FunDza first met Njabulo Goba in 2020 when he was one of several talented young writers selected for our “Me With You: Sharing our Stories” writing project that involved 28 young writers in a virtual writing workshop series.
At the end of the workshop phase, three writers from the group were selected for mentorships. Njabulo was one of these. He was paired with mentor, Sifiso Mzobe – both live in Durban – who guided him through a short story, giving him invaluable input and helping him to develop in confidence as a writer.
His story Killer Twin was published on fundza.mobi in September last year. It was a thrilling action packed crime story, with spicy dialogue (you can tell he is studying scriptwriting) and it received some rave review from FunDza readers:
Wow bro you must do a movie n i wanna be included
Masterpiece!
Great book,I think I had a little crush on Zothani
Love this story…keep em coming
Njabulo certainly did ‘keep em coming’! He has gone on to publish three more stories – Cursed, A Zulu Man’s Lightning, and Trying to Kill Smile – thereby establishing himself firmly as one of FunDza’s most popular crime writers, alongside his mentor, Sifiso Mzobe, who has also written many crime stories for fundza.mobi.
Njabulo writes of his mentor:
“Sifiso is a genius, we could really take over and be known as the ‘crime boys’.”
Njabulo is also engaging with his growing fan base on fundza.mobi, posting comments in response to the love he is getting on the platform. Here is one of his comments: “I’m amazed at how many people love the story and how everyone who reads it goes on to enjoy more of my stories! Thank you so much guys and God bless the ones who enjoy my stories so much they seek and find me on Facebook to show me love!”
Njabulo writes of the mentoring experience: “The experience for me was one of the most educational experiences I had ever had since I started writing. I’ve done several writing courses before, but the mentorship gave me the experience of professionals (Fundza team) believing in me. It wasn’t a competition, it wasn’t a course, it was ‘Hey, we know you can do this, so do it.’ And I can never express my gratitude enough.”
Sifiso has commented on how seriously Njabulo takes his writing and how dedicated he is: “He is someone who has wanted the opportunity to write for a long time. He’s prepared to do the hard work to fulfill his dream.”
Not only is Njabulo studying and writing FunDza weekly short stories to satisfy his fundza fanz, he also writes poetry for fun and shares it on his Facebook page.
When he’s not busy writing Njabulo says, “I spend most of my time reading psychology books, self-help/motivational books, watching movies and complaining about how bad they are (or being inspired by how good they are,) and trying to convert my weird experiences into great stories and poems.”
And he is succeeding! He is one of FunDza’s ‘rising stars’ of young emerging writers who are wowing readers weekly and contributing to the pool of young writing talent in our country.