LONDON (AP) 鈥� South African author Damon Galgut has mixed feelings. This has been a great week for him, a good month for African writers 鈥� and a terrible year, he says, for his country, blighted by pandemic and corruption.
Galgut won the Booker Prize for fiction on Nov. 3 for his novel 鈥淭he Promise,鈥� the story of a white South African family in decline in the years before and after the end of the racist apartheid system.
Receiving the 50,000 pound ($67,000) award at a ceremony in London, Galgut, 57, said he was accepting it 鈥渙n behalf of all the stories told and untold, the writers heard and unheard鈥� from Africa.
Galgut is pleased that 鈥渁 long-term resistance in Europe or America to receiving African voices鈥� may finally be easing. Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded this year鈥檚 Nobel Prize for Literature in October. And last week, Senegal鈥檚 Mohamed Mbougar Sarr became the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to win France鈥檚 leading literary award, the Prix Goncourt.
But, Galgut added, the issue is 鈥渄ouble-edged.鈥�
鈥淩eally, the transformation that needs to take place is not only in Western publishing 鈥� it鈥檚 also in Africa itself,鈥� Galgut told The Associated Press, citing a dearth of publishers and booksellers. 鈥淚 would like African governments to start taking their own artists seriously.鈥�
鈥淭he Promise鈥� opens in the apartheid-era 1980s, when dying Rachel Swart makes her husband promise to give their Black maid, Salome, her own house. The novel follows family members over several decades, and through a series of deaths, as the promise remains unkept.
Historian Maya Jasanoff, who chaired the Booker judging panel, called it 鈥渁 book about legacies, those we inherit and those we leave.鈥�
It鈥檚 a family story that can also be read as a state-of-the-nation novel, something Galgut says is hard to avoid for a South African writer.
鈥淢aybe more than lots of other countries, South Africa鈥檚 recent past is not past yet,鈥� Pretoria-born Galgut said in an online interview from his publisher's office in London. 鈥淪o even if you wanted to write a story that was not dealing with politics or history, if you create any particular character, you have to take account of the fact that they come from somewhere, they have a background.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e a white person, your history is very likely to be charged in a different way than if you鈥檙e a Black person. Did you participate in the military as a white person? What are the implications of that? Are you from a monied background, are you from a dispossessed background? All of that was shaped by our recent past, so you sort of have to take it into account.鈥�
鈥淭he Promise鈥� is told by a slyly humorous narrator who flits among characters, revealing the inner thoughts of people and even animals. The effect is a rich tapestry of South African voices.
鈥淭he notion that any one single voice can speak for South Africa is false,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a chorus 鈥� a very dissonant, discordant chorus, but we are a chorus.鈥�
There鈥檚 one exception: Salome, whose thoughts readers never hear. Galgut is aware that could be seen as marginalizing a Black character who should be at the center of the story.
鈥淭he vast majority of South Africa鈥檚 dispossessed or poor citizens are still the people who were made poor under apartheid, and their position has not changed,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o it seemed important to me that I convey to the reader the sense of silence that surrounds a character like Salome, and I made the decision, rightly or wrongly, to do that through making her a silent presence.
鈥淚 thought I could make the silence speak, actually, but the only way to do that is to make the silence problematic.鈥�
Open to English-language novels from any country, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming the lives of its winners, who have included Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel and Marlon James. Galgut won the Booker for his ninth novel, and on his third time as a finalist. He was previously shortlisted for 鈥淭he Good Doctor鈥� in 2003 and 鈥淚n a Strange Room鈥� in 2010.
He is the third South African novelist to win the Booker Prize, after Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee, who has won twice. Galgut, who lives in Cape Town, is gratified the novel has 鈥渉it a nerve鈥� in his home country, where its central theme of land and who owns is it 鈥渁t the center of South African political life.鈥�
But he鈥檚 despondent about his homeland, which he says is in 鈥渁 state of moral exhaustion鈥� amid a pandemic that has killed almost 90,000 South Africans and battered the economy.
鈥淪outh Africa鈥檚 economy was in a pretty bad state before COVID hit, but it鈥檚 really dire now,鈥� he said.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in public money earmarked to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa has been misappropriated by officials, according to investigators -- just the latest example of the corruption afflicting Africa鈥檚 most developed economy.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a general sense of dejection and aimlessness, which is kind of new,鈥� Galgut said. 鈥淪outh Africans are fairly resilient and very given to the hope that we can change things, we can transform things. But that hope is in short supply right now.鈥�
Despite the gloom, Galgut is driven to explore the world around him. He鈥檚 mulling the idea of writing about the pandemic and the 鈥渟trange existential chambers鈥� created by lockdowns.
But he says he鈥檚 too cynical to believe that his book, or any book, can change the world.
鈥淥n the other hand, what I do believe is that books cumulatively change human perception," he said. "So there鈥檚 a very big difference between people who read novels and people who don鈥檛. Donald Trump, for me, is a man who doesn鈥檛 read novels, Jacob Zuma is a man who doesn鈥檛 read novels. Barack Obama strikes me as someone who does. Why? It鈥檚 because I think the function of novels is to make it clear to you that the world is not made in your own image.
鈥淪o in that sense, books matter.鈥�
Jill Lawless, The Associated Press
