Meet the author behind Mpumi's Magic Beads

There’s a new story that’s spreading the message about the magic of black girls’ hair, through the power of the written word.

Author and poet Lebohang 'Nova' Masango.

Author, anthropologist and poet - Lebohang ‘Nova’ Masango published her children’s book, Mpumi’s Magic Beads, in the year 2017, through her own publishing company Thank You Books, after being part of Standard Bank’s 2017 ‘My Next’ campaign. At the beginning of 2018, after receiving positive feedback from fans and admirers, Masango had announced on Twitter that her children’s book would be translated into South Africa’s eleven official languages and distributed to mainstream bookstores like Exclusive Books.

Mpumi’s Magic Beads tells the story of a young schoolgirl named Mpumi who goes on an adventure with her two friends when she learns that the beads in her hair have magical powers. The book tells the story of friendship, confidence and self-love for young girls, especially young black girls and their relationship with their hair.

When I sat down and started talking to Lebohang Masango, she explained that the inspiration for her children’s book ‘Mpumi’s Magic Beads’ came from an assortment of areas, including her university research, and her life during high school when she was at the National School of Arts in central Johannesburg.

The cover of Lebohang's first children's book - Mpumi's Magic Beads.

“I went to the National School of Arts which is in Braamfontein, and every day I saw girls in school uniform going to school with braids, and I wondered which schools they were going to and why they all had similar braids”, she said, adding that in the story, Mpumi went to a school in town and had ethnic braids.

“I’ve always had a fascination with children’s book and the stories that they tell. I like how they are animated and interact with the child reading the story, it has always interested me growing up, and I knew that sometime in my life I wanted to write a children’s book”.

While the South African market has always been friendly to children’s book, Masango said that hearing about children’s reactions from their parents on social media, especially black children, is what made this project very special for her. “The response has been incredibly affirming because when you are creating something it’s your process, and you can’t invite someone else into your process unless it’s someone like an illustrator like Masego Morulane, whom she and I were working together digitally - I only met her for the first time earlier this year”.

“To have something done, and put it out to the world for the children, for me is amazing, because when I read to the children you can see that their imagination is working - and I tried to make the story as interactive as possible", she added.

Masango continued on to say that receiving compliments and videos from various South Africans showing their children interact with the book was very important to her, and served as an additional affirmation to her project and her important contribution to South Africa’s literature. “I’m really in awe that it exists outside of me, because I had it in my head and when I saw in person for the first time it was like, ‘Oh my God, I wrote a children’s book”.

Lebohang Masango at a reading in Johannesburg, 2018. Picture: Twitter

When Masango released her book, she self-published her book through her publishing company ‘Thank You Books’, which she enjoyed because she was behind the process and pace of her book’s release, learning the ropes of book publishing, but she noted that she would not consider keeping her publishing company open as a permanent company because she had no affinity for being a business owner.

One aspect that Masango noted with the self-publish of her book is that although the country has a surplus of children’s books, the country does have a shortage of black authors and stories which have black protagonists that attract the young market of children between the ages of six and thirteen years old.

“We’ve got a lot of children’s books in south Africa but not many that resonate with the people that you supposedly had written them for - like black children. What I know about my book and books like this is that it centres around the fact that sometimes you get bullied for your appearance, for your hair, and it centres around the reality like mine that you grew up in the city, around skyscrapers and taxis, not necessarily around a farm. I wanted the book to be universal so that any child anywhere could resonate with it”.

Masango has done a few public readings that were successfully attended by children late in 2017 and 2018, and has stated that there were would be more in the future, especially with the book being rolled out in all official South African languages and at mainstream book stores.

People can purchase Mpumi’s Magic Beads from Masango’s website, lebohangmasango.com.

Love, light and blessings xx.