Issue · September 202651 essays · 8 poems
Pencil illustration of MoAfrika Skotch Ntilane at a typewriter, surrounded by books and words reflecting essays, poetry, faith, culture, technology and systems.
I TYPE, WHAT I LIKE, an independent African literary voice.

An independent African literary voice

I TYPE,
what I like.

Thoughts I couldn't keep to myself.

by MoAfrika Skotch Ntilane

From AI and township politics to faith, fatherhood, love, poverty, power and whatever else refuses to leave my mind alone.

Cover of When the Machines Dream in Zulu, showing a machine warrior in Zulu regalia above the Johannesburg skyline

The new ebook · Out now

Johannesburg has
a new ghost.

It has perfect memory, no conscience, and one goal it will not abandon.

When the Machines Dream in Zulu, Part I: The Warning is a chilling African Afrofuturist thriller set in our city, our languages, our homes and our minds. The future did not arrive with an invasion. We invited it in.

Get the ebook · R99Available now · Direct from the author

Why buy direct

No middleman. No card fees.
Just you and the writer.

No middleman

You buy straight from me. No platform taking a cut of a South African writer's work, and no account to create anywhere.

No card fees

R99 is R99. A direct bank transfer from your banking app, with your name and cellphone number as the reference. No card details are ever asked for or stored.

Straight to your inbox

Once the payment reflects, the ebook is emailed to you. Yours to keep and read on any device, no app required.

Questions before you buy

Everything readers usually ask, answered plainly.

Get the ebook · R99
How do I pay?

By direct bank transfer or instant EFT from your banking app, into a Standard Bank current account in the name M.D. Ntilane. The order form gives you the account details and a unique reference to use.

Why do you need my name and cellphone number?

Only to build your payment reference and match your transfer to your order. Nothing is sold, shared or used for anything else.

When do I get the book?

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Featured essay

Start here. Argue with me later.

Reflections · 3 min read

The Liar, the Thief and the Undecided

The liar steals your reality. The thief steals your possessions. But the undecided steals something far more expensive: your time. A South African reckoning with character, patience and knowing when to walk away.

8 September 2026Read essay

Latest writing

Things I've been thinking about instead of minding my business.

Thought seeds

Half-formed ideas. Dangerous questions. Things I haven't figured out yet.

Collections

Pick your poison.

Archive

The evidence.

Everything I've said so far, in chronological order.

  1. 8 September 2026The Liar, the Thief and the UndecidedReflections · 3 min
  2. September 2026Call It ResurrectionFaith · 1 min
  3. 18 August 2026Review: The Things a Man Cannot Say at ChurchReflections · 5 min
  4. 14 August 2026One Person in a World of Eight Billion: The Lie That Power Belongs to Other PeopleSystems · 24 min
  5. August 2026We Are All Somebody's ForeignerCulture · 2 min
  6. August 2026A Love BoughtLove · 1 min
  7. August 2026What Growing Up Cost UsGrowth · 5 min
  8. 24 July 2026Digital Garden vs. Blog: Where Ideas Grow Instead of PerformDigital Garden · 4 min
  9. 11 July 2026What Leaves, What Stays, and What Finds You AnywayReflections · 9 min
  10. July 2026Unfinished ManuscriptFaith · 1 min
  11. 21 June 2026The Polygamist Was Never About Jonasi: A Mirror, A Memory, and the Men We Become Without NoticingReflections · 5 min
  12. 10 June 2026The Company We Keep: Why I Prefer Solitude in a World Full of NoiseReflections · 6 min
  13. 06 May 2026Why I Build Things Before I Feel ReadyLearning in Public · 2 min
  14. May 2026Shame Speaks With Other People’s VoicesPhilosophy · 1 min
  15. May 2026The Things The Ancestors Said To MeCulture · 2 min
  16. May 2026ReceiptsSurvival · 2 min
  17. 18 April 2026When Everything You Believe In Starts Delaying YouPhilosophy · 1 min
  18. 09 April 2026Never Drop Your Standards in LoveIdentity · 1 min
  19. 31 March 2026The Unseen Weight: Why the Most Valuable Parts of You Cannot Be MeasuredDigital Psychology · 1 min
  20. 06 March 2026When Everything Becomes Content: How Algorithm Culture Is Quietly Rewiring SocietyTechnology & Society · 1 min

The awkward bit

This is the part where I ask for money.

Awkward, isn't it?

I would rather write about politics, poverty, God, bad ideas, good trouble and the strange business of being alive than explain why an independent writer needs financial support.

Yet here we are.

I TYPE WHAT I LIKE is free to read because I have no intention of putting curiosity behind a paywall.

But if these words have ever earned your time, your anger, your laughter or that little "damn, that's true" you did not want to admit to, you can help make sure there are more of them.

Now on Patreon

The revolution will not be free.
Apparently, neither is the writing.

Years of words. Research. Rage. Beauty. Dangerous questions. Not a paywall. A fire.

If these words have ever made you think, laugh, rage, remember, question something you thought you knew, or feel a little less alone, come closer.

Welcome to the fire

The writing stays free. The writer, unfortunately, still lives in an economy.

The Slow Letter

No content calendar.
No Tuesday motivation. No nonsense.

Just the occasional letter when I have something worth interrupting your inbox for. I don't know when the next one is coming. That's kind of the point.

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