Sindiwe Magona

A fictional account of the real-life murder of Amy Biehl, a Fulbright scholar helping to organize free elections in Guguleta, South Africa

Mother to Mother

To My Children's Children

Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night (Emerging Voices. New International Fiction)

È il 1993 e quattro giovani neri uccidono una ragazza americana bianca, pacifista, arrivata a Città del Capo con una borsa di studio alla fine dell'apartheid e alla vigilia delle prime elezioni democratiche. La madre di uno degli assassini scrive all'altra, quella che ha perso la figlia, cercando di spiegarle in quale inferno - quell'universo concentrazionario dove i giovani sono allo sbando perché le loro mamme sono al lavoro dai bianchi, o ubriache, o morte giovanissime - è fiorita quella violenza assurda. Le scrive per chiedere perdono e comprensione ma anche per interrogarsi sulle responsabilità personali e collettive. Il 25 agosto 1993, Amy Biehl, alunna bianca del Fulbright College, venne uccisa a Città del Capo da un gruppo di giovani neri, istigati da un insorgente movimento anti bianco. Il libro si è ispirato a questa tragedia.

Da madre a madre

Craig Fraser

In Xhosa culture the headman and elders of a tribe hold the key to all knowledge. In this visual journey to the traditional dwellings and homesteads of the old transkei, the photographer has elevated these rural abodes to a similar status. For the design, layout and materials used in these humble homes reveal much more than mere structure. They reveal that dire poverty does little to dampen the irrepressible human impulse to adorn and beautify. Here the realities of daily life are manifest in no running water (some journey five times a day to collect water), no electricity and scant employment and yet using little more than materials found in nature or sourced from the surrounding environment, the personality of each homeowner is expressed in a rich, elaborate vocabulary of symbols, geometric patterns, colour and decorative detail that is uniquely individual to each. Collectively these homes reveal the nature of a society that lives according to the deep-seated values of a fast-vanishing way of life. Here life is lived in tune with nature and in cognisance of community. Here your worth - and your lifestyle - is measured by your number of cattle.

Lifestyle and Inspiration from the Xhosa People of the Old Transkei

Mud Chic

Thembi Mtshali-Jones

My Story as Told to Sindiwe Magona

Theatre Road

Abdulrazak Gurnah

al-Ṭayyib Ṣāliḥ

Charles Mungoshi

Ousmane Sembène

Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele

Tololwa Marti Mollel

Dambudzo Marechera

I. N. C. Aniebo

Henri Lopes

Luís Bernardo Honwana

Olympe Bhêly-Quénum

Ken Lipenga

Bloke Modisane

William Saidi

Nnadozie Inyama

Mohammed Abderrahmane Berrada

Ali Deb

Mohammed Moulessehoul

An anthology of twenty-five short stories by the very best emerging and award-winning contemporary African writers illuminates modern-day concerns and realities of African life and features the writing of Ben Okri, Chinua Achebe, and others. Original.

Short Stories of the Contemporary African Experience

African Rhapsody

A collection of short stories, in the detail of their varied backgrounds, range in location from rural Transkei and township life in the Cape to central New York. They have in common also, as before, the authors' perceptive and vivid creation of memorable characters, whether hilarious or tragic.

Push-push! and Other Stories

A searing novel, told in letter form, that explores the South African legacy of apartheid through the lens of a woman whose Black son has just murdered a white woman Mother to Mother is a novel with depth, at once an emotional plea for compassion and understanding, and a sharp look at the impacts of colonialism and apartheid on South African families. Inspired by the true story of Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl's murder, the book takes the form of a letter to the victim’s mother. The murderer’s mother, Mandisa, speaks of a life marked by oppression and injustice. Through her writing, Mandisa reveals a colonized society that not only allowed but perpetuated violence against women and impoverished Black South Africans under the reign of apartheid. This book is not an apology for the murder but rather something more. It seeks to connect, through empathy and storytelling, one pained mother with another who is grief-stricken and in mourning. A beautifully written exploration of the society that bred such violence, Mother to Mother will resonate with readers interested in understanding and ending racial injustice, as well as the lasting colonial foundations of oppression.

Grand roman de l'apartheid où violence et quête d'humanité demeurent l'héritage de l'histoire. Sindiwe Magona signe un récit bouleversant sous forme de lettre. L'Afrique du Sud y est racontée tout en nuances, complexité et passion.

Mère à mère

It is a heart warming story set in a South African township. Siziwe is expected to tend her brothers and sisters as their mother has gone far away to tend to their ill grandfather. Father is out at sea.

The Best Meal Ever!

Magona's collection of superb short stories brings a full range of South African women's experience brilliantly to light. From the village mother leaving her children to work to the maid in service to the white madam, the stories are at once tragic, triumphant, humorous, and sharp, but above all forcefully empowering.

Living, Loving, and Lying Awake at Night

Sindiwe Magona's poems conspire with her. Even years after being written, they still seem warm from her lips, and it is this residue of her telling them that draws you into their confidence. From the languid innocence of the poems about her village, to her shattering images of Africa at war, Magona leads you headlong into her fireside circle where archetypes flicker like shadows on a face that has seen, and been. Please, Take Photographs is defiant and tender, horrific and homely, at once irreverent, outspoken and beautiful.

Please, Take Photographs

A powerful collection of stories by the acclaimed author of Mother to Mother This collection of Sindiwe Magona's short fiction, following the publication to wide acclaim of her novel Mother to Mother, ranges in location from rural Transkei, her homeland, and the black township of Guguletu, where she struggled to raise her children, to New York, where she immigrated. With vivid and perceptive prose, Magona creates memorable characters, both hilarious and tragic, who bring to life the rich and varied backgrounds and cultures of South Africa.

After the death of the old, cruel king, the new king decreed that the people of the kingdom would be fed, clothed and given houses. They were not allowed to work or go to school. The people eventually became obese and ill, and realised what the new king had done to them.

Sindiwe Magona

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