WOMAN ZONE STORIES

The Smallest Ones   ( Penguin Random House ) is a personal account of survival in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo of the early 2000s. Captured by rebel soldiers, Popina Khumanda, and many others were captured tortured and raped. Amazingly, Popina and her older sister managed to escape, and find their way to South Africa. But their nightmare was not over. Popina writes about this journey...

Through a campaign called #Doekwithadifference, the Cancer Alliance https://canceralliance.org.za/ wants every woman to know that whilst it can be a killer, Cervical Cancer is also 100% preventable. In the first in a series of Story Cafe's and in partnership with Woman Zone and Artscape , they share the info.

Author and founder of the hugely popular victim-focused podcast series True Crime South Africa , NICOLE ENGLEBRECHT speaks to Beryl Eichenberger about the making of the series and about her fourth book, BARE BONES: Cold Cases from True Crime South Africa ( Jonathan Ball ).

In this heritage month, with our thoughts on legacy, what better legacy we felt, than to pass on a love of reading. So our two Guest Authors this month have both turned their hands to writing for children. Listen here to poet Diana Ferrusand actor Bianca Flanders.

Law, Life and Langenhoven was the title of Dominique Malherbe's event at 'Nave Narratives', the first ever book festival in Stanford in the Western Cape. But author of two memoirs and a book called 'Searching for Sarah', Dominique offered much more - primarily about her life 'in writing'.

Among the many literary legends attending the Open Book Festival this year, was literary activist Goretti Kyomuhendo from Uganda. Her latest novel Promises (Catalyst Press) straddles Kampala and London and took her fifteen years to complete. But co-founder of FEMRITE in 1995, she has many stories to tell, including here, a little of her own.

Ode to Sara is a short documentary produced by filmmaker Nomandla Vilakazi as part of her Master's thesis at the University of Cape Town. It features the story of 19th Khoisan woman Sarah Baartman, with whom Nomandla's own journey is inextricably linked. It also features the poem written by Diana Ferrus on the repatriation of Sara's remains and will be followed by a second doccie calle...

The title Deep Blue: Why we love the sea (Jonathan Ball) says it all. But for journalist, writer, communications specialist and diver Veruska De Vita, there is so much more, and the book is not just her own story. 'Water is primordial. It represents hope and renewal.' Veruska will be a speaker at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town from Sept 5th to the 7th, but you can get a taste of Deep...

As part of this years Artscape Women’s Humanity Festival, we held a special WZ Book Club – a sort of double bill about women and apartheid. We spoke to literary activist Xolisa Guzula, one of the co-authors of a book called Together Apart: The Story of Living in Apartheid ( Jacana ) and to artistactivist Sue Williamson, a Festival icon whose retrospective exhibition at the Iziko SA National Galler...

Chickens and curry, khannas, community police, children, church clocks and chardonnay are all part of the mix that journalist and author Vanessa Govender serves up in The Village Indian (Jacana), her memoir about life for a mixed-race family in a small rural town in the Western Cape.

'Growing up in Ziyabuya township, Nomandla battles poverty, racism, and her own mental health.' Braids & Migraines is a debut novel that tells Nomandla's story, but author Andile Cele knows exactly what she's talking about. Hear her as Guest Author of the Month in conversation with Maryam Adams.

British writer, playwright and champion of women's writing, Kate Mosse is a prolific author and co-founder of the Women's Prize for Fiction. She's well known for her historical fiction, not least the Joubert Family Chronicles which have brought her back to Franschhoek many times. Following this years Literary Festival in that town, Beryl Eichenberger spoke to her at The Women's Lib...

'You are what you eat', so the saying goes. But how does food affect your health and wellbeing? For Zambian-born Dietician, Performance Nutritionist and author of Food for Menopause Dr Linda Patel , food has been life changing. Join her here for the journey.

While there's a serious side to Juliette's own story, the humour in her book If The Dead Could Talk ( Kwela ), and in her interview with Beryl Eichenberger at The Women's Library at Artscape , is irrepressible! Join this new princess of 'cosy crime' as she sets the scene.

With ten published novels to her name, a radio book show and an online Book Club with 23,000 members, Paige Nick is the quintessential book person. Unsurprising then her latest title is called Book People ( Pan Macmillan ). At the Woman Zone Book Club, she spoke to Beryl Eichenberger, about its origins, as well as her own.

For a change we heard a story, not from an author this time, but from an actor. Erika Breytenbach came along to The Women’s Library at Artscape, to talk about the one-woman play I Can Buy Myself Flowers that tracks the all-too-familiar, tragi-comic lives of six city women. Written by Mike van Graan , and co-produced with Unlikely Productions, it's opening March 28 2025 at The Wave in Cape Town...

Included in the many important social messages internationally- acclaimed artist Sue Williamson shares in her 50 year retrospective exhibition at the Iziko National Gallery , are the voices of women calling for, amongst other things, Peace.

Sharing her stories and baring her soul, former international supermodel and photographer Josie Borain was recently at The Alma Cafe in Rosebank, in conversation with Nancy Richards of Woman Zone.

Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, much awarded and sometimes known as the Grande Dame of Archaeology, was remarkable. Not just for her fossilsed discoveries back in the 1950’s-70’s of skulls and tools dating back 200 million years, but for the extraordinary life she led – moving from Londonto East Africa. She was also the wife of paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, and co-founder of The Leakey Founda...

The Namib is said to be one of the oldest and most hostile deserts in the world. And with temperatures rising over 50o, it seems like the last place on earth you'd want to be, never mind run. But for Kim Sonntag, the Beyond the Ultimate Desert Ultramarathon was 'a challenge' - listen to how she found it, and conquered it.

Just prior to the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender based Violence, Woman Zone joined forces with the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative and Artscape to host a discussion asking How Faith and Spirituality Can Work against GBV. Here we get just a a taste of a very big conversation.

I Will Not Be Silenced (Tafelberg), the defiant title of legal journalist Karyn Maughan's new book, speaks volumes. About the damaging motivation behind the private prosecution brought against her by former president Jacob Zuma, and about the woman herself.

Daily Maverick journalist Caryn Dolley is not only an award-winner, but, with four published non-fiction books to her name, she’s also extremely prolific. With the release of her latest title: Man Alone: Mandela’s Top Cop – Exposing South Africa’s Ceaseless Sabotage, she was the Woman Zone Book Club guest author of the month. She spoke to, and was introduced by fellow journalist Theresa Smith.

Afrikaaps has been evolving as a language in the Western Cape for centuries. But it is so much more than just a means of communication, as Paarl writer Gaireyah Fredericks shows in her Afrikaaps book - Een Voet innie Kabr (One foot in the Grave). A collection of twenty one short stories, it features some very colourful characters - as Gaireyah explained to WZ Board chair Celeste Matthews Wannenbur...

Not technically a WZ Book Club guest author of the month, London based author LOUISA TREGER was in Cape Town recently to launch her new novel The Paris Muse . It tells the story of the turbulent love affair between artist and photographer Dora Maar and Pablo Picasso - a passionate story told with compassion.