Fuelling the rocket of imagination to explore new worlds together

An image from the book. (Image: Supplied)

16 Dec 2024

South Africa’s much-beloved comedian has crafted an enchanting story driven by an imagination he has been playing in since he was a child himself. Here, the writer describes the book’s origins.

This book was inspired by a conflict. Specifically, the never-ending war between me and my mother. When I was young, my mother and I used to spend a lot of time in a state of debate. As much as I wanted to respect her wishes, I always had my own plans in my tiny little head. Her wishes and my plans were rarely the same.

She would tell me to tie my shoelaces, I would argue that the knots made it harder to get my shoes off. She would demand that I clean my room, I would insist that it looked better in chaos. My mother would ask me to mow the lawn and I’d reply with a comprehensive list of all the reasons the grass looked better tall and uncut.

Round and round we’d go, in a funny dance: she’d throw out a rule, I’d find a loophole and jump through it. But when all the loopholes were closed and justice was closing in, I would switch tactics: instead of arguing, I’d find the closest open door and run. My grandmother called me “Springbok” for a reason.

Here’s a picture of a springbok. It may be the only picture you’ll ever see of a springbok standing still.

An image from the book. (Image: Supplied)

There was something so tantalising about that world outside my house, the wild unknown that started just a few feet from our front door. All my life I’d run out into it, scared and thrilled at what I’d find. And all my life I would realise that I was running in a circle. From my first eager step over the threshold and into the street, I was on a journey that would take me back home again: different, maybe wiser, but mostly just happy to be under my own roof again with the people I loved the most.

Conflict and disagreement, I learned, are necessary parts of life — but what matters isn’t whether we disagree but rather how we handle that disagreement. Conflict drove me to debate and then discovery and then back to love. But there is more than one way to discover the world.

This book was also born in the quieter moments of my childhood, the ones in which my body was still but my mind and imagination were in beautiful motion.

Every time someone asks me about my favourite memories as a kid, I have to think hard and long to separate my real memories from my imagined ones. Because decades before I first stepped on to an airplane or a ship as an adult, I had already travelled the world. I had climbed the highest mountains in the Himalayas and dived to the deepest depths of the sea. I had flown on the backs of griffins into battle and escaped giants who wanted revenge for my stealing their bread.

Imagining has always been one of my greatest joys. It’s the one thing we all can do, no matter where we’re from or who we are. It allows us to explore worlds we’ve never seen and live as people we’ve never been.

Imagining, I’ve come to understand, is crucial for conflict resolution. When faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, it is our ability to envision possibilities beyond the immediate and the obvious that paves the way for solutions. Imagination allows us to step outside our entrenched positions and explore new perspectives, to conceive of compromises that were previously invisible.

In those moments of heated debate or silent tension, it is the imaginative mind that can visualise a reality where both sides find common ground, a landscape of understanding and harmony that has never yet existed. By daring to dream of what could be rather than resigning ourselves to what is, we unlock the potential for true and lasting resolution by bridging divides and forging new paths where none seemed possible.

This is where books come in. If imagination is the rocket, then books are the rocket fuel. They supercharge the mind and help it see beyond what it can conceive on its own.

Before I could read for myself, my mother would read to me. Then, when I learned how to read, I would read to her. Together we would share the silliest stories – and sometimes serious ones too. We would discuss the characters we had encountered and the wonderful worlds we had explored.

In my childhood world, defined by difference, these books were where my mother and I could meet without judgement, just two explorers sharing stories.

This is a book about that undiscovered country just beyond the shadow of home, and the lessons we learn in that unpredictable landscape. It’s about disagreements and difference – but it’s also about how we bridge those gaps and find what matters most, whether we’re parents or kids, neighbours, gnomes or political adversaries.

It’s a picture book, but it’s not a children’s book. Rather, it is a book for kids to share with parents and for parents to share with kids. A world for both to explore as their imaginations take them away.

And if you’re both a parent and a child, or maybe neither, you can still read it for yourself or to a stranger or to someone you love or to a passing snail – and hopefully be reminded of the crowded journey into the uncut grass that we’re all on together. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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