African Books and Stuff

The book walks you through Yibanathi Bhengu's story: Ntandokazi is a fictional novel about a young girl Yibanathi from a rural village in KwaZulu-Natal, Bergville Zwelisha, South Africa. Yibanathi finds herself being a victim of a forced marriage labelled Ukuthwala where she is married off as a teenager without her consent to an older man. She does not agree with the decisions imposed on her life while she cannot do anything to change what has been decided for her by her family and her in-laws.  In her quest to find independence, Yibanathi abandons her newborn twins to pursue her studies in law with her maternal aunt's help.  She later graduates top of her class, finds love and decides to go back to the village to get custody of her growing twins.  She is met with resistance and ultimately finds out that her younger sister Uluthando had to replace her as a Bhengu bride while Yibanathi pursued her dreams. She discovers that the man she goes back with as her life partner has a deep history with the Bhengu family.  There are a lot of twists and turns, buried secrets while the lesson brought to the fore is that whatever is not confronted is bound to come back to you as nothing goes unchallenged in life.  There are two choices - confront the situation and bear the consequences or run away from confrontation and create an even bigger web of unresolved mysteries that will have a ripple effect on those around you and the future generation. 

African book review- Who moved my cheese?

 First published in 1998, this classic by Dr. Spencer has become a renowned reference of many on the necessity of embracing change in life.

The book features a story narrated by Michael to his friends, mainly about four characters: two mice (Sniff & Scurry) and two little people (Hem and Haw) in a cheese maze. The four coexisted peacefully in one of the cheese stations in the maze until the cheese depleted. The mice, following their instincts, hurriedly wore their shoes and ran on in search of more cheese while the humans wallowed in their sudden loss and blame-throwing until they too had to decide to run for sustenance. Eventually, as one of the little people comes around, he goes around the maze leaving lessons on the walls.

This is a book that advocates for change management. This could be embracing sudden turn of events as opportunities of growth. It could also be a test of your resilience in going after goals and a vision that is yet to actualize. It could also be the audacity to be brave in the face of fear and try something new. Whatever it may be, the “big change” seems to be preceded by “small changes” which can act as indicators of what is to come. I think this a really good book that can even help readers understand that the only constant thing in life is change itself. It is also a good way to challenge oneself to not get too comfortable in one stage but to constantly seek avenues to better oneself and live sustainably.

A downside to the precepts in the book is that the action points here are not applicable in all areas of life. If you are facing challenges keeping up with emerging trends in your industry, you can always seek ways of learning faster instead of abandoning ship. To more international matters, issues like climate change cannot be resolved by jetting the human race to a different planet. Sustainable development, responsible use of shared natural resources and reforestation may be a better way to go about it. Therefore, prudence and wisdom need to be exercised as such precepts are practiced.

Overall, this is a good read that I would recommend to all. It is family friendly; it is straightforward and it is definitely worth reflecting upon. 

We love books and this is a classic we enjoyed reviewing.

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