Learning From The Story Of Pioneering South African Writer Sindiwe Magona

PULENG SEGALO

THE African proverb, “Until the lion can tell its own story, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter,” speaks to the importance of telling one’s own stories.

For a long time, African stories and realities were told by colonisers in ways that painted a picture of Africa as backward and uncivilised. It is for this reason that many literary scholars tell the story of colonialism and apartheid through personal autobiographies.

One such scholar is Sindiwe Magona. Magona has published over a dozen books for adults, from critically acclaimed novels – like Beauty’s Gift – to poems, plays and biographies. She has written over 130 children’s books. But it is her two autobiographies that drew my attention as a psychology scholar. In these, To My Children’s Children (1990) and Forced to Grow (1992), Magona narrates her story of memory, remembering, class, belonging, home and identity.