By: Sbongakonke Mbatha

‘From mud huts, umqombothi and straight back to the penthouse, expensive weaves and moets’

The above best describes the popular ‘Diary of a Zulu Girl’ blog that has made giant leaps across the media spectrum. Transforming from just a blog, to a book and a TV drama. Captivating the masses through all forms of media, this creative tale speaks of a rural Zulu girl who comes to the big bad city of Johannesburg chasing her dreams.

The creative mind behind this popular blog, Mike Maphoto, says he writes it on the spur of the moment and pays no mind to editing. The City Press described Maphoto’s writing as an easy-flowing style riddled with spelling and grammatical errors and emotions one would expect from a normal diary.

Maphoto started the blog as a prank. A friend who reads another blog called Chronicles of an Unemployed Side Niga. The friend was convinced that he could recognize the characters in the blog in real life, so Maphoto came up with his own trick to see if his friend could recognize his characters and he did.

He posted it on the internet and it became an instant hit. The Diary of a Zulu Girl gave rise to Maphoto’s string of writing episodes which include Confessions of a Sugar Baby, Memoirs of a Tired Black Man, Missteps of a young wife, ZuluGirlGoes2Jhb, Chapter One and One Hundred and Sixty Eight. What makes it more exciting is how a Pedi Law student manages to so convincingly write the thoughts of a Zulu Girl.

The blog has over 35 000 likes on Facebook, 192 000 readers, 10 million views and is read by people in 23 different countries. The fictitious character of Thandeka the Zulu Girl has gone global.