MICHAEL CHARTON
PURPOSE
HUMAN CONNECTION THROUGH STORY
I believe that the stories of our past, if treated respectfully,
carry untapped powers of guidance, healing, and nation building.
MY STORY
As a first-year accounting student at Stellenbosch University, I fell into a series of books, set in 20th century South Africa, which opened my eyes to the human impact of the South African tragedy.
It proved to be a discovery of ignorance. For those pages sparked the recognition that I knew very little about my own country and its peoples, despite having studied history through high school.
Accordingly, having qualified as a chartered accountant in 2004, I made the unorthodox decision to study history, just as I moved to the United States to build a financial career.
Those studies proved to be seminal: sparking powerful new connections to the various peoples of South Africa, while replacing any feelings of indifference with curiosity and respect. I was enthralled.
The product was a peculiar chasm between a financial career (putting bread on the table) and a life-passion which was consuming my everyday thoughts. And while that chasm was partially remedied by a move back to South Africa in 2007, my financial career would continue to march-on for another decade.
INHERIT SOUTH AFRICA (Pty) Ltd
While my studies in history were driven (initially) by curiosity alone, a trip to Zululand in 2005 to listen to David Rattray tell stories on the Anglo Zulu War, would spark an idea.
Moved by David's extraordinary rendition of Rourke's Drift, I left Zululand with a recognition as to the power of a well-told story. That by placing ones audience in the shoes of characters on both sides of a scenario, one can tease-out its complexities and nuances in a human, emotional manner capable of inspiring change.
In retrospect, that trip to Zululand was a crucial puzzle piece. For I realised that storytelling may just hold the key to making South Africa's elusive history more accessible. A trip which had sparked a new idea and (with it) a new challenge: Would it be possible to extend the power of storytelling (so beautifully applied to a niche battle in Zululand) to the broader brush-strokes of South African history, without degenerating into a lecture?
It was a question over-which I would marinate for the next ten years, gradually plotting ideas and methods which might meet the challenge. By 2015, these ideas were sufficiently precise, prompting my exit from finance to found INHERIT SOUTH AFRICA (Pty) Ltd.
A year later, I released a story called MY FATHER'S COAT, which was the product of these ideas. Even my most optimistic fantasies could not have anticipated the response to it. For that story has come to serve as the foundation from which I continue to write non-fiction stories hoping to inspire human connections and curiosity in our past.
A DREAM
The name INHERIT SOUTH AFRICA references a belief that human history is a hard-earned gift from our ancestors offering learnings and wisdom for a more fulfilled life.
My dream over the coming years, is to develop a central repository of beautifully-crafted human stories, which help people to: appreciate the complexity of our past; to forge fresh human connections; and to inspire a level of consensus in South Africa's past, which will be necessary if we are to consider ourselves a nation.