When I am old, wrinkled, and grey what shall I tell you, my great-granddaughter? What memories will stay with me of days of yesteryear? Of my childhood what shall I remember? What of my young womanhood, my wifehood, and motherhood? Work has been a big part of my life. Of that, what memories will linger, what nightmares haunt me forever? How will you know who you are if I do not or cannot tell you the story of your past?
This powerful and widely acclaimed autobiography of Sindiwe Magona's early years in South Africa gives an account of her eventful first 23 years--a candid story of triumph and endurance in the face of hardships relentlessly reinforced by the apartheid system.