NOMASOMALI, ubomi bam

142pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Johannesburg, 2021

Autobiography by activist and women's rights advocate Marjorie Nomasomali Goniwe Nkomo, born in 1941 in Bizana in the former homeland of Transkei. She trained as a nurse and midwife and later completed an M.Phil at the Centre for International Child Health, University of London. 

"The purpose of this book is to tell, without self-pity, a story of ordinary grandmothers, mothers and daughters, who, forced by circumstances, become unsung heroines of the struggle against apartheid ... The book takes a bold turn in pointing out that the past may have been better because at least families held together through thick and thin in fighting a recognisable enemy. It continues to point out that current freedoms have invaded and turned upside down the last bastion of traditions and culture: the morals and ethics of an African family ... The book summons all South Africans to revisit original childhood lessons where the roadmap of ubuntu is still very much alive in African folklore, where it took an entire village to raise a child." Professor Paul Zilungisele Tembe, from his foreword