K. Sello Duiker was regarded as a “rock star” of South African literature. He was one of a group of budding black South African novelists of the late 1990s and early 2000s who emerged with democracy in 1994. They stirred up the country’s literary scene with their irreverent take on post-apartheid socio-economic and cultural realities.
On 19 January 2005, Duiker committed suicide at the age of 30. He had suffered from bipolar affective disorder. Olivier Moreillon is a scholar of post-apartheid South African literature who has researched Duiker. We asked him about the author’s legacy on the 20th anniversary of his passing.
