Simon Nakapunda and His Journey into Children’s Literature

You may have seen a couple of Namibian children’s novels on local bookshelves by now. Some of which include ‘Clipping Katherine’s Wings’, ‘Chad and the Magical Rains: An Adventure in Etosha’, ‘Chad and the Guardians of Ehrenh-sted’ and the informative ‘Ethnic Oshiwambo Names and Their Meanings for Your Baby Boy and Girl and Other Works’.

The creator behind these works is Simon Nakapunda, who grew from his days as a pupil at People’s Primary School to a financial manager, champion athlete and children’s author.

The chats to the amazing writer to discover the inspiration behind his books.

Interestingly enough, I was never really a fan of literature, and even more bizarrely, English was my least favourite subject in school as it involved a lot of reading and writing, something that I didn’t particularly enjoy at the time. I much preferred numbers as they seemed a lot easier to understand once one grasped the general concepts, principles and assumptions.

The art of writing, as it were, was a process that the universe gradually and smoothly eased me into. Out of the blue, I just began writing poems and passing them onto my friends and family members to read. I learnt that one brings out their best work when experiencing powerful emotions and sentiments. Using this new discovery about this wonderful world of writing that I was beginning to like, I channelled whatever intense emotions I felt and poured it onto the blank canvas that is a piece of paper, and I was surprised to see that it had the desired effect.

If I was writing something funny, my reader would laugh. If it was heart breaking, I would see the pain etched on of their face. If it was something wise and insightful, my reader would delve into a small discussion with me. It was then that I began to feel that I had a surprisingly uncanny knack for words. And as all last borns would do, I ran to my mother, told her about it, and she further confirmed to me that we are writers, as she herself writes poems and her cousin is an author of many books, and so is my very own cousin. So the summation of all these facts concluded for me that I, like my family members as well as my ancestors before me, am meant to be a writer and that I should write a book… and so I did.

It wasn’t children’s literature itself that predominately drew me but on the whole, it was my love for children. I still remember exclaiming in naivety as a child to my friends that I would love to have a big family of 10 kids when the time was right. This was of course before the harsh realities of life (food, attention, school, clothes and other nasties) brought me back to my senses and dwindled the number quite drastically.

Even though the number of children that I would love to conceive one day has changed, embedded in my previous desire to have 10 kids I am sure, as my reader, you will begin to understand the great love that I have for kids. And it is this love that compelled me to write for kids.

This is in my blood and I was born to do this. While some would be authors can benefit from attending writing courses to help them write better. I was a good writer but to be a published author, I needed to be a great writer, outstanding. I learnt this the hard way when a publisher who had read the manuscript that I submitted to their publishing house told me that she threw it in the bin once she was done reading it because it was absolute rubbish.

Horror and shock registered on my face, but she continued unabated and quite frankly told me that if ever, I would become a published author one day I would need to hone and sharpen my writing skills.

It took a lot of work, a lot of reading and researching into the types of genres that I loved before I could get to the level of writing something that even the toughest critics would enjoy.

I listened to her and started reading countless books and the more I read, the more I realised that one does not simply just write. You have to engage your readers, you have to be vulnerable and bare your heart and soul, be unafraid to leave pieces of yourself within the pages, lend the book a human touch so that readers can genuinely connect with the characters. Although it is fiction, it makes the story relatable to them and it genuinely arouses their interest and attention.

With this epiphany and armed with a newly expanded diction (and when the fear of writing again finally left me), I wrote the book ‘Clipping Katherine’s Wings’ and I hoped against all hope that the public would enjoy it.

One other piece of advice that I picked up while browsing the internet for tips on writing was that a wordsmith should write about the things that he/she loves the most. And as you might have guessed, fantasy and horror are my two favourite genres. I was spellbound and fascinated by witches and warlocks, elves, magic spells, fire breathing dragons, fairies, Greek, Norse, Celtic (and African at a later stage) mythologies. So it was only natural that I embarked on my writing adventure using the medium of these two specific genres.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling is my favourite author because I believe that the Harry Potter series of books that she wrote is revolutionary, and in my humble opinion, could possibly be the greatest children’s books ever written.

His character was carefully crafted around the secret desires and dreams of many children and young adults who are fans of fantasy. Just like my target audience, Chad was just an ordinary child who loved reading fantasy books, but to his absolute astonishment, he was later transformed into an elf and he had all the bells and whistles that came along with being a supernatural and immortal mythical creature. And so when reading through the book, the reader will be able to live out their fantasies vicariously through him and relish every spell cast and other demonstration of absolute power that Chad exhibited.

It was my own realisation of Africa and its beauty that was the second inspiration for Chad’s character. I started to appreciate our continent and its diversity, and was able to sieve this into the book. When reading the book, you stand the chance of sampling African cuisine, learning about the Oshiwambo culture, the Namibian desert, African cultures, myths and legends and then you’ll be pleased to discover that along with all other mythologies, African mythology is just as awe-inspiring.

I reprinted ‘Clipping Katherine’s Wings’ as well as ‘Chad and the Magical Rains’ simply because I received positive reviews about them and originally, I only printed 300 copies of each which have all but sold out and I believe that the demand for them still exists.

-To get yourself a copy of all three books, you can head to Book Den and find them at the cost of N$175 each.

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