BECOMING CHARLOTTE

140pp., paperback, Number 10 Publishers, No Place, No Date.

ISBN: 9781037001123

A fictionalised account of the young adult years of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke (1871-1939). Born in Ramokgopa in Polokwane, she received a missionary education at Edwards Memorial School in the Eastern Cape in the early 1880s. After moving to Kimberley in 1885, she taught indigenous languages to expatriates and basic English to African miners. In 1894, while on a tour with her church choir, she received a scholarship to study at Wilberforce University in Ohio. She graduated with a BSc in 1901, becoming South Africa's first black woman graduate.

"What a privilege to be so sensitively led into imagining the world of a brilliant young woman. Zubeida Jaffer's research and inventively crafted structure secure a lovely mix of fact and fiction for conjecturing a possible heartbeat of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke. You will read it with pleasure!" Antjie Krog

"This book is about a young South African woman of faith who lived in times of strife but, thanks to staying true to her faith and dreams, succeeded beyond the imaginable. Her story is told with amazing but dazzling simplicity. A thrilling read" Sindiwe Magona

South African journalist and author Zubeida Jaffer is the author of Beauty of the Heart, the life and times of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke; Love in the Time of Treason, the life story of Ayesha Dawood, and Our Generation. She lives in Cape Town.