MAGIC AND MASALA

264pp., paperback, Pigeon Press, Bulawayo, 2023

ISBN: 9781779211781

Novel set against the background of South Africa's Group Areas Act of 1950, a series of laws introduced by the apartheid government that enforced racial segregation. The Act was repealed in 1990.

Sharifa travels from her home in Cape Town to Bulawayo in southern Rhodesia – to the family she was once forced to reject, determined to share a long-held secret before she dies.

“What an illuminating read! Violette Kee-Tui’s Magic and Masala is a wonderful novel that shines a much-needed light on the history of the Coloured and Muslim communities in southern Africa. In this fascinating family saga we get to see how race, gender and religion have played such an important role in shaping our identities and circumstances in this corner of the world. Kee-Tui’s contribution to the diversity of voices coming out of the region is not only welcomed, it is vital.” Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, winner of the 2022 Windham-Campbell prize for fiction

Journalist Violette Sohaili Kee-Tui was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where she still lives. She is the author of Mulberry Dreams.