Sweden-born Lebohang “Nova” Masango is a widely revered poet, writer and feminist. While Nova was mostly raised in exile, her fascination with books was aroused by her politically involved parents. Nelson Mandela's life, which became the basis of the opening tribute done at the Metro FM Awards 2014, Nova wrote, “Without you, without your brave peers, without my parents who fought too, without our people, without the tears and without the lifetimes and lifetimes of blood - I would surely be cleaning the house of some white family or teaching a Bantu Education syllabus to brown-skinned babies who would be forced to internalize the message that they were born to be servants.” From an early age Nova’s main focus of her work was to teach and to heal. Her work and message has afforded her the opportunity to be featured in the book Twelve + One which profiles Johannesburg poets and their poetry. Named in Elle’s Top 40 Twitterfeeds You Have to Follow, you can follow Nova @NovaHerself and check out her blog www.novaherself.tumblr.com to see what the brown beauty gets up to.
1. Who is King Nova and why does she insist on being addressed as a King and not a Queen?
I’m a brown woman who is in love with her existence. I am a writer of all sorts of wonderful things while negotiating a supposedly post-Apartheid experience of living in South Africa. I love women and the politics that love, strengthen and fight for us – I am a feminist. I am also a lover of the resilience of people of colour all over this planet. I am a lover of poetry and all the people who set their brilliance into art and make us feel.
About the ‘King Nova’ thing, I have never explicitly asked to be addressed as that, it happens to be my [former] Twitter handle (@kingxnova) and I guess that people just ran with it. My philosophy in that regard, however, is that the thing about being a queen is that it always leaves space for people to assume that you’re a supporting act to someone more powerful who sits beside you on the throne. However, there’s a sense of finality in being a king. I still don’t know why Beyoncé called herself a king when she released the ‘4’ album but perhaps it was for similar reasons. Either way, my life is a space where I am the most powerful entity so expressions of ultimate power are always attractive to me.
2. When did you fall in love with poetry and what was the first poem you put in writing?
I first fell in love with poetry sometime between watching a film called ‘Love Jones’ and watching Lebo Mashile’s ‘L’attitude’ on SABC 1. These were my first encounters with how words could be expressed vocally in a way that was just as powerful as speech and song. I couldn’t help but be moved.
The first poem I wrote, that I actually liked, was when I was 15 years old and it was “Untitled”, (I used to be rather corny back in my day) and if I remember, it was about blackness – which has remained as a central thematic concern of mine – and grappling with the fact that I was a Rasta who actively did not smoke weed. I liked the poem back then but as it goes, I find it to be quite embarrassing nowadays.
3. Do you think you have become more guarded of your writing since your work was plagiarized and available on a well-known publication (under someone else’s name)?
Definitely! I am way more guarded now. I was so shocked at the audacity of Nandi Khuzwayo to just steal my work from my Tumblr and just pass it off as her own to another, rather large publication that after that incident I just decided to put my work up only once in a long while. We’re living in an internet age where information is available so freely so I was highly annoyed by the sheer audacity of the act.
4. Shortly after the incident you started writing for Rookie Magazine, how did that come about?
5. How does your passion for Anthropology influence your writing?
Anthropology has influenced, broadened and improved my worldview. Through my studies, I have been exposed to the intricate ways in which humanity thrives; in which people all over the world (regardless of geography or economic class) are busy producing culture (through food, dress, spiritual beliefs, political systems, gender relations – through living) and every single one of those cultures is important and deserves space and respect. Through studying History and just general knowledge as well, I’ve been compelled to notice that not all people have had their humanity respected and some people have colonised, oppressed, raped, tortured and murdered other people, systematically for centuries, solely for being different from themselves. That has led me to have a deep passion for social justice and for political schools of thought such as Feminism, pan-africanism and pro-blackness (which is not anti-whiteness) which aim to empower and love marginalised people.
6. Pumla Gqola is a huge inspiration to you and your work in feminism, why is that so?
Firstly, she’s the whole deal and then some. Secondly, how could she not be anyone’s inspiration? She’s an intelligent, resilient and gorgeous black woman who is not scared to say what it is and what it is not and walk that same line. To paraphrase her, she’s “beautiful, brilliant and badly-behaved”.
Professor Gqola was my lecturer in African Literature and I admired how she used that syllabus to teach us something incredibly valuable beyond the literary world – instances of African feminism within our prescribed literature. At the same time, I was studying Feminist Theory with Dr Antje Schumann in the Politics Department so I was getting a broad feminist education from two different streams of thought. From all the amazing things that I have learnt from Professor Gqola, I think that the most valuable has been that African feminism has never needed a big bold banner or epoch marked in history because it has always been there, from the day we first breathed on this Earth as African women. It occurred and continues to occur in the instances of women displaying agency, subversive behaviour and political organisation, individually and collectively.
7. You worked alongside Zonke in the Zazi campaign. Why do you think it’s important for the campaign to embody feminism as a movement?
Zazi is a media campaign that broadcasts positive messaging to young women focusing on sexual health education. Zazi is the Nguni word for “know yourself” and it is also understood as a message of empowerment that encourages us to be firm in who we are and not to compromise our goals and ourselves. Zazi reminds young women to choose to not engage in transactional-sex relationships, to not stay in abusive relationships, to always use contraceptives including female condoms and not leave it up to our sexual partners to carry condoms. Zazi also encourages a sense of goodwill among women and girls. It would be lovely to get to a point where girls know that they are able to seek advice and assistance from women in the community who are health workers or in the church instead of fearing condemnation.
This campaign embodies Feminist ideals by placing women, our health and well being at its centre and by encouraging mutual support among women and girls – we are certainly stronger, even as individuals, when we create those bonds amongst ourselves. Another aspect is that the media can encourage the boys and men in society to use condoms, for instance, but it also makes a whole lot of sense to give that same message to women and remind us to not be coerced into unsafe sexual practices.
It’s important that Feminism is embodied in this way by the campaign (although the campaign does not explicitly announce itself as being feminist) because most people’s impression of Feminism is negative – even people who have not done any kind of basic research on it. We live in a world that often encourages the idea that boys and men lead heterosexual relationships and that girls and women should “naturally” submit to that. We also live in a world that would rather encourage competition and suspicion among women than friendship and goodwill. Our campaign is asking us all to reimagine that paradigm.
8. You’re signed under Motif Records; do you think it’s imperative for artists to be signed under a record label?
I don’t think it’s necessary. It all depends on a person’s vision for their work and the scale of the impact that they want, I suppose. Many poets are able to carry out their work without that kind of support.
9. What does your mantra, stay low and keep firing mean?
It’s a line from a Notorious B.I.G track called “Kick in the Door” and it goes: “I was told in shoot-out’s to stay low and keep firing. Keep extra clips for extra shit”. How I interpret “stay low and keep firing” is that it’s a reminder to stay focused, keep doing my best and to not give up.
10. When can we expect a book from Nova?
[Laughs] One of these good days.
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