‘Juffrou’ pens her first novella

All it takes is a mischievous retired language teacher and a heap of ironing work to inspire a radical read.

Rina Visagie, 67, former teacher at Hoërskool Florida among other institutions, told the Record she was busy ironing clothes one day when the first chapter of her new book, Paradigma, hit her.

“I left my ironing and grabbed a pen and paper, wrote it down and let the idea sit for a few days,” she said.

She can’t recall how long it took her to finish writing the novella but said it simply flowed from her. After completing it and having the manuscript approved by Publishing World SA, her publisher, it took a mere five months to get it on the shelves. The book was released on 11 December and was already well-received by some of its readers, who called it a ‘different’ story. Rina received a lot of support and love from her husband Willie, 68, and sons Aré, 41, and Jaco, 39, throughout the writing and publishing processes.

A girl is faced with a laborious decision in the book. Paradigma discusses the rather controversial theme of interracial relationships, both friendships and love, through the meeting of four teenagers in a forgotten time in South Africa.

“This book would not have been published when I was young as it follows a subject considered taboo at the time,” she said.

This isn’t her first story but is her first novel. Rina had four of her short stories published in Huisgenoot a number of years ago.

She writes her stories first by hand and then ‘feeds it into the computer’, as she puts it, to create a second draft which she sits and edits. This way she doesn’t “lose words”, she says, as when she types she often skips words or significant phrases.

Rina has been teaching Afrikaans, English, geography and history all her working life, which started in 1973 and from which she retired in 2013 at John Orr Technical High School in Braamfontein.

She taught at Discovery Handelskool, which later turned into Hoërskool Ontdekkers (today known as Roodepark School), but spent most of her time teaching at Hoërskool Florida, where she was affectionately referred to as ‘Juffrou’ Visagie. She wrote and dedicated one of her short stories to a boy in one of her classes, who had a psychologically difficult time after returning from the South African border war.

However, she had no intention of specifically discussing the theme of interracial relationships nor writing a whole novella about it with Paradigma. She said once the story sparked, it developed in and of itself into what is published today.

“It doesn’t follow a typical story line,” she said.

She argues the book doesn’t push a political agenda but aims to open readers’ minds about racial relations.

“This book is written about four youths trying to navigate the intense political canvas of the time, but it is by no means a book only for teenagers, nor is it written in a way which only talks on a teenage level,” she said.

“It is my biggest hope for this book to be read across the board and to make but one person think about and relate to other cultures differently than before.”

For more information contact Rina on amarant@mweb.co.za or Tersia on 021 591 0309 to enquire about purchasing the novella.

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