Showing results by narrator "Nyaniso Dzedze" in All Categories

Cultural initiation, love, life and death all sit at the heart of this enchanting memoir. Yana was born to travelling parents. From the moment she arrived, she joined her English father and German mother on worldwide adventures. Having never known a life with only one cultural norm, this book explores the internal questioning that accompanied her inter-cultural journey. Now living in Johannesburg with her Xhosa, South African husband, Yana parallels stories of her childhood with her experiences as a traditionally-initiated wife.

When birds begin to knock at their window, Yana and Nyaniso know that it is their child-to-be, ready to come. Pregnancy inevitably arrives and they are called to reconcile their German-English & South African Xhosa cultural differences in a new context; the initiation into parenthood. Written from mother to daughter, this impelling and heartfelt memoir captures Yana’s story as she and her husband journey closer to birth by the day. Cultural processes, deportation and potent conversations with loved ones from all walks of life are threaded into an engrossing tale packed with poetic language.