On this day in 2005, Kabelo Sello Duiker ended his life. The seeds of his anguish were laid down long time ago: his great-grandpa changed the family surname from an African one to a Coloured sounding one; & he was sent to a white school in the early 1980s; a lonely pioneer.
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2/ Sello Duiker chartered an independent path: away from Black ‘Protest writing’, White liberal writing, & Black literature of assimilation.
He lived with homeless children to write his award-winning debut novel. The Quiet Violence of Dreams is a tour de force - genius at work.

3/ Racial & sexual coloniality hemmed Duiker in. He was a genius, I think. He challenged taboos, smashed boundaries. His literary & social landscapes were vast, capacious, creole - decolonial cosmopolitanism. He did his thing. He was young when he ended his life (31-years old).

4/He took his life in January 2005.
This is the opening paragraph of his most famous book:
“There is no one to blame. It’s about me. It’s always been about me. I accept that now...I feel like I’ve lost something or got lost in something too big...”

5/ Ntate @ZakesMda on Duiker: “Many critics says Sello Duiker was treading on my footsteps: but I say he was going to be much greater. He has achieved greater things than I had at his age.”