Hilarious, authentic, encouraging and inspirational- these are some of the words that I can use to describe Khaya Dlanga’s latest work.
Once again Khaya has shown his frank style of writing stories that easily resonates with so many people. His pen has the ability to easily lifts everyone’s mood and serves as a source of amazement.
In It’s The Answers For Me, Khaya documented answers he got from South Africans of all walks of life from his famous Instagram Q&A sessions.
The variety of Khaya’s questions is what makes the answers from his followers a true sample of what South Africans normally think, do, act, and conduct themselves on a daily basis.
Now, having been part of Khaya’s Q&A session myself during the hard lockdown of 2020, I need to admit that if ever there was a person to have produced a book of this nature(social media inspired-type-of-a-book), Khaya Dlanga was the right person for this.
And this not because of his huge followers on social media, but how he is able to interact with his followers and provide so much clarity and give guidance on many social topics.
Perusing through the pages of this book, readers will mostly laugh, find inspiration, cry a bit, see themselves in some of the answers.
However, I was more drawn to the questions more than the answers per say. It is in the richness of Khaya’s questions which makes this book reads like a classic South African chat room- where everything goes without anyone feeling the fear of being judged and outed.
If anything, this is a book that has proven that social media is not all just toxic, but a force for good and a platform which allows everyone to express their views, and even get help if needed.
Khaya’s skill as a storyteller shines on every page of this book, through some of the clarity he provides on some of the answers from his followers.
It’s The Answers For Me is a book about South Africans, for South Africans, by South Africans.
This is obviously not the type of a book that will not win literary awards for Khaya- purely because of how the content was easily packaged, but one that will make so many South Africans see themselves in the stories shared in the book.
Besides that, It’s The Answers For Me is a warm read, and it is a good mirror of the social issues faced by many South Africans on a daily basis.