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RETHINKING AFRICA

8/28/2021

Title: Rethinking Africa: – Indigenous Women Re-interpret Southern Africa’s Pasts
Editors: Bernedette Muthien and June Bam
Publishers: Fanele
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
The essence of this book is wedged firmly in the title. It’s a thinking and rethinking book that offers much on which to reflect. At the same time, challenging on many levels. And so it would, because the contributors are all women who are not shy to state their cases strongly in their chosen fields. Ana Ligia Leite e Aguar is a professor of Brazilian Literature; June Bam heads the Khoi and San unit at

UCT’s Centre for African Studies; Shelly Barry is a filmmaker: Diana Ferrus a poet and writer; Gertrude Fester a former Commissioner for Gender Equality; Sharon Groenmeyer a sociologist; Khadija Tracy Heger a poet; Robyn Humphreys has a BSc in human genetics; Babalwa Magoqwana is a sociologist-anthropologist; Sarah Malotane Henekman is a transdisciplinary practicioner-scholar and Sylvia Vollenhoven is a storyteller-playwright. All of them are so much more than these drastically redacted bios and I hope that as multi-layered activists they will forgive me.
Bernedette Muthien together with June Bam was the prime motivator for the book. An academic, poet, researcher and co-founder of the Khoisan Women’s Circle, she is every bit as multi-layered as the others. In fact she says, the contributors were in part chosen for their various skills, and that ‘herstory’ as distinct from history, needs to be told as much through the arts as academia. Hence the opening chapter by writer, playwright Sylvia Vollenhoven is called Writing ourselves back into history: the liberating narrative of who we are. Likewise, the contributions from Ferrus, Barry and Heger are all poems and some photographs and artworks are also included.
But Bernedette’s own essay Rematriation: Reclaiming indigenous matricentric egalitarianism offers some especially pertinent thinking: ‘Indigenous societies have compassionate spiritualities at their core, with feminine or dual-gender deities, rather than a vengeful, raging, patriarchal deity that inspires fear rather than love.’ She goes on, ‘there is a distinct contrast between the patriarchal power over’ and the matricentric, egalitarian ‘power as a resource’, to be shared in abundance and with respect, like all other resources.’ You only have to look at the legacy of some of the so-called ‘strongman’ leaders around the world today, to see that there could be some lessons here.
As a non-academic, for me there were many lessons. First that from the lists of references and footnotes I learned that this is not a book that has been put together lightly. I also learned that ‘deep listening’ and ‘deep research’ are required if we are to reopen the door to shareable and fair power and rethink the way we live.
More simply I learnt the meaning of the words ontological (a philosophy based on the existence of things) and epistemicide (the killing of knowledge systems). As well, more tragically, that the word ‘ausi’ meaning older sister or first born girl child, according to June Bam extends to ‘ausi-cide’ (attempted erasure of the knowledge and role of indigenous Khoi elder women. Much to make you think.

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Strike a Rock

8/24/2021

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Title: Strike a Rock – The Thembi Kgatlana Story
Author: Nikolaos Kirkinis
Publisher: Jacana
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
The book is a gripping account of one of the best female footballers South Africa has ever produced. It’s so engaging, it was hard for me to put down once I started reading. The book offers an insight into the incredible journey of a sporting hero from humble beginnings to international recognition. It’s a story of one woman’s passion for football that defies all the odds.
Born on 2 May 1996, Chrestinah Thembi Kgatlana grew up not afraid of playing soccer with the

in the dusty and gravelled streets of Mohlakeng township in Johannesburg’s West Rand. She grew up with her mother (Constance Masinga) and father (Matlhomola Kgatlana) and two boy siblings, Tumelo and Mpho. Technically Mpho, a year older, is Thembi’s cousin but to her he’s her brother – they’re inseparable. They all lived in her maternal grandmother’s house after she passed away. Although tiny in stature, Thembi was fearless even as a child, playing rough with the boys and mischievous most times. This got her in hot water at home and in school.
Not a shy one, at primary school she signed up for any and every sporting event. Her amazing talent in football is soon spotted and in Grade 5 she’s invited to be part of a real team – a boys’ soccer team. Back then, only boys played the sport in school. She’s the laughing stock – girls taunt her for playing a boys game and her parents discourage her love for the game. Her mother tries to teach her how to brew umqomothi (traditional beer) in case she has to take over the family business one day – but with no success. Thembi is not interested, period!
Her excellent striking skills are noticed by a local recruiter who invites Thembi for training with a local women’s football team – the Parma Ladies FC – at the tender age of 13. Thembi’s meteoric rise is unstoppable. In Grade 8 she’s officially invited by SAFA (South African Football Association) to train with the South African Girls’ National under 17 squad. From there, she joins the HPC (High Performance Centre) as a student footballer. The HPC puts her through a rigorous training schedule. Her time there taught her about the importance of respect, teamwork and staying focused.
Her major break comes when she’s selected for trials by Vera Pauw, the legendary Dutch coach and now coach for the women’s national football team, Banyana Banyana. She’s looking for a squad to take to the Africa’s Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON). Thembi’s first game with Banyana Banyana is an international friendly against Namibia in August 2014. In between training with the team, she’s also preparing for her final matric exams. She passes with two distinctions, including an A for isiZulu. Thembi accepts the invitation by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to study there where she enrols for a bachelor’s degree in tourism in 2015. She continues to practice and plays for the UWC women’s football team. She also joins the boys at Ajax Cape Town for gruelling training sessions.
Thembi is only 20 years old when she plays for Banyana Banyana in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She signs with one of the biggest women’s football team in the world, the Houston Dash from Texas, USA. The head coach is none other than Vera Pauw, former Banyana Banyana coach. In January 2019 she signs with the Beijing bG Phoenix – earning six times more than she earned in the US. What readers might not know incidentally is that the biggest women’s football league in the world can be found in China.
Thembi has fought many obstacles in her young life and has emerged triumphantly. Coming from a place where a girl had no business playing soccer to now being a role model for many young women in the country. She has faced addiction and its destruction to family life when her elder brother, Tumelo, became a drug addict and a thief. She’s experienced first-hand discrimination that women face in sport. She won Player of the Tournament for two international competitions in a row. She won both the 2018 CAF (Confederation of African football) Goal of the Year award and, CAF African Women Footballer of the Year award. In 2019 she scored Banyana Banyana’s first ever World Cup goal in the team’s first ever World Cup tournament in France playing against Spain. In the same year she also founded the Thembi Kgatlana Foundation. An initiative to make a difference in the life of the South African girl child.
Thembi is a living legend, a resilient footballer, a world-class striker with lightning speed and a nightmare for opposition defenders on the field. A thrilling and inspirational read.

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Comrade Editor

8/21/2021

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Title: Comrade Editor: On life, journalism and the birth of Namibia
Author: Gwen Lister
Publisher: Tafelberg
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
Comrade Editor is the tell-all passionate story of the award winning activist journalist Gwen Lister. Born in December 1953 in East London, Gwen’s childhood was spent in different places in South Africa. Her father (John) worked in the banking sector for all his life and her mother (Joan) became a stay-at-home mom once she was born. Her father’s reckless indulgence in alcohol left a negative

imprint on her life and that of her family (including siblings John and Gillian). Like many English speakers, her parents were conflicted about South Africa. Critical of apartheid but not vocal in public. Her political awakening started in her teen years – thanks to the progressive minded nuns that taught her at the convent schools she attended and her interest in the world, including the Civil Rights Movement in the US.
Gwen was liberated at UCT (University of Cape Town) where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Ethics, Political Philosophy and History in 1975. Not an armchair critic, she took part in many anti-apartheid demonstrations on and off campus. It was while she was at UCT that she and fellow students staged a protest at Newlands rugby field – the British Lions were playing the Southern Universities team.
Her first job as a reporter was with the Windhoek Advertiser in Namibia in 1976, working under Hannes ‘Smittie’ Smith. A hell-raiser of a man, a drunk and chronic insomniac, with a contempt for female journalists. When he met her for the first time, he was already drunk at mid-morning and told her “women belong barefoot in the kitchen or naked in bed.” Though an unsavoury character in many ways, Smittie was a dedicated newspaperman through and through.
Gwen’s strong commitment to journalism, human rights and true grit carried her through the Advertiser, the Windhoek Observer and The Namibian newspapers. Her reporting in Namibia created a greater awareness of South Africa’s illegal occupation of Namibia, the extent of racial segregation, discrimination and the atrocities committed by the South African security forces. She was at the frontlines – covering SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organisation) rallies in townships around the country and interviewing many key players in Namibian politics. Including Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, an icon of the Namibian liberation struggle, with whom she developed a close bond for many years until his death in 2017. And Sam Nujoma – Namibia’s first president and founder of SWAPO.
After she left the Windhoek Observer (a newspaper she started with Smittie) in 1984 under duress, she started an independent newspaper, The Namibian, in 1985. A paper critical of the oppressive colonial regime under which the majority of Namibians lived. With no money to sustain it and constant harassment from security forces, the paper faced hardship from the outset. A courageous journalist at all times Gwen has been through it all - arrests, death threats and fire bombings. She was there to witness the end of colonialism in Namibia and see the road to freedom and independence. She stepped down as editor in 2011, a position she held for 26 years.
Reading the final pages of the book, I sense her feeling of disillusionment with how things have turned out post-independence. The huge gap between the rich and poor, high unemployment, corruption galore, a bloated civil service, an intolerance of gay rights, rise in rates of gender-based violence and attacks on the media. The government in December 2000 put a ban on all government advertising in The Namibian – the ban stayed for over ten years.
Comrade Editor is a fascinating look at the life of Gwen Lister - the first woman newspaper editor in Southern Africa. An absolute must on the importance of press freedom. Through turbulent years her convictions she never wavered. She stuck to her guns and stood her ground.
It’s a good read for those starting out in journalism to see how things used to be in the old days of the profession – good and bad. It’s also a goldmine of information on Namibia’s political history from the brutal occupation to democracy.

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An Island

8/9/2021

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Title: An Island
Author: Karen Jennings
Publisher: Karavan Press
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
I am so cross with myself, or perhaps disappointed at my shortsightedness in having waited to be lured by the longlisting of the Booker Prize before reading this quiet and unassuming little gem of a book. I refer to it as ‘little’ only because it is so in stature. A few cms smaller than others, clad in a cover the colour of dried blood mixed with earth, a charcoal sketch of a chook on the front and

lighthouse on the back, it hadn’t shouted at me from the shelves. And all I really knew of Karen Jennings was that back in 2014, she’d been shortlisted for the then new Etisalat prize celebrating African writers of fiction for her Finding Soutbek.
But having cracked open the slender spine, I found it to be even more unassuming and quiet – no prologue, no fanfare, no arcane dedication, hand-picked lines of poetry – even the acknowledgements are a mere eight grateful lines - but exquisite in its simplicity.
‘The First Day’ announces the opening chapter – and with that you step ashore. Onto Samuel’s island. Where he’s been lighthouse keeper for over two decades. Washing up with you is a body – one of many that have found their way onto the pebbly and unwelcoming beach.
You come to know well, if not its exact whereabouts off Africa, the lie of the island, its nooks, crannies, secret spots. As well as Samuel’s sparse, isolated cottage where everything has its place. But you don’t stay there. Because as his memory is jolted by the arrival of this body, this man, Samuel’s reflections take us back into the dark, sometimes troubled past he was marked by on the mainland. Again, Jennings doesn’t pinpoint the exact times and places of this not so long ago time but if you live towards the tip of Africa, you can feel it in your southern bones. Smell it in her carefully chosen words. By ‘The Fourth Day’, I was all but holding my breath.
I’m ashamed to have taken so long, but richer for reading such a thoughtful book, with a punch way above its weight.

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The Devil's in the Detail

8/9/2021

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Author: Melina Lewis
Publisher: Melina Lewis
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
Mark Twain is quoted as having said ‘write what you know’. If he was right, one can only wonder at how Melina Lewis came to know what she writes about here, in all its devilish detail. It is a book full of wickednesses, nastiness, deception, degradation, broken hopes – but finally of comeuppance.
So here they are Elle and Brent Mullen – she with her beautiful body, pigeon pair children,

trust fund, chardonnay-soaked book club and saving-grace social work career from an airless container in the ‘deep south’ – and him with his trophy wife, gym ‘n drinking habits and involvement in an edgy IT business. If you live in selected circles of Cape Town you will know well the settings and quite probably some similar to those in the starring roles.
Things have already started to go horribly wrong in the Mullen marriage – for some of the reasons obvious from above. But the plot really thickens when Elle takes on Ethan’s case. Ethan is a bright but embattled young lad with a gangster dad, a druggie but now dead mum, a moffie brother, also now dead and another brother high in his mother’s footsteps. By way of contrasting characters, there is also hot-bod Jax the cute little yoga teacher. And then there’s Rafiq Daniels – and this is where the proverbial really hits the fan.
In the interest of not giving anything away, I’ll leave it at that – but you will need no encouragement (though a glass of chilled chardonnay might be advised in some places) in rattling through this ‘oh-my-word-he-didn’t’ page turner. Set in generous 12pt palatino it’s easy on the eye. But the question remains – how has Melina Lewis come to know all this in her work as a communications consultant. Melina?

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RETHINKING AFRICA

Strike a Rock

Comrade Editor

An Island

The Devil's in the Detail

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