Young self-proclaimed Autumn Ridge author aims to educate residents through her book

ERMELO – Young self-proclaimed novelist and poet, Kwanele Msibi (16), believes in penning down her thoughts and using them to educate others.

In her book titled Rape, Pregnancy and Lies, published on Amazon digitally, the Autumn Ridge resident aims to teach young people about various social ills and gives them solutions on how to overcome them.

Although she is not directly affected by the events in the book, she still believes that reading about such events will help readers learn.

According to Msibi, she has always had a passion for reading and writing and she would read any book she comes across.

The Camden Combined pupil is grateful to her elementary teacher, Thembi Mathenjwa, of the New Ermelo Primary School who inspired her.

She describes her as one of the people who believed in her and motivated her to publish a book in the future.

“Through the book, I want to make families and communities aware that not all young people who had pregnancies as teenagers, were intimate consensually, some were rape victims, I also want teenage parents to continue dreaming and make the lives they always wanted for themselves a reality,” Msibi said.

As a young author and self-publisher, she is faced with various challenges including getting criticism on her writing from people around her.

However, this makes strive even more towards becoming a writer.

“I’ve met individuals who doubt my writing abilities, despite not having read a single word of it; others even discourage me by stating I’m too young and ambitious for the aspirations I have.”

Msibi is due to host an award ceremony in December that aims at motivating and appreciating young talent in the area.

“My advice to young people is to always believe in their abilities, because if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.