Sol Plaatje University (SPU) Creative Writing lecturer and acclaimed novelist Mr Sabata-mpho Mokae has won a Multilingualism Award from the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB).
The PanSALB Multilingualism Awards took place in Sandton, Johannesburg on 15 June 2022.
“Winning the PanSALB Multilingualism Award in the Language and Literature category means a lot to me,” Mr Mokae said. “I work with two languages: Setswana for my creative writing and English for non-creative writing as well as translating between Setswana and English. It is way harder to write in two languages than it is to write in one; it is like drawing from the wells and creating from two different cultural universes. The award is a form of acknowledgment and the encouragement that one needs to keep going.”
Mr Mokae is the author of The Story of Sol T Plaatje and novels including Ga ke Modisa and Moletlo wa Manong. He has previously won the M-Net Film Award, M-Net Literary Award for Best Novel in Setswana and the South African Literary Award. In 2014 he was writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa in the USA, where he is now Honorary Fellow in Writing.
PanSALB is a statutory body set up to create conditions that are favourable for the development, equal use and protection of the 11 South African official languages, South African Sign Language, as well as the Khoe and San languages.
People and institutions whose work is to preserve, develop and protect marginalised languages or who contribute towards multilingualism are nominated for the PanSALB Awards, and the focus is usually on the nominee’s entire body of work rather than one specific book. Every year members of the public are asked to nominate individuals and institutions that are deemed worthy of this honour.
The selection of winners is done by adjudicators that PanSALB draws from the language, literature, and media sectors. The judges are usually language experts who have track records of working towards multilingualism, including language academics.
“I am very grateful for the people who nominated me, as well as the judges who concluded that my body of work is worth the award,” Mr Mokae said.
SPU congratulates Mr Mokae on the latest in a long list of sterling achievements.
