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WELCOME TO THE WOMAN ZONE BOOK REVIEW PAGE.                   
​This is where members of the WZ Book Club get to share their thoughts on titles seen on the shelves of our Women’s Library. All reviews are unsolicited and only those attending the WZBC may borrow and review books.
The Woman Zone Book Club meets on the 2nd Saturday of every month between 2pm and 4pm at The Women’s Library, ground floor, Artscape.  All are welcome.
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COVID19 ALERT! Please note that while the Women's Library is closed during lockdown, we welcome your reviews of women-authored books. Send between 200-500 words and cover pic if possible to info@womanzonect.co.za or hipzone@mweb and we will post it here! 

JWARA! Induna's Daughter

12/27/2020

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Author: Joyce Notemba Piliso-Seroke
Publisher: Tafelberg
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
‘A riveting account of activism, courage and values’ is how former first lady Zanele Mbeki describes Joyce’s book on the cover. Notable is that these two women, both born in the 1930’s, come from a generation in which such attributes were nurtured – and essential.
The book starts with the respective stories of Joyce’s father Hannie Booi or H.B., the induna of the title and a proud member of the Jwara clan, and her mother, primary school teacher 
 Ethel Mvulazana.  These chapters reveal the strong educated and cultural rootstock from which Joyce was born.
She then picks up the story of her early life, growing up in Crown Mines in a home where her father’s bowler hat, ‘worn only on special occasions’, sat conspicuously on top of the umbrella stand’, and where ‘the old-fashioned radiogram was switched on for news, weather reports and church services only’. Aside from herself and her five siblings, her parents fostered many other children, ‘from the Cape and other places’. The pictures she paints of this upbringing is of a caring, educated, conscious and conscientious home.
A pivotal stage in her own education was the move to Healdtown Institution where the school motto was ‘They will rise on wings like eagles.’ The path her life was to take seems to have been clearly marked from the outset. Healdtown was followed by the Methodist Kilnerton school where she passed her matric in 1952, ‘grateful to have had the opportunity to explore and acquire knowledge.’ After a brief interlude at Wits and St Francis College, she finally went on to graduate with a University Education Diploma at Fort Hare – the chapter on this iconic seat of learning is an education in itself – as are the chapters in The Teaching Years section.  
Later, social work took the place of teaching in her heart and with a scholarship from the Institute of Race Relations she went to study further at Swansea University in Wales. But if her early path had been mapped out by parental influence, so to an extent, was her career when her mother insisted she come home following her graduation to take up a job at the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) in Durban. She was to soar in this role however, moving on to join the national office in Johannesburg and eventually being elected to the World YWCA Executive Committee.
Lets not forget that all of this was set against the backdrop of crippling apartheid and in a chapter called Uprisings , Detentions and Bannings she describes her arrest in 1976 and an agonizing period of detention in the Women’s Jail – though not without humour. ‘Cecily and I, during lunch, while sipping water from our cups, would indulge in a fantasy of toasting each other with gin and tonic.’
After her release from prison she became vice-president of the World YWCA and her commitment to the organization was long and impressive – but in her view, also richly rewarded: ‘The training I received at the YWCA and my exposure through international visits and participating in World Council Meetings, gave me a deep understanding of advocacy.’ Equally her involvement with many other organisations, like the stokvel group The Be United Women’s Forum, the Maggie Magaba Trust and the Women’s Development Foundation gave her the skills and tools that made her an invaluable  candidate for her later appointments, first to the Independent Electoral Commission,  then the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and finally the Commission for Gender Equality.  Again each  dedicated chapter is a lesson, and a reminder.
By the time you reach the Retirement chapter, it’s hard to believe that one woman could have packed so much into a life. More astonishing still is the detail with which she has remembered it.  In the acknowledgements she salutes Betty Wolpert for hatching the idea of writing a memoir and amongst many others who helped with the memories, Barney Pityana for his Foreword ‘honouring me with his analysis to enhance my stories.’
But Joyce’s stories need no enhancement – they are intimately detailed and entertaining. As a reader you can almost hear her voice relating each anecdote. And to have written them in her 80’s is beyond impressive chronicling as they do, so much of South Africa’s turbulent history with first-hand experience and insight.
If there were a criticism it would be that just as her life was intensely ‘a journey of conscious living’ to quote Zanele Mbeki – the book too is intense and my recommendation would be to allow a little time between each of the seven sections. Don’t be in a hurry because as Pityana says, Joyce Notemba Piliso-Seroke is ‘an encyclopaedia of life, politics and morality…she is among the dwindling generation of luminaries in whose reflected glory we have had the privilege to bask. South Africa is richer for her.’
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Big Lies in a Small Town

12/21/2020

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Author: ​Diane Chamberlain
Publisher: Pan MacMillan
Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
It starts with a body…But if you think this is a thriller - think again. This is a story of connections, of discrimination and tragedy but with a satisfying ending. It is a story that shows how the power of an artist can tell a story without words. Across 80 years an act that caused heartbreak in a 1940s USA is revealed in the present day.  
I was intrigued when I started reading this novel as it centred round the painting of a Post Office mural back in the 1940s. A project 
initiated during the Great Depression in the USA to bring artist workers back into the market, a national competition was launched where artists submitted their ideas anonymously and were selected on merit.  They were then sent to their designated town to paint their design.
Diane Chamberlain deftly brings this story to life in her compelling novel Big Lies in a Small Town.  Anna Dale, a winner of this national competition in 1939, heads off from her native New York, to the sleepy, Southern States town of Edenton to paint the mural. It is 1940, Anna is 23 years old and has recently lost her beloved mother. Alone, except for her extraordinary talent and nothing to lose, she moves to this small, tight community, with its Southern bigotry. Controversy dogs her as the resident town artist did not win a commission plus women are expected to be mothers and housewives, not single, independent artists. She enlists the help of young people from the local school, one of whom shows extraordinary talent, but he is black and that has its own challenges in this small community which has much to hide.
Fast forward to 2018 and Morgan Christopher is serving a three year sentence for a crime she did not commit. An art student, her life has come completely apart; dysfunctional family, misplaced love, a criminal record and a bleak future. But when a stranger makes her an offer that will see her released immediately she jumps at the chance of freedom. Her assignment:  to restore a Post Office mural in the sleepy Southern town of Edenton. What she finds when the art piece is finally uncovered is a painting that reveals evidence of madness, violence and cruelty - a painting that will inhabit Morgan’s emotions and drive her to find answers.  
Her favourite artist, Jesse James Williams, who had recently passed, had specifically requested that Morgan handle the work. The mural is to hold pride of place in the gallery that is his legacy. While Morgan had never met the artist she loved his work and knew that during his successful lifetime he nurtured young talent - but why choose her? Under the guidance of curator Oliver, one of William’s protégés, Morgan tackles this mammoth task trying to decipher the weird messages that Anna Dale has left. Time is running out as there are conditions: The gallery must open on August 5 and there can be no postponement. Lisa, William’s feisty and impatient daughter pushes Morgan to the limit – there is so much at stake. As she works on this massive piece the tragedy is revealed but it is still up to Morgan to piece the story together and make the connections.
Chamberlain is an adept writer and this is a fascinating part of US history. I was left wondering if this was based on a true story as it is all too real. She evokes reaction in her reader and her characters are tantalising, frustrating and engaging. ‘You have to make peace with the past or you can never move into the future’ is a quote from the final pages – a sentence we could do well to remember.  ​
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The Tuscan Contessa

12/9/2020

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​IAuthor:  Dinah Jeffries
Publisher:
Penguin Random House 
Reviewer:
Beryl Eichenberger
In this book we are thrown back into wartime Italy and Jeffries produces a beautifully crafted novel while never forgetting the horrors of war. While this may not be termed the lightest of reads it is yet another story that reveals the bravery of ordinary people caught in the grip of war and what they will do to save the lives of those true to them. Tuscany in 1943 and Contessa Sofia de Corsi’s idyllic life is about to be disrupted as the Germans arrive in her beautiful village. 
She agrees to shelter a wounded British Radio operator unbeknown to her husband, putting all their lives at risk. But it is the feisty (with red hair to match) Italian/American resistance fighter Maxine who appears on Sofia’s doorstep and draws her into the underground fight that is at the core of the book. There are no middle paths during war and this is emphasised in the risks and secrets that enter their lives. Heart stopping moments, palpable fear and the romance of the ill-fated conspire to bring the warmth of Italy into your lounge and the acid taste of a world gone mad. 
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All the Devil's are Here

12/9/2020

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​Author:  Louise Penny
Publisher: Sphere
Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
A Chief Inspector Gamache mystery
A quote from Shakespeare ‘Hell is Empty and All the Devils are Here’ is not only the inspiration for the title but opens this, the 16th Chief Inspector Gamache murder mystery as he and his godfather , nonagenarian Stephen Horowitz, catch a few quiet minutes in the garden of the Musée Rodin in Paris. It is a favourite quote of Horowitz and one that is about to become all too real.
​Louise Penny has created an empathetic, intelligent character in the Sûreté du Quebec, CI Armand Gamache and he is endearing in his patience, intelligence, culture and passion. He is a compassionate and loving man but not without his own devils. 
It is no wonder that Penny is continually on the best seller list and ‘All the Devils are Here’ is yet another success. Clear, concise writing and a calmness that belies the content vie with intriguing, cleverly constructed plots with no shortage of imagination. But realism is at the helm and she takes contemporary situations to bring a story that oh, so resonates.  
Set this time in Paris, not in their normal locale of Three Pines in Quebec, the family are gathered for the birth of a new grandchild from daughter Annie married to Gamache’s former second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, now settled in a job in Paris. Son Daniel and his family are also living in the City of Light and, with his wife Reine- Marie and Horowitz a family dinner is a treat Gamache is looking forward to.  As they stroll back to their respective residences a driver ploughs into the frail old man and Gamache is sure this is not an accident. A strange key in Stephen’s possession starts a search for truth which involves and threatens the whole family.
It turns out to be not only a race against time but also a race across Paris from the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and into the bowels of the Paris Archives where Reine-Maire, takes a leading role. Penny sets the scene of the back streets and beloved monuments of this magical city, which this time is revealing its devils; devils of human making as trust turns to suspicion to deception, and there is almost no place to turn.
Billionaire Horowitz is the master of manipulation, of finding and whistleblowing on corruption. But what is it that he has been up to that has caused this mayhem? As he lies critically injured it is up to Gamache to unravel the mystery that surrounds the engineering company where his son-in-law works and of who his godfather really is.
Penny is masterful in using suspense and relationships to continually make you ask who can be trusted? Is old friend Préfect Claude Dessault really to be trusted, what is the cause of Gamache and Daniel’s estrangement, on whose side is the haughty Sevérine Arbour? The family and their dynamics play a crucial role as from side to side we are hurled; and always under the hovering hand of truth-seeker Horowitz. 
It is a fast moving plot but with a depth that takes it beyond many other thrillers.  Although i have not read all of Penny’s books I enjoy the intricacy and clarity with which she writes.  I always read the acknowledgements when i finish a book as i think they can be very revealing; Penny tells another beautiful story which underlines her love of Paris.  An absorbing read and one that will make you an Inspector Gamache fan.
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Wine, Women & Good Hope

12/2/2020

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TITLE: Wine, Women and Good Hope: A History of Scandalous Behaviour in the Cape
AUTHOR: June McKinnon
PUBLISHER: Zebra Press (Imprint of Penguin Random House SA)
REVIEWER: Nadia Kamies
When Europeans first arrived at the Cape, coffee and tea were luxury items and so alcohol, especially wine became the beverage of choice, greedily consumed in fancy homes and disorderly taverns and soon produced locally. Along with alcohol went prostitution, adultery and general merry-making and what McKinnon calls “three centuries of high
jinx and mayhem”. Alcohol was used to control workers, not only with the notorious tot system on the farms but also with servants in towns where one’s position in the domestic hierarchy was in direct proportion to the ration of alcohol one was given. It was to lay the foundation for a system of alcohol abuse and dependency that persists to this day.
In the preface McKinnon, a genealogist, says that she often deals with families who are dismayed by the exploits of their ancestors and she was motivated to write this book both as a way of educating and encouraging them to look beneath the supposedly perfect surface and as a source of entertainment.
It is certainly entertaining but at the same time reveals a past that the apartheid government was determined to keep hidden. With the rise of Afrikaner nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century this immoral and disgraceful behaviour was something that white Afrikaners wished to distance themselves from and this behaviour became entrenched as stereotypes attached to those who were not white.
All the while I was reading, I was conscious of my grandmother’s voice and wonder what she would say if she were alive. Respectability was an important way of ordering society in coloured and African communities and many of us were raised on the mantra of “what will people say?” and there were strict rules on how one should behave so as not to bring shame on one’s family and community. I am sure that she would have been shocked at these shenanigans.
People have not changed much in subsequent years and the stories in this book would not be out of place in today’s tabloids. There are skeletons falling out of many closets in this work which draws on books and journals, archival material, SA library, newspapers and magazines.
McKinnon is also the author of A Tapestry of Lives: Women of The Cape in the 17th Century published in 2004 and Criminals, Corruption and Crazy Critters with illustrations by Tony Grogan in 2019.
​INSTAGRAM: @nadiakamieswriter
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Magic Lessons

11/30/2020

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Title: Magic Lessons
Author: Alice Hoffman 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
This long awaited prequel Practical Magic is a journey into the world of magic and mayhem  and a time when anyone seen as practising the ‘Unnamed Arts’ feared for their lives. What I loved about this novel is the ease with which the author takes the reader
​back into the late 1600s bringing a place and time so instantly to life that you are part of it. Emotional, gut wrenching and brilliantly 
imaginative this is where we learn of the origin of Owen’s family curse - that any man who loves an Owens woman will die. Maria is a foundling abandoned in a snowy England field who is taken in by the solitary Hannah Owens, a woman who recognises that Maria has ‘the gift’, as she herself has. She teaches the child what she herself knows and finds a talented and responsible student. Abandoned by the man she loves Maria invokes the curse that will haunt the Owen’s women for centuries. This is an enchanting book (no pun intended) captivating in its realism and invoking all that spells, familiars (meet Cadin the crow) and healing remedies conjure up. Hoffman’s inspirational writing is a joy and you’ll recognise many of the remedies and sayings that our own mothers invoked when we were children. And they weren’t witches! From a dark England to the island of Curacao and finally on to Salem, Massachusetts and the horrific tortures of the ‘witches of Salem’ the book is an adventure in itself leaving you breathless as Hoffman blends history and magic seamlessly.  And learn this last lesson: ‘Know that love is the only answer.’ A wonderful holiday read. ​​
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This Mournable Body

11/8/2020

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Author:  Tsitsi Dangaembga
Publisher: Jacana
Reviewer: Beryl Eicheberger 
As a Zimbabwean novelist, playwright, and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga is a powerhouse in her field and an articulate commentator on the social issues of Zimbabwe. Her debut novel, Nervous Conditions (1988) was named by the BBC in 2018 as one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world as the first to be written in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe. The sequel, ‘The Book of Not ‘ was published in 2006, and now her 2018 novel, ‘This 
Mournable Body’, which brings to a close the Tambudzai trilogy, is shortlisted  for the 2020 Booker prize. Outspoken and fearless, Dangarembga is also an activist, arrested in August 2020 for anti-corruption protests and now currently out on bail.
I had not read the previous two novels in the trilogy, so I had no pre conceptions about the writing or the story. The novel is set in the 90s after Zimbabwean independence and when the economy is crumbling and the fractured minds and bodies are still all too apparent. This is a soulful yet sad testament to a woman’s life in an African patriarchal country, where colonisation has left its indelible stamp. Gritty and harsh, it chronicles a suffering city and its peoples.  
That Dangaremmbga is influenced by what is happening around her is apparent.  She says ‘If I hadn't engaged with the bleakness of life in contemporary Zimbabwe in This Mournable Body, I might not have been moved to demonstrate and speak out.”
 She has given African women a strong and provocative voice, exposing their plight and asking difficult questions. Her writing conjures up the dusty, unkempt streets of Harare, a city that has gone from Sunshine City to Shadow City, “The decay of the city mirrors the decay of the human beings in the novel.  I'm fascinated by how we manifest the inner in the outer. ” She says.
And this is exactly as it reads…a parallel disintegration of a city and its inhabitants and a destruction of the very soul of a country.  
When the book opens Tambudzai Sigauke (Tambu) is a bleak, disillusioned and desperately unhappy woman, approaching middle age, estranged from her family, jobless, childless and seemingly hopeless. Written in the second person it is as if Tambu is an observer on a life that the Zimbabwean system has sabotaged. As an African woman who has been Western educated, she finds she is disadvantaged with her intelligence undermined and she is dangerously close to unravelling.  
Tambu moves from the hostel (where she is an overage resident) to rent a room on the estate of a wealthy widow. The widow’s niece Christine is an ex-combatant who knows her village family and brings a gift from her mother that remains accusingly in Tambu’s room as she is unable to acknowledge it.  When she finally finds a new job teaching it is only to lose it when she badly beats the mild mannered student Elizabeth. It is Tambu’s breaking point as she hears the ‘hyena’ calling and she lands in a psychiatric ward. .
Her aunt and cousin Nyasha support her during this time and she is offered a temporary home with Nyasha and her German husband Leon and their two children. This is the beginning of her recovery and, on an outing one day, she runs into her school friend (and nemesis) Tracey Stevenson who hires her to help her launch an opportunistic eco-tourism business venture.
It is in this final part of the book, aptly named ‘Arriving ‘that Tambu starts to find herself again, not without a disastrous homecoming, but with a profound sense of hope and newly recovered self -respect. One of the things that struck me was that throughout the story, Tambu remains true to herself,  decent , upright and mostly restrained, even in her most dire circumstances. 
This is a novel that is full of images and Dangarembga writes with the skill of the observant artist, as she rolls back the lives of the ordinary Zimbabwean, their struggles and the manipulation of the wealthy. What comes across so compellingly is the status of women, or should I say their non-status, to be used and abused as the men in the story wish. And it is this that makes so many of the female cast raw, ambitious and outspoken. This is an African book written as only an African woman can as she dissects and plays the characters one against the other. They bristle and speak in a way that might be strange to many ears, but the rawness depicts their anger and their resolution and ultimately successes.
With a depth and breadth that is breath- taking the reader feels as if they are caught in the cross hairs of a quivering rifle. There is almost a contemptuous tone as the apathetic Tambu views herself. Never sentimental, always thought provoking, at times the reader is angry with Tambu then sorry for her and finally rooting for her as she struggles to rebuild a life she spent her youth working for. Evocative and devastating ‘This Mournable Body‘ is a stark reminder of where we are and Dangarembga has once again lived up to her reputation. A brilliant addition to African literature.  ​
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The Widening of the Womb

10/24/2020

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Title: The Widening of the Womb and Other Stories
Author: Philomène Luyindula Lasoen
Reviewer: Eva Pollefort
The Widening of the Womb is a beautiful little piece of art that you can carry along like a treasure. Read it slowly, for every word is precious. Despite some gruesome stories you will have read and lived through, you will emerge of it with a sense of blessing, hope, and joy. “The Widening of the Womb and Other Stories”, offers us a beautiful ​
​collection of short stories and pieces of poetry highlighting some characters from the Old Testament, both female and male. The book contains illustrations by Laurie Foucteau, whose skillful drawings are just as poetic and delicate as Philomène’s pen.
I have never read the Bible and I probably never will, yet I understand that what makes this little book so powerful is not just the plot of the stories themselves – which are obviously intertwined by the characters’ family histories, and full of twists and turns and dramatic scenes – but the specific, personal, feminist view of the author on the narrated events and the people at their centre, which she unfolds with great sensitivity.
The book is divided into five parts, each covering a group of themes, like “Mores and Faith”, “War and Peace”, “Power and Vulnerability” and “Beauty and Resilience”, with the shortest and last part of the book speaking “Of Wisdom and Poetry, Our Art and Sharing”.
The themes addressed are inherent to humanity, and so they naturally resonate with our lives in modern times. The stories raise questions, too – sometimes sadly, when it comes to matters like the unequal distribution of power between men and women, and other (systemic) violence against women like rape, forced marriage, or female genital mutilation.
The author is a true story-teller who gets you caught by the suspense in some of these stories and, through her creative mind, gives you an intimate view on what the girls, women, and men she depicts have lived through, what they feared, and what they hoped for. This is true for some powerful or well-known characters – the first coming to mind being Eve –, but Philomène is also giving a voice to the voiceless, to those who are transparent, or marginal : those who are merely mentioned in HIStory and rarely talked about.
As one of the characters puts it: “I know that my story will be found in a sacred book that will turn out to be many things to many people […]. But there, you will not find the story of the conquerors only. Not if you look properly, because I am in it.”
With her short sentences and carefully chosen words, Philomène brings their stories to the point and leads you to the essence of the characters’ heart, mind and soul, rewriting HERstories with a lot of intelligence.
It took me some time to read through these pages, because I had to pause and think and catch my breath when ending one story, before starting to read the next. But despite the violence I was confronted with, Philomène’s faith shines through, as her words are about resilience, strength, courage, and love.
The Widening of the Womb will be available at the Women’s Library once it has reopened in 2021. Meanwhile for details of availability contact philomene.I.I@gmail.com 
e-book: https://www.amazon.fr/Widening-Womb-Other-Stories-English-ebook/dp/B07B8XQQ78
Or see a free sample story: https://www.academia.edu/35872478/The_Mouth_of_Healing
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Women vs Justice - two titles show the struggle continues

10/7/2020

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Title: Women in Solitary 
Author: Shantini Naidoo  
​Publisher: Tafelberg  
The story that Shantini Naidoo sets out to tell begins on 6th April 2018 at Pretoria Central Prison. In the wake of the recent death of Winnie Mandela, as a journalist she is there to find out more about the Mother of the Nation’s incarceration here. On the same occasion she also witnesses the annual commemoration of the hanging of MK freedom fighter Solomon Mahlangu.  But it was her investigation into the 1969 ‘Trial of 22’ that got her started, the focus most specifically on the seven women included in that number. The women who ‘lived through harassment and abuse that was gender specific’, whose ‘prison narratives illustrate… women’s contribution to the liberation struggle’, but about whom there is such ‘lean and scattered information’ and ‘whose stories have largely gone undetected, untold, in the shadow of the mainstream narrative – that of the Rivonia trialists and Robben Island political prisoners. ’
Following this prison visit, Naidoo goes in search of the four women, those still living, who went through both the trial and the brutal solitary incarceration that followed. And so she tracks down Joyce Sikhakane-Rankin, Shantie Naidoo, Rita Ndzanga and Nondwe Mankhala, keenly aware of asking them to share difficult memories that have been buried for half a century. In each case at these delicate meetings she elicits revealing fragments of their back stories.  Joyce for instance aged seven, attended Holy Cross Primary run by activist Reverend Trevor Huddlestone and went on to become an award winning journalist. Over tea and scones Shantie (no relation) explains that she came from a family of activists whose grandfather petioned Paul Kruger about human rights abuse of indentured labour and it was ‘not  question of us getting involved, it was how to get involved.’ From her home in Soweto former parliamentarian Rita describes her forced removal from Sophiatown in 1955 ‘when 2000 policemen arrived with handguns, rifles and knobkerries.’ Lastly in a Port Elizabeth township Nondwe tells how she became an ANC volunteer at 17 spreading the word to ‘so many people in rural areas and in town who didn’t know about the struggle.’ In some cases  the memories are still sharp, in others they are fading – but all the memories they describe of their solitary time in detention are almost too painful to read. And hard to forget. Winnie’s story, though better known, is hardest to forget. Interesting that while her husband spent 27 years in prison, only 3 days of that were in solitary while for his wife was subjected to solitary confinement for more than eighteen months.
Bringing all of this firmly into the present day are the chapters that follow: Aftermath, looking at the devastating effects on their long term physical and mental wellbeing as well as significantly, those of their children and grandchildren. Latter Days: how the women meet again to receive the presidential Order of Luthuli in Silver and for a last time at Winne’s funeral. On Healing in which she quotes Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madizizela on the TRC and the aim ‘to foster accountability…restore hope.. and agency amongst those whose identity was diminished and humiliated.’ Finally in Conclusion she says, ‘It makes us uncomfortable to hear these stories, but we risk worse if we don’t – apathy, and a skewed moral compass, which many already follow.’ Review: Nancy Richards
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​Title: Kwanele, Enough!
Author: Andy Kawa
Publisher: Tafelberg
In December 2010, businesswoman Andiswa Kawa decided to take a short leisurely stroll on Port Elizabeth’s King’s Beach before catching her flight back to Jo’burg. But she never makes the flight. Instead she is abducted by a man carrying a broken beer bottle who says ‘I’m gonna kill you’. In the dunes he and several other men rape her in a nightlong, 16 hour ordeal that left her traumatized and almost defeated. But not quite. Because today Andy looks back on a decade of My battle with the South African Police Service to get justice for women’– the subtitle of the book in which she outlines the whole horrifying story.
As if the abduction and assault weren’t bad enough, the handling or mishandling – and even no handling at all - of the police at Humewood police station – is breathtaking. In the book she recounts the wrenching chain of events, in her own words. But all of it backed up by others – like the runners who found her wandering and confused on the beach, the car guard who knew the assailants, through the voices of members of the justice system, the press and through the words of Justice Edward Cameron who writes the foreword and those of Dr Mamphela Ramphele who she came to know well through this ordeal.
Aside from her bulldog-like endeavours to get some sort of action and response, if not apology and remorse, from the police and the system, she also took up the cudgel for other women by starting a campaign called Kwanele Enuf is Enuf! The aim of which is to ‘break the chains of silence, fear, tolerance and apathy against sexual violence.’ Its partners include POWA, Commissioner for Gender Equality, Sonke Gender Justice, Business Unity South Africa and Business Against Crime. But the fight against gender violence is ongoing. What makes it so doubly unjust is that it’s the likes of Andy Kowa and her book, as well as others like Tracy Going and hers, Brutal Legacy, who are the sacrificial lambs suffering not only the violation, but the repeated violation as a result of the inertia and inefficiency of the police and justice system.
The defence closed its case on The Minister of Police vs Andy Kawa on 2nd August 2018. On 22nd November, the High Court case had been won. Not long afterwards the Minister of Police announced his intention to appeal – and despite a letter she sent to President Ramaphosa requesting he withdraw the appeal, it went ahead. On 6th May 2020 the appeal was upheld in the Supreme Court. In closing Kawa says, ‘We decided to take the matter to the Constitutional Court. We have applied for leave to appeal and are awaiting response.’ The wait, like the struggle, continues.
Signing off her daughter Celiwe says, ‘I am so lucky to have a mother who actively lives her politics and fights to make the world a safer, fairer and more just place.’  She sure is.
​Review: Nancy Richards
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A Woman Makes a Plan

9/30/2020

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Title: ​A woman makes a plan
Author: May Musk
Publisher: Jonathan Ball
Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
Maye Musk is a bold woman. And, if the surname sounds familiar, Maye is mother of the more famous Elon Musk. But Maye in her own right has carved a niche for herself as the woman who made silver hair glamorous at 59, (thank you Maye) becoming a CoverGirl at 69 and now in her seventies is an international supermodel and sought after speaker as well as writing her eminently readable memoir ‘A woman makes a plan’. 
Add to that a thriving dietician practice and her energy is infectious.  She has made it glamorous to be mature.
If the title has a familiar ring then you’re right as it stems from the South African phrase ‘N’Boer maak ‘n plan’ which she learnt when growing up in South Africa. Her life has been full of adventure and she writes in a frank, no-nonsense style imparting sound advice that can be used by any woman of any age. When i first picked up the book i was a little sceptical – privilege and all that. But I was pleasantly surprised.  Privileged as a child -  yes, but as an adult, no.
Her story is compelling, with resilience  at its heart . Lying down and letting life stomp all over you is not in her plan. She, her twin sister Kaye and three other siblings learned at an early age to be independent and their young lives were, in anyone’s books, pretty magical. Moving from Canada to South Africa her parents were adventurers. Her chiropractic father had a plane and flying somewhere for a conference or holiday was common practice, and this was not the sort of plane we are used to! Her mother Wyn was a journalist and taught ballroom dancing and ballet who continued to be active until her death at 96. Their ideas and interests were a creative masterplan in how to survive. And for every trip, as dangerous as it appeared to be…there was a plan. 
And for Maye, this was the key: whatever the situation you have to have a plan. A science nerd she went to modelling school at 15 - happily modelling at a department store for extra money but not taking it too seriously. Learning Afrikaans she studied at Pretoria University and then went on to do her Masters degree at Bloemfontein. With a PhD and various degrees in nutrition she has restarted her practices in several different countries over the years, no easy task. She took on these challenges in life and as she says’ you just have to overcome them.’ She freely admits that her weight was a continual problem, one that with a strict regime she has conquered (including a peanut butter sandwich) bringing her the ultimate successes of modelling work.  
Her early marriage was a mistake and, escaping to Durban after nine years with three young children, Elon, Kimbal and Tosca, she struggled financially, juggling her dietician practice and other jobs to keep the family afloat. There was no financial back up – her abusive husband saw to that with 11 tough years fighting lawsuits. Advice here: ‘Get yourself out – as quickly as you can’. To this day she freely admits she doesn’t have great taste in men!
Maye’s attitude is practical:  ‘make your own choices and be responsible for them, they can lead to surprising events whatever your age. Be kind to others, without expecting anything in return. The harder you work – the luckier you get.’  With her kids, who have all been hugely successful –‘ let them go their own way but always support them.’ Health – ‘there is no magic pill.’ Kindness and consideration play a big role in success but it is the plan that is the key. While she is a great role model for older women her advice is relevant whatever age you are.
What I enjoyed was her positive spirit, despite many emotional and physical upheavals.  There is a distinctly frank and no nonsense approach that is endearing and never sanctimonious. Written in conversational style the book has lots to offer in an accessible way. She learnt her lessons the hard way and is honest in her revelations and how she coped. But what she has achieved is a life of adventure, beauty and success and who wouldn’t want that – at any age… as long as you have a plan.
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