One black woman’s rage, resistance and progress unveiled in new book

By Citylife Arts Writer

A new book that deals with the complexity of South African society is out, and in it author Lwando Xaso deals with personal issues that happened in a democratic South Africa that shaped her life. Made in South Africa: A Black Woman’s  Stories of Rage, Resistance and Progress’s foreword has been written by retired Constitutional Court Judge, Justice Edwin Cameron, and businesswoman and former ANC freedom fighter Cheryl Carolus. The book is published by Tracey McDonald Publishers.

“Being South African is not for the faint-hearted or the fragile. It is a strong and determined state of mind –it is believing in the improbable. It is being challenged and frustrated to your wits’ end but still finding a reason to smile. It is believing that no matter how dark the day, the sun will shine again – it has to South Africa has ballasted, steeled, chiselled, moulded and prepared me for a life of rigour. I am made by South Africa and I would not choose any differently.” – Lwando Xaso

Made in South Africa: A black woman’s Stories of Rage, Resistance and Progress is a vibrant collection of essays in which Lwando Xaso examines, with incisive clarity, some of the events that have shaped her experience of her homeland South Africa – a country with huge potential but weighed down by persistent racism and inequality, cultural appropriation, sexism and corruption; all legacies of a complicated history.

The essays were written over an eight-year period between 2013 and 2020. Some of them have been published previously in publications such as the Daily Maverick, The Journalist and the Sunday Independent.

Others are straight from Lwando’s personal journal and have never been published before. Each essay is introduced with Lwando’s reflection which provides the reader with intimate insight and context for each.