Raphael Mokoena
Omoseye Bolaji, the creator of the Tebogo Mystery series, is often asked how he churns out the twists and turns in the intriguing plots in the adventures of Tebogo Mokoena, the sleuth protagonist of his books.
But the Nigerian-born Omoseye shrugs off this question with a smile.
“I really don’t know!” he said.
“Or simplistically, let’s just say the inspiration for the books just come and go intermittently.”
A key to Bolaji’s creativity is perhaps the fact that he began reading mystery novels in his childhood.
“I suppose it was the golden age of reading for leisure in West Africa at the time. In the late 70s and 80s, I loved authors like Peter Cheyney, Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Dick Francis, and Sidney Sheldon”
In 2000 Omoseye Bolaji, then based in Free State in South Africa (his base) published the first in the Tebogo Mystery series entitled Tebogo Investigates, and was surprised at the book’s success.
“The book is about the strange case of a comfortable young man being killed in his own house during a party, [but], now I feel that the book is tawdry and nowhere near good enough...but strangely enough, many people still claim they love it so much,” said Bolaji
The second, Tebogo’s Spot of Bother (2001) is probably the most interesting produced by the author, with its double twist ending.
“It seems I managed to pull off a really gripping finale, but I won’t say it’s the best book in the series, or my favorite.”
In 2003 the third adventure of Tebogo Mokoena was published, Tebogo Fails unfolds with hints of the romantic, though, ironically, the details of the murder scenes in this psychology thriller are very gory. The author’s leniency for the villain’s fate even baffled and irritated readers, but Bolaji is unrepentant.
“The killer goes scot-free, and it happened yet again in Tebogo and the Haka,” Bolaji said grinning.
Ask Tebogo (2004) is generally dubbed the weakest of the books, but upon re-reading it recently I was surprised to see that it is actually a powerful story despite the controversial “essays” placed throughout the text. The book certainly has a fair number of twists and turns and one gets the impression that the protagonist, though in a more sober mood, continues to enjoy the ambience of the underworld (a feature in the series)
Bolaji will not comment on Ask Tebogo, though he admits that Tebogo and the Haka (2008) is his favorite in the series.
“Yes I love the bookIn 2005 I was very very sick and should have died really, [but], little by little, I became better, and some inspiration came back a bit after a few years”.
Tebogo and the Haka was followed by Tebogo and the Epithalamion (2009) and Tebogo and the Pantophagist (2010). The last two adventures being unique in the genre in the sense that no one is actually killed.
In Tebogo and the Epithalamion a beguiling young lady disappears and Tebogo manages to track her down in the end.
Meanwhile in Tebogo and the Pantophagist, Tebogo meets a quirky “scientist” and the plot focuses on a certain “formula” for making humans disappear!
Many essays published on the Tebogo Mystery books, including a full-length study by critic Petro Schonfeld, titled Tebogo on the Prowl (First Edition, 2006).
In her “Overview” of the Tebogo Mystery series, Petro identifies the following, inter alia: as contributing to the success of the books: friction and suspicion amongst characters; seemingly insignificant details/facts; [Bolaji’s] portrayal of his characters, style (the narrator’s use of colloquial lingo); humor, and imagery.
Bolaji has garnered a lot of reverence and fame as a result of the success of the series, after all the genre is exceedingly rare in the landscape of black African writing. Amongst the many honors he has received, the one that excites him the most is when he was made a Chief in Ibadan, Nigeria—his country of birth.
“That was a wonderful occasion with its transcendental pomp and pageantry that will always be etched in my memory. But I still maintain that the satisfaction of an author mainly lies with readers enjoying their work.”
Certainly, many readers continue to enjoy the fiction churned out by Omoseye Bolaji over the years. Apart from the seven books in the Tebogo Mystery series, he has also published three other novels: Impossible Love (2000), The Ghostly Adversary (2001) and People of the Townships (2003). And all three works share one thing in common, unexpected and sensational endings.
Impossible Love is essentially a love story: the Ghostly Adversary is a taut thriller; whilst People of the Townships was described as “breathless, picaresque, surprisingly funny…” by Aryan Kaganof, the white South African movie producer and prolific author.
Bolaji has also published many other books comprising different genres, which include drama, poetry, criticism, and biography.
When asked when readers should another installment of Tebogo Mokoena’s adventures, Bolaji responds candidly:
“At the moment I have no inspiration at all. Let me just bask in the emergence of a crop of new young writers in the Free State, like Hector Kunene, Jah Rose and Masakala!”
Raphael Mokoena is a South African based writer.
Remarkable piece. Goes straight to the heart of the series
Posted by: Urbain Tila | February 02, 2011 at 12:47 AM
Magnificent introduction to the Tebogo Mystery series. I must admit that reading most of these books over the years has been an unforgetable thrill for me.
Posted by: Gilbert Malefane | February 02, 2011 at 03:37 AM
Creating this (Tebogo) series is one of the most remarkable literary achievements of Mr Bolaji. A feat for any black African writer
Posted by: Aaron Kaleta | February 02, 2011 at 04:02 AM
Interesting! I wonder how he has been able to sustain the momentum.
Posted by: myne Whitman | February 02, 2011 at 10:36 AM
I suspect that for many ladies – including myself – Tebogo Fails will remain our favourite adventure in this series. This is number three in the series and in the book Tebogo meets Khanyi, his wife to be, for the first time! It is such a tender moment and their romance is so well narrated that one could not but be hooked. I remember that I read the book 2, 3 times successively at that time – I was so moved. The action in this book is based in Botshabelo, and I also remember asking a female journalist friend that time: “Does Mr Bolaji live in Botshabelo? How come he describes the place so well, including the Sections?” As I was saying, when Tebogo meets Khanyi in the book, Tebogo Fails, it was a clear case of love at first sight and he was lucky that she was a good lady who fell for him too, and really loved him. But here one has to criticise the author – why is it that after the wonderful love and emotions in Tebogo Fails, in the later adventures, it was as if Tebogo was anxious to run away from his wife! She is always in the background in the last 3, 4 adventures, and....
Posted by: Rosaline | February 03, 2011 at 12:40 AM
A top-notch article, despite a few minor mistakes. In our neck of the woods here, we've had a lot of pleasure reading each consecutive adventure of sleuth (Ntate) Tebogo Mokoena
Posted by: Pule Lechesa | February 03, 2011 at 01:53 AM
Seems the lady (Rosaline) above ran out of “ink”! Writer’s block? My own opinion is that in the last few Tebogo adventures, Tebogo becomes softer and softer...but this softness is not shown to extend to his partner. As Rosaline has said, Khanyi (Tebogo’s wife) is firmly thrust into the background by the narrator, Tebogo himself. I have read elsewhere that Tebogo could not be expected to allow his wife to be involved in dangerous adventures with him – maybe the strong romance in Tebogo fails misled many into expecting more of the same later on.
Posted by: Gilbert | February 03, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Tebogo Mystery Series is of utmost interesting from the beggining till the last page of his series. I hope Mr Bolaji was so delighted to see his great work in this site and continue to be acknowledged all over the world.Is time to enjoy the sweet fruit of your hard work despite the challenges you have been through while you write the mystery series of Tebogo Mokoena.
Posted by: T M THIBA | February 03, 2011 at 12:34 PM
A superb series indeed,when I reviewed one of the series Tebogo and the Haka, I received coruscating comments which clearly ushers the author already on the crest as he deserves. A number of this series is well documented on the book OMOSEYE BOLAJI -a literary appreciation to the magnifiscent contribution combined by ( yours truly ) - Hector Kunene. Awesome work Mr. Mokoena, it is only February yet Free State literature keeps us on our toes, watch the space for the rest of the year, Great works will be presented to stun nations.
Posted by: Hector | February 04, 2011 at 04:16 AM
The Tebogo series is about crime – murder, rapes, kidnapping, theft etc – not about Romance. Come on guys! Those who want romance books can get countless of them elsewhere
Posted by: Aaron | February 05, 2011 at 03:23 AM
What an interesting article this is. Those of us from the eastern part of the Free State have been reading this series for years; and what a thrill for me personally when I first met Mr Bolaji in the flesh! His books are all over our libraries and it was easy falling in love with Tebogo Mokoena of the books. It was as if he was our personal friend, and we were solving the cases together, with his jokes and wit. After reading the first four we had to wait for a few years before Tebogo and the Haka came out; and my first thought after reading it then was – what a masterpiece! If it is the author’s favourite, then it is my favourite too. I remember sending Mr Bolaji an SMS telling him how much I enjoyed reading Tebogo and the Haka. And when I met him again I said to him: “I thought you were a finished, sick man? How did you write the book?” But he just smiled; claiming it was just “luck”; as if books like that can come to life due to “luck”. With seven published adventures of Tebogo out now, the author deserves a pat on the back.
Posted by: GEORGE | February 05, 2011 at 04:13 AM
One has to commend and appreciate the brain- work that goes into creating every one of this series. To write a straihtforward book is difficult enough, but one with elements of mystery?
Posted by: Abiodun Apans | February 06, 2011 at 06:17 AM
What a pity that this series is not easily available in Nigeria. The irony of a detective series created by a Nigerian, Bolaji, much more popular outside Nigeria! Although Tebogo and the Haka does have a special Nigerian edition. Congrats to egbon Bolaji anyway
Posted by: A Bamidele | February 08, 2011 at 09:07 AM
Well done Bolaji. those of us who have known you for years, who witnessed your great suffereing when you were very sick and weak, who were there for you when you were betrayed by a few you thought were your friends, we who called you 'chief' long before you became a Chief formally...we are all very proud of you!
Posted by: GILBERT | February 09, 2011 at 04:39 AM
The comment above (by Gilbert) almost brings tears to one's eyes...truly, there is nothing as inspiring as loyalty and true friendship? By the way, in this Tebogo series, Tebogo always shows loyalty too, even to criminals sometimes!
Posted by: Pule | February 09, 2011 at 09:00 AM
Tebogo has twisted & turned so many times, reading any of the masterpieces is a thriller, salutations to the chief he never disappoints.
Posted by: Skietreker | February 09, 2011 at 03:23 PM
I remember years ago I published an article titled "The metamorphosis of Tebogo". That was after the third book in this series came out in 2003! Tebogo himself has grown by leaps and bounds since then; and we are gratified about this
Posted by: Flaxman | February 12, 2011 at 03:44 AM