In her literary debut, well-known media personality Redi Tlhabi explores the scourge of gender violence in South Africa and the intricacies of cause and effect behind it.
In her literary debut, well-known media personality Redi Tlhabi explores the scourge of gender violence in South Africa and the intricacies of cause and effect behind it.
Endings & Beginnings By Redi Tlhabi
Published by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd
ISBN: 978-1-4314-0461-2
Price: R195.00
Reviewer: Kayla Roux
Rating: 4/5
Winning the 2013 Sunday Times Alan Paton Award, Endings & Beginnings is both an extremely personal account and a socio-political inquest into the violent, turbulent world many young South African girls are thrust into.
It is the true story of the relationship between Tlhabi and Mabegzo, one of the most feared criminals roaming the streets of Soweto while Redi was growing up.
But it’s much more.
Not only does it make some headway in exploring the paralysing fear many women and girls live in due to the prevalence of sexual violence and misogyny, but it is also unique in its approach to the perpetrators of this violence.
Harassment, threats of rape and 'jackrolling’ (gang rape) are all regular occurrences, even in the lives of Tlhabi’s most fortunate friends.
But what drives boys and men to commit these atrocities? Tlhabi takes on the mammoth task of unpacking the complicated social processes that contribute to the story she weaves. Why do desperate people turn to crime and violence? What is the role played by stigma, abuse, and neglect?
Divided in two parts, we spend the first half of the book wandering around in Tlhabi’s childhood memories. Effortlessly conjuring the palpable jubilation and energy of the streets, she relays the horrors and joys of growing up in Soweto.
Two years after seeing her father’s lifeless body being pummelled by rain after he was stabbed in the streets, she meets the handsome, charming and smooth Mabegzo.
While their relationship remained platonic, its depths become clear in Tlhabi’s sensitively written dialogue between the two.
Barely 11 years old, but she has experienced life’s great sorrows and joys on these streets.
Tlhabi can’t silence the journalist in her, and this makes for crisp, refreshing, informed writing that provides a unique insight into the personal relationships society is made up of.
In the second half of the book, she returns to Soweto as an adult.
We follow her on a series of interviews and deeply emotional conversations with Mabegzo’s family, friends and those who knew him.
While Tlhabi is outspoken in her dislike of violence and gender abuse, this is not an angry story.
Instead, she goes on a journey in search of forgiveness for Mabegzo as well as for herself, for the love she felt for him. She wanted to understand him and to reconcile the conflicting portraits of Mabegzo that she carried around: Was he a heartless gangster, or did he truly love her? Why?
She tells a meaningful story that explores the roles of both victims and perpetrators in shaping society.
While her revelations do not in any way excuse who and what Mabegzo was, they aren’t meant to.
They go a long way in shedding light on the scourge that is violence in South African society and why so many young men are consumed by anger.
