that he usually writes pieces of about 5 000–15 000 words; until now, he’d had to “put these away in the bottom drawer”. MampoerShorts has opened up a new space for publishing pieces of such length, and the writers have found the opportunity liberating.
Molefe noted that the “new length” grants freedom and opportunity to add more context to the piece, and allows for deeper engagement with the topics. De Vries agreed, but also remarked that the length works only if one has something substantial to say. He is, however, thrilled with this publication, as he has long felt there is a need for longer journalism.
During the event an audience member managed to purchase and download the MampoerShorts application on to one of his devices, and commented positively on its accessibility. The general sense around the room was one of approval, and many listeners even offered tips to better promote the publication.
Co-founder Anton Harber believes that South Africa is full of stories that he thinks are best served in a form somewhere between the 1 200 words of a newspaper or magazine article and the 100 000 words of a book. And so, the birth of MampoerShorts.
Professor Anton Harber
Fred de Vries, Osiame Molefe, Justin Fox and Anton Harber
Fred de Vries and Osiame Molefe
Osiame Molefe
Photos © Chrizane van Zyl
This report was written by a member of the Contemporary Literary Practice (English) honours group at Stellenbosch University. The CLP module includes report-writing in the mould of literary journalism, along with other forms of writing and literary practitionership. The report was co-edited by group facilitator Leon de Kock.
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