-
New Nollybooks Series Targets South Africa’s Black ‘Aliterate’ Group
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Arizona Shezi is a sassy young journalism student and a mysterious beauty with “chocolate skin” and “long braided hair.”
Jason Khoza is a hotshot businessman in an expensive suit, with a strong face like “a sculpture of a Zulu warrior.”
The two attractive young South Africans meet when he arrives as a guest lecturer at Shezi’s university. But their chances at love are jeopardized by an expose she writes for the student paper on his company’s dodgy business dealings.
This is the kind of story that Moky Makura, publisher of a new series of romance novels, is hoping will turn young South African women into avid readers. The “Nollybooks” series of chick lit books is aimed at 16- to 24-year-old black women, many of whom are not in the habit of reading for pleasure. In South Africa, while the adult literacy rate is 88 percent, many people are “aliterate” — they can read, but choose not to.
Publishers don’t bother targeting this young female demographic, Makura said. “That was an opportunity I spotted.”
Makura has a clear idea of what she wants in a book: urban, aspirational, good-girl heroines who face a romantic development in their lives, with the story set in real South African locations — a Soweto version of “Sex and the City.”
- Events Calendar
August 2011 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
JulSep 
- PUKU Chat Latest
March 23, 2011, 10:28 am
Nonikiwe - Editor is reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
March 12, 2011, 10:28 pm
lamoesther on Nigerians Shocked at NECO Examination's 2% Pass RateI will rather look at the bigger picture of the [...]
March 3, 2011, 1:19 pm
Chelsea is reading Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
February 8, 2011, 8:00 am
Chelsea is reading An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
December 29, 2010, 2:30 pm
paulineblah on Bontle is reading Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman CapoteHii ( paulineblah@yahoo.in ) I saw your profile today and became [...]
December 29, 2010, 2:29 pm
paulineblah on Nonikiwe - Editor is reading The Seed Children by Bontekanye BotumileHii ( paulineblah@yahoo.in ) I saw your profile today and became [...]
October 27, 2010, 11:46 am
Nonikiwe - Editor is reading The Seed Children by Bontekanye Botumile
September 8, 2010, 11:29 am
Bontle is reading Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
August 27, 2010, 3:31 pm
Coin is reading 1984 by George Orwell
August 27, 2010, 3:21 pm
Coin on Bontle is reading A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee WilliamsHow did you find it?
