WOMAN ZONE STORIES

She was described as 'a woman who couldn't be conventional if she tried', and Noni Jabavu (1919-2008) writer was certainly original. Born in SA and educated in the UK from the age of 13 she was also 'a woman of two worlds'. Amongst other things she wrote two books of memoir, but in 1977, she penned a series of columns for the Daily Dispatch. These have been co-ordinated and com...

The Cape Cultural Collective cover a number of performing arts, but poetry holds a special place. Three of the fifteen poets whose work is included in their second anthology, Beyond Truth's Edge, joined us at the Women's Library to share their words and their stories of becoming poets. They were Zenariah Barends, Afeea Omar and Diana Ferrus and you can listen to what they had to say right...

As a proudly Xhosa woman herself, in helping to put together The Rainbow Nation Cookery Guide, TV celebrity cook Pumla Brook Thomae stretched her own knowledge range of other cultures kitchens enormously. The book was an initiative of The Rotary e-club of Greater Cape Town, but here project manager Pumla gives us the inside story.

Following the release of her book My Musical Odyssey, Aviva Pelham sat down with Woman Zone's Beryl Eichenberger to talk about her journey to becoming an extraordinarily versatile and internationally acclaimed singer. Whilst opera is her first love, she has also 'found herself' as an actress performing in musicals, as a director working with others, and as a passionate motivator and le...

The Cape Cultural Collective cover a number of performing arts, but poetry has a special place. Three of the fifteen poets whose work is included in their second anthology, Beyond Truth's Edge, joined us at our Women's Library at Artscape to share their words and stories about becoming poets. They were Zenariah Barends, Afeea Omar and Diana Ferrus - and you can listen to what they had to s...

Although not technically a Woman Zone Book Club Guest Author of the Month, it was irresistible to put ANNE SCHLEBUSCH, author of Bloomer ( Modjaji books ) up on this site. At 70 (and a recent cancer survivor) her debut novel is fresh, fun and a bit mad. It features the lovable Maggie and her friends at the Hazyview Mansions Retirement Home, who collectively call themselves Invictus. We spoke to An...

Two writer-poet-performers, living worlds apart in Scotland and South Africa respectively, have much in common - not least The Glasgow Women's Library ! Meet Nadine Aisha Jassat and Blaq Pearl aka Janine van Rooy Overmeyer as they discuss their connections and their histories, at The Women's Library in Cape Town.

What began as an ’accidental’ group therapy session with a bunch of male students nearly 25 years ago turned, first into intense study of the mental health of men and boys, and finally into the book: Masculinity meets Humanity: An Adapted Model of Masculinised Psychotherapy (UNISA) . Author and compassionate clinical psychologist, Shahieda Jansen shares the journey and just some of what she has le...

To share your culture through your own life story is powerful. To share it using embroidery puts it on another level, of creativity. Dr Elbe Coetsee, founder of the Mogalakwena Craft Art Development Foundation tells the story of the women embroiderers in Limpopo.

In culinary circles Prue Leith - caterer, restaurateur, food guru and visionary - needs no introduction, but her memoir reveals her to be so much more. On a recent visit to South Africa to coincide with the relaunch of the memoir, I'll Try Anything Once , as well as the launch of Bliss on Toast , her latest cook book, she spoke to Nancy Richards for the Woman Zone Finding Herself series. 

We all have worries, but the SOUPER TROOPERS of Cape Town have found a way to help you shed them - using their tiny African Worry Dolls. But what's the story - who and what are these little dolly artworks...and who are the Souper Troopers? Just before the Christmas break of 2022 when the production lines were buzzing, Nancy Richards went along to meet the team at their Humanity Hub in Woodstock...

Said to be one of the busiest women in Cape Town, Janet Pillai, founder & CEO of MLT Car Hire & Tours, amongst other things, has more recently gone 'jetsetting' - listen here as she describes her journey, and herself. 

To close the WZ Book Club year of 2022, we went down to the sea, to Beach Blanc Cafe next to the lighthouse on Woodbridge Island  to hear the story of The Skipper's Daughter by Woman Zone founder Nancy Richards and published by Karavan Press . Nancy was in conversation with artist Kim Gurney author herself of a book called Panya Routes. Listen here for some salty tales! 

Due for release any day now, The Invincible Miss Cust by Penny Haw (Sourcebooks) is a real must for anyone who loves animals and the stories of unsung women from the past - because Aleen Isabel Cust on whom this book is based was the woman who defied her family and society to become Britain and Ireland's first woman veterinary surgeon. Amazing. Hear how Penny came across this extraordinarily deter...

It's not often we welcome a poet to be WZ Book Club guest author of the month, but 26 year old Nondwe Mpuma was a real piece of treasure. She was heard reading at the Poetry in McGregor Festival by writer-publisher Karina Szczurek of Karavan Press who speaks to her about her debut anthology Peach Country published by uHlanga Press

'Strong female characters' was the topic up for discussion at the 2nd Cape Flats Book Festival held recently in Mitchell's Plain, with strong female writers, Qarnita Loxton , author of the series: Being Kari, Being Lily, Being Shelley and Being Dianne and Resoketswe Manenzhe whose debut novel is called Scatterlings . Nancy Richards spoke to them and you can listen in on the conversation here - but...

A joint project between Ilitha Labantu , CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology), AWIF (African Women Independent Forum) and UN Women , Isisele Senyathi , translated as Reservoir of Knowledge has been conceived as a hub for African women's history and stories. A three-day conference was held at CPUT's Bellville Campus, where Woman Zone went along to listen in on the thinking, the stories -...

Her strong, assertive radio voice with it's undertone of humour,  belies the tough passage Sara-Jayne Makwala King has had in life. Like her first book, Killing Karoline , her second book Mad Bad Love (mf books), pulls no punches on the trauma she's had to work through. In this case, discovering that the things we love can nearly kill us. She speaks here to journalist Theresa Smith

Tragedy struck when Noel English, 45yr old father of two from Mitchell's Plain, died of COVID 19 in January 2021. A phoenix from the ashes however, was the book I Miss Daddy written by his son Matthew and wife Alicia. Despite her crushing grief, it also prompted Alicia to launch an initiative called The Olive Exchange - listen here to find out more... 

It's been a while coming, but Margie Orford's new book The Eye of the Beholder (Jonathan Ball) is strong stuff. In his cover shout, bestseller crime writer Ian Rankin calls it 'As powerful as it is elegant - grips like a vice.' He's not wrong. But Margie has many tales to tell about her journey with this title, and as a writer in general.  

London based writer Louisa Treger was in South Africa recently to launch her latest book, Madwoman ( Bloomsbury ). It tells the extraordinary, and shocking, story of American journalist, Nelly Bly who back in the late 1880's had herself admitted to a New York asylum for 'mad women' - so she could both write about it and expose the appalling conditions. At our Women's Library, Louisa was in convers...

Medical Dr Anne Biccard works in a very busy hospital in Johannesburg, But busy as she is, she also finds time to write. In her second book Holding My Breath: Further exploits of an ER doctor ( Jacana )– she captures the challenges and the humour faced by her profession – specifically in the COVID years.  Intro music Beautiful Woman is by Tina Schouw

In her book Prison Notebook V2957/88 , Human Rights activist and former Commissioner on Gender Equality, Gertrude Fester describes a life of struggle as well as the horrors of being a political detainee and spending 104 days in solitary confinement. Her book is published by Military Veterans . Song Beautiful Woman is by Tina Schouw

Whilst the stories of the ten women Home Food Gardeners are written and printed in Women of Soil - changing lives, at the launch of the book, which took place as part of Artscape' s Women's Humanity Arts Festival, the women were invited to briefly tell us how being trained by Soil for Life had impacted their lives. It made for moving listening. (Both the launch and this podcast open with the...

Grief is an inevitability of life, and each of us handles it differently. It took Beryl Botman some years before she was able to process hers following the death of her husband Prof Russel Botman in 2014. In her book With (-Out) You, she shares in first hand detail how she felt, coped, struggled and ultimately survived. She spoke at her launch at the opening of Artscape's Women's Humanity Festival...