The Born Frees: Writing with the Girls of Gugulethu
Born into post-apartheid South Africa, the young women of the townships around Cape Town still face daunting challenges. Their families and communities have been ravaged by poverty, violence, sexual abuse, and AIDS. Yet, as Kimberly Burge discovered when she set up a writing group in the township of Gugulethu, the spirit of these girls outshines their circumstances.
Girls such as irrepressible Annasuena, whose late mother was one of South Africa's most celebrated singers; bubbly Sharon, already career-bound; and shy Ntombi, determined to finish high school and pursue further studies, find reassurance and courage in writing. Together they also find temporary escape from the travails of their lives, anxieties beyond boyfriends and futures: for some of them, worries that include HIV medication regimens, conflicts with indifferent guardians, struggles with depression. Driven by a desire to claim their own voices and define themselves, their writing in the group Amazw'Entombi, "Voices of the Girls," provides a lodestar for what freedom might mean.
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Such a warm book, full of brave young women you will never forget. My heart was deeply moved by their perception of their own condition, and that of the country at large.--Amana Fontanella-Khan, author of Pink Sari Revolution
Incredible and inspiring, this account belongs in every library and on every bookshelf.
An affecting portrait of post-apartheid South Africa, particularly useful for writing instructors serving at-risk constituencies.
Deftly combining memoir and sociology, journalist Burge describes her experience teaching creative writing to adolescent girls in the South African township of Gugulethu, near Cape Town, in 2010.... Through [these] stories, readers will understand what life is like for many young women in South Africa.... This is a troubling but inspiring read.
[S]earing, close-up personal stories of teenage girls in a writing club.... [T]he individual profiles are rooted in harsh daily lives that spell out the heartbreak and the hope of what some have called a discarded generation...will make a strong connection with YA readers.
