Nwelezelanga reading experience

I am perplexed by this story. This is tragic. I cannot decipher anything from this story. Most of the time I was not sure what I was being told but I found that I understood some of it. I cannot say I know what this child came to do in the physical world as it is not clear to me what she came to fulfill. Was it to stop the killing of albino people? Was it to bring death to the Midwife who killed all infant albinos that were born under her surveillance and sacrificed those that we somehow able to escape death by the luck of the draw? At the end of this story I am left with many questions of what I could have gleaned from the story. Perhaps it is to understand the ways of those who believe in ukuthwasa... perhaps it is to tell me that I am fooling myself by thinking that I am not a god? I just wonder...

I think the story could have provided more meat to the bones... I feel like Nwelezelanga's suffering in the physical world due to her albinism was not depicted as horrid as I have heard it to be. She experienced the same kind of ostracizing that is experienced by children who are rejected by society because they are too ugly, too dark, perceived to have senyama, of some unfortunate child that some believer in medicine made from human parts preys on. She was mocked, I was mocked. She herded cattle, I herded cattle. She collected water from rivers and wells, I did the same. She collected firewood, I did the same. She hoed maize fields, I did that and more.

I was never invoked to sympathize with her even though her mother threw her away because to her it did not result in any suffering and she somehow expected it.

I give it 2 stars because it was written in simple easy to understand language. I think perhaps I am just not capable of appreciating this kind of story. Or maybe it is the Christian in me that rejects the notions in this story.

I hope the next book Unathi writes will not be so confusing to me because I wish to support him.

I have to add that  my mother read this book after me and she had a different experience to what I had. She was pleasantly surprised by the insight the writer had about the spiritual world and how he expressed it.

Go to https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8205613-tumelo-moleleki" to read all my reviews and my journey as I was reading the book

My Two Selves and I reading experience

This book has a wonderful plot that questions the sheep-like following of rules that tribes on the African continent and even other continents have been happy to embrace for centuries. Following rules without questioning them shows a lack of intelligence and a mentality of robots. I am aware of a few customs or practices that many tribes today still practice without question, even when they realize that they are unjust or make no sense and some are even cruel. This book is an ideal recommendation for the young ones, to teach them to have independent thought and to question things instead of following rules, customs or advice like sheep.

In the end people are selfish and sometimes their advice has ulterior motives that are not for the good or benefit of the person that is being advised.

I believe the story twisted well and unfolded intelligently but the author seemed to confuse himself on some parts where he would switch characters in a way that suggested he made a mistake with the name and sometimes with the gender. The part where Tatenda is thinking about Rufaro choosing Sibu she is thought to be substituting Sibu with Chipo. Some places he refers to girls with male pronouns. I think after editing, they should have done some proofing and they would have picked up on these grammar errors. I learned this lesson the hard way myself because I trusted the expertise of the editors and I discovered some mistakes in my first published book.

I liked it because it carries such an important lesson about double standards and self-serving rule enforcers who don't like to follow the rules they enforce so strictly when the shoe is on the other foot, revealing their hypocrisy. It also shows that someone can use a custom to unleash the evening of a score for a wrong they believe themselves having suffered, in the case of Shumba.

Overall an entertaining story but one that does not pull you in emotionally. I was never at any point indignant or rooting for the twins because there was an undertone that all would workout well for them in the end. I never sensed that they were in real danger and I think the author failed to build the feeling of danger in me as a reader but I am sure the experience will be different with other readers.

Go to https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8205613-tumelo-moleleki" to read all my reviews and my journey as I was reading the book

The Yearning reading experience

I loved reading this book. I took my time and thought about some of what I was reading so that I could process it. Everything was so believable and there were so many surprises along the way. I only dream of writing this well and telling such stories with so much bravery. I am proud of this author even though I do not know her and she does not know me.

For me it is hard to talk about what the book is about, without spoiling it for those still to discover it, but believe me when I say that the story between these pages is worth discovering. It has a way of augmenting understanding and tolerance for things we do not understand about others, and things we revolt against.

I will be nagging everyone in my family to read this book.

Go to https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8205613-tumelo-moleleki" to read all my reviews and my journey as I was reading the book

Happiness is a four letter word reading experience

I have read on other reviews where it is said that there was a blow-by-blow account of each character's thoughts and feelings at every moment and for the life of me I cannot find anywhere in the book where it rang true for my reading experience

The lessons in this book are huge but I find that I don't like that there are so many double standards in society. Tumi and Tshepo's situation as well as Zaza and Bheki's were the most irksome for me. On the one, the shoe is on the one foot while on the other it is reversed. The 'my situation is not the same as yours' righteous argument always rears its ugly head when confrontations ensue about bad choices made.

Another thing is, were I Thomas, how could I trust someone so flaky? She starts a situation, then when the chickens come home to roost she feels entitled to attention and attentiveness, and is okay to get it elsewhere when not getting it from me? What kind of warped thinking is this?

And yet I have been exposed to aspects of this thought 'leadership' among those I have known in my life.

I did not like the fact that it rang so true to real life in that people who mess up seem to get off Scot-free, in a way. Personally I wanted more agony and heartache for the people who made bad choices, but the writer did not let us in on the torture these characters experienced, before all was forgiven. It seemed the victims suffered more than the perps, and were still willing to let bygones be bygones way too easily. I guess some people have forgiveness in abundance.

Well done Cynthia on an engaging read.

Go to https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8205613-tumelo-moleleki" to read all my reviews and my journey as I was reading the book