Witsies with the writing edge

31 March 2022 - Wits Alumni Relations

Alumni shine at seventh edition of Humanities and Social Sciences Awards.

Several Wits alumni were among the winners of the 7th Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Awards hosted by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS). The awards ceremony, held on 31 March 2022, celebrated the winners in the book, creative and digital categories. 

“The entries and winners of the 7th edition of the HSS Awards embody an emergence of new voices, the making of space for fresh or revisited experiences that enrich our field (and therefore humanity) and the inclusion of our histories, her-stories and their-stories previously untold, or told one-sidedly,” said NIHSS CEO, Professor Sarah Mosoetsa (BA 1999, BA Hons 2000, MA 2001, PhD 2005). 

Dimakatso Sedite (MA 2003) was the winner of the 2022 HSS Best Fiction Poetry for Yellow Shade (Deep South, 2021), which is her first collection of poems. Sedite was born in Bloemfontein and trained as a research psychologist. She has worked in the areas of child rights, livelihoods and HIV/AIDS. Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in several anthologies, journals and writer blogs. She was a joint winner of the 2019 Dalro Poetry Prize for the poem "Yellow Shade". She told her local paper in Bloemfontein that the collection was inspired by “the ordinary lives of people living in the townships”.

Leading feminist theorist Professor Desiree Lewis (MA 1989) was the winner of 2022 HSS Best Non-Fiction edited volume for Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa (Wits University Press, 2021) along with Gabeba Baderoon. The collection is described as “a dazzling range of feminist voices from established scholars and authors to emerging thinkers, activists and creative practitioners”. Professor Lewis is based at the University of the Western Cape’s Department of Women and Gender Studies. She has published and taught extensively on gender, feminism and human development. Her research focuses on humanities’ approaches to food systems.

Dr Mandla Langa (DLitt honoris causa 2019, MA 2020) was the winner of Best Fiction Novel for The Lost Language of the Soul (Picador Africa, 2021). The novel originated as part of his MA in creative writing at Wits and was profiled in WITSReview. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria in May. In 2007 he was awarded South Africa’s National Order of Ikhamanga (Silver) for his literary, journalistic and cultural achievements. In 2019 Wits awarded Dr Langa an honorary doctorate in literature for “presenting us with textured narratives that act as catalysts for readers to embark on journeys of self-introspection, self-knowledge and renewed commitment to continue with the tasks of imagining a better life and world.”

Johnny Clegg (BA 1976, BA Hons 1977, DMus honoris causa 2007) won Best Non-Fiction biography for his posthumous memoir Scatterling of Africa: My Early Years (Pan Macmillan, 2021). It is a posthumous memoir “as he wrote it and wanted it told”. The memoir is filled with anecdotes and extraordinary stories from a legendary life. He writes fondly about his time at Wits, even though he failed his first year. “I found a community of discourse, of critical reflection and a new alternative worldview.” See WITSReview.

Murhandziwa Niq Mhlongo (BA 1997) was the winner of Best Fiction edited Volume for Haunting (Jacana, 2021). The New York Times has described Mhlongo as “one of the most high-spirited and irreverent new voices of South Africa’s post-apartheid literary scene.” In 2019, Mhlongo was awarded the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award for his collection Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree (Kwela 2018) and For You, I’d Steal a Goat (Jacana, 2022) was released recently. Read an extract. 

Nthikeng Mohlele (BA DA 2002) won the Best Fiction Short Stories category for The Discovery of Love (Jacana, 2021). Mohlele is a writer and brand marketing professional. In 2016 his novel Pleasure won the University of Johannesburg Main Prize for South African Writing in English as well as the 2017 K Sello Duiker Memorial Prize at the South African Literary Awards. Mohlele is a writer and brand marketing professional who works and lives in Johannesburg. During his time at Wits he majored in dramatic art, publishing studies and African literature. See WITSReview.