During the literary explosion among black writers that followed the Soweto uprising in 1976 van Wyk published a volume of poetry , '' It Is Time to Go Home '' ( 1979 ) , that won the 1980 Olive Schreiner Prize . The book is characterized by the preoccupations of other Soweto poets such as Mongane Serote , Sipho Sepamla , and Mafika Gwala and employs the language of defiance and assertion in poetry that reveals at all times the Black Consciousness of the era . In 1981 he received the Maskew Miller Longman Literature Award for black children 's literature for '' A Message in the Wind '' ( 1982 ) , the story of two boys who travel in their homemade time machine to their shared tribal past of 1679 . Other children 's stories include '' Peppy 'n Them '' ( 1991 ) and '' Petroleum and the Orphaned Ostrich '' ( 1988 ) . He has written books for neo-literate adults , such as '' The Murder of Mrs. Mohapi '' ( 1995 ) , '' My Cousin Thabo '' ( 1995 ) , '' Take a Chance '' ( 1995 ) , '' My Name is Selina Mabiletsa '' ( 1996 ) , and '' Sergeant Dlamini Falls in Love '' ( 1996 ) , biographies of Sol Plaatje and Oliver Tambo for teenagers , and adaptations of works by Bessie Head , Sol Plaatje and Can Themba . He won the 1996 Sanlam Literary Award for his short story " Relatives " , published in '' Crossing Over '' ( 1995 ) . '' The Year of the Tapeworm '' ( 1996 ) is an adult novel and warns of government control of the media . His latest work '' Eggs to Lay , Chickens to Hatch '' details childhood memories about growing up in Riverlea and his colourful interactions with the men and women who lived the African proverb that " it takes a village to raise a child "
Soweto uprising
Soweto uprising
Christopher van Wyk