Penning the last instalment of the Hlomu series titled The End has been a bittersweet journey for Dudu Busani-Dube.

The book, which will be released next Thursday, follows five other successful releases that have taken SA by storm and saw them turned into an equally successful Showmax series, The Wife.

The Hlomu series starts off with a love story between a journalist, Hlomu, who falls in love with a taxi driver, Mqhele. Busani-Dube said through the story she wanted to showcase love between two parallel worlds, using the life of a journalist, which she already knew, and adding another subject that most South Africans will be familiar with, taxis.

“Also, I came to Joburg as a young blue-eyed journalist and used taxis a lot to go to work at Sowetan in 2005. That form of transportation was a huge part of my journey,” she said.

Now that the end is here, the 40-year-old reflects on the journey that was. 

“I started writing this book a few months after publishing Mess, which is the second last book.

“That is when I decided that it will be my last. The initial plan was to circle back to the original characters, Hlomu and Mqhele, and end it with them. But along the way, I decided to structure it differently and go into pretty much everyone, including the kids who are grown now,” said the author. 

The book, she said, will be tying up loose ends while also introducing a new storyline. “I wanted to connect with all the characters and give them some presence. I enjoyed writing it but it was also bittersweet that eight years later, it is ending,” she said. 

Busani-Dube graduated from Durban University of Technology in 2003 and has enjoyed a 14-year-long journalism career that ended in 2018.   

“When I penned the first book Hlomu The Wife, I did not see things unfolding this way. When I was writing it I had zero plans. Its success was so immediate, especially in a time when fiction books about black people were really not popular. Reading was also really not a culture within this community that I was writing for. I decided to blog the first three chapters on Wordpress and it blew up. It then grew bigger each year,” she said, adding that she did not anticipate that the hype would still linger eight years later.

She shares that Hlomu The Wife is still flying off the shelves.

Busani-Dube describes her writing as very simple, a word she also uses to describe herself. 

And as her books blew up, her life changed drastically. So much so that she felt that she started to lose herself and could not recognise herself outside of the books.

“I had a huge breakdown because I felt that I did not exist outside the Hlomu series and had to go to therapy. I just reconnected with myself recently, to the Dudu that I was before the books. But over and above that, the books have given me so much financial freedom, also being able to have an impact as someone who is now influential.”

Apart from giving professional talks, she also adds that she has made it her mandate to give talks to schools in impoverished places to encourage reading.

“I also encourage them not to read my books until they are older because I touch on a lot of toxicity and I wouldn’t want them to think that is okay in love,” she said. 

Busani-Dube said her books have changed the reading culture in some communities and have also opened the door for self-published books to be sold in bookstores. 

“Self-published books are really expensive to produce and were also difficult to have at first because they were never carried in a lot of bookstores at all. I had to use other platforms at first to push the book. That part of my journey was hectic,” she explained. 

“It took a year before my books were on mainstream retail but it is way easier now for self-publishers to pitch their books. And that is one of my biggest achievements... being able to open a lot of doors. But now I am tired and I am passing on the baton to others to pave it forward,” she said.  

Resting and enjoying life is what’s next on the cards for Busani-Dube.

“I end this book with a cliffhanger, just in case I would want to reopen these stories later on. But for now I want to rest. I am proud of myself. This is a big affirmation that I did something so big on my own. I am proud of myself,” she said.

malibaa@sowetan.co.za