The popularity of nonfiction books in South Africa, brought into sharper focus by the incendiary reaction to author Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s recent book Gangster State, has long been a reality.

1. By Henri Steenkamp
WHY NON-FICTION BOOKS ARE
ALL THE RAGE IN SOUTH AFRICA

2. The popularity of nonfiction books in South
Africa, brought into sharper focus by the
incendiary reaction to author Pieter-Louis
Myburgh’s recent book Gangster State, has
long been a reality.
Myburgh’s book explores the alleged
malfeasance of current African National
Congress Secretary General Ace Magashule
while he served as premier of the Free State
province. It sparked protests in Johannesburg
upon its release in early April, but the book’s
supporters were no less passionate.

3. This is, of course, an extreme case, but nonfiction books have long been
more popular than novels in South Africa. A 2015 report noted that 80
percent of book sales fall into the nonfiction genre, and that novelists
consider themselves fortunate if they sell 1,000 copies.
History books and biographies are in fact popular the world over, and
more likely to become bestsellers; the success of a recent memoir written
by former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, Becoming, is merely the latest
example of that.
But the average U.S. novel sells 4,000 to 8,000 copies, while nonfiction
titles sell between 2,000 and 6,000 — numbers that are flipped in South
Africa. There are those who believe that it is because of the nation’s
volatile history.

4. As Jeremy Borain of Jonathan Ball
Publishers told qz.com:
“Because of the heightened political
conflict in this country, there’s always a
lot to be played for by different and
opposing views, constituencies.”

5. This was demonstrated in 2017,
when Jacques Pauw — like Myburgh
an investigative journalist —
released a book entitled The
President’s Keepers, which dealt
with the alleged misdeeds of Jacob
Zuma, South Africa’s president from
2009-18. The government
reportedly attempted to quash the
book, to no avail.
Myburgh, for his part, told the Mail
& Guardian that the reaction to his
book was “very predictable” and
added:

6. “I hope this kind of work leads to processes where even more info is
unearthed. There are a vast number of people who know about these
things. What needs to happen next is what all South Africans desiring a
free and safe country want, and that is proper handling of this by law
enforcement.”
That is keeping it very real — which is also what South Africans appear to
want, in their lives and their literature.

7. THANK YOU FOR READING!
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