Prodigal Daughters: Stories of South African Women in Exile

"During the years of apartheid rule in South Africa, many women 'skipped' the country and fled into exile to evade harassment, detention, imprisonment and torture by state security forces. Leaving the country of their birth, many took calculated, though dangerous, risks to cross borders. Once in exile, sometimes for several decades, many experienced discrimination, danger, deprivations and the stresses associated with being a foreigner in a strange land. All lived with the distant yet distinct hope that they would one day be able to return to a liberated homeland. In Prodigal Daughters, eighteen women tell their intensely personal stories of exile, re-imagining and reliving a past for the sake of fixing in memory narratives that would surely disappear in a country still struggling to shake off the shackles of racial inequality and oppression." Contributions from Lauretta Ngcobo; Brigalia Hlophe Bam; Barbara Bell; Nomvo Booi; Ruth Carneson; Busi Chaane; Carmel Chetty; Mathabo Kunene; Baleka Mbete; Nomsa Judith Mkhwanazi; Gonda Perez; Ellen Pheko; Liepollo Pheko; Mohau Pheko; Rajes Pillay; Elizabeth Trew; AnnMarie Wolpe; Sumboornam Moodley.