Sindiwe Magona
SINDIWE MAGONA
South Africa
Sindiwe Magona , born in the Transkei , grew up in the harsh surroundings of the Cape Flats . Magona’s writings recall her impoverished youth in South Africa , and her personal and political struggles, as a Black South African woman living under apartheid, to achieve racial and gender harmony in South Africa . Magona draws on the traditional Xhosa storytelling techniques remembered from her early childhood. It is a distinctive style of writing that prompted this description from The Washington Post Book World: To My Children’s Children “ is a delightful poignant, feisty and uplifting story that chronicles in a refreshing and authentic voice, what it means to attain womanhood in a society where patriarchy and apartheid often conspired to degrade and enslave women.”
This extraordinary woman obtained her matric by correspondence, as a single parent, mother of three, with no fixed abode, and working as a domestic servant. She finally graduated with a BA degree from the University of South Africa as well as a Master of Science Degree in Organizational Social Work from Columbia University. In 1993 Hartwick College (USA) awarded her an honourary Doctorate in Humane Letters and in 1997, she was a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellow in the non-fiction category.
In 1976 Magona’s commitment as a community activist was rewarded when she was invited to the International Women’s Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Brussels, and in 1977 the Cape Argus, recognized her as one of the 10 finalists for its Woman of the Year Award. At the height of her political activism, however, she found that the pen is mightier than the sword, as her writing allows her to challenge or influence public opinion while empowering black youths and especially women for the roles they should play in the new South Africa . Recently retired from the United Nations’ Department of Public Information, New York , where she was based for many years, Sindiwe Magona has now returned to her homeland and is living in the Cape.
Publications:
To My Children’s Children, David Philip, 1990
Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night, David Philip, 1991
Forced to Grow, Women’s Press, London, 1992, David Philip, 1992
Push-Push and other stories, David Philip, 1996
Mother to Mother, David Philip, 1998
April 16th, 2009 at 11:07 am
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May 3rd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
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May 11th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
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November 1st, 2009 at 7:48 am
Hi Sindi,
We met in Brussels in March, 1976 at the Tribunal and I visited you in Capetown in June. After listening to the tape I made with you and Anne Mayne, I just “discovered” your whereabouts on the web. Would love to hear from you. I now live in Vancouver, British Columbia, am 73 and in a writers’ group among other things. Looking forward to reading your books. love and hugs, Greta Hurst