JOURNALIST Violette Kee-Tui says her book titled Magic and Masala carries a message of love and acceptance and is a sequel to her debut novel, Mulberry Dreams.
Mulberry Dreams is about race relations and forbidden love, among others.
Her latest book was published in May by Pigeon Press, an indie publisher run by Paul Hubbard.
“Magic and Masala is a prequel and sequel to my debut novel, Mulberry Dream. It continues the lives of the characters in Mulberry Dreams five years from where the book ends and traces how their story unfolds; however it also goes back in time to tell the story of the matriarch of the family, Sharifa, a Cape Malay woman whose young sons leave the Cape in the early 1900s to travel for work to what was then Rhodesia. The boys make their lives here and, throughout the book, their stories loop back to the present day family,” Kee-Tui told Standard Style.
Kee-Tui said as with Mulberry Dreams, the protagonists are a coloured family living in Bulawayo; but, unlike Mulberry Dreams, Magic and Masala tells the story of the Moslem branch of the family.
“Sharifa is a devout Moslem woman, firm in her love and devotion to Allah but also, as a result of an inspiring but troubled young woman she meets, a great believer in the healing power of crystals, hence the "magic" in the title.
“The rich, spicy cooking of the Cape Malay community, which is an important aspect of the culture of their Zimbabwean descendants today, is a recurring theme, hence the "masala". The cooking is a thread which connects past, present and future generations,” she said.
Kee-Tui said the publication of Mulberry Dreams inspired many discussions and conversations around race, identity, culture and, in particular, the important but seldom acknowledged place the coloured community holds in the history and the story-telling.
- Invictus to finally start drilling
- Dave Chappelle: US comedian attacked on stage in Los Angeles
- Invictus to finally start drilling
- Act on Pandora Papers expose
Keep Reading
“There are so many stories around how families came to be, how their descendants ended up here, how cultures and races were merged, and most are little known and rarely told, beyond the bounds of family legend.
"In Mulberry Dreams I write about a Sunday lunch served by a coloured woman, Ruby. In amongst the roast beef, the cauliflower cheese, the roast potatoes, was a spicy chicken curry. Ruby's family was no longer Moslem. They did not consider themselves Cape Malay, but coloured. She did not cover her head in the traditional Moslem way, and yet here was this last cultural vestige from a long-ago descendant.
“The cooking remained as a form of identification when everything else fell away. I got to thinking who that descendant may have been. Where she may have come from. And, slowly but surely, a new character, Sharifa, formed in my imagination. The rest, purely fictional, happened in the way creative writing evolves: the characters led the way and their story unfolded,” she said.
Kee-Tui said she wrote the book because it was burning inside of her.
"I truly love the characters in this book and wanted to tell their stories."
As with Mulberry Dreams, she hopes the target audience is wide and varied.
"I had several people, young and old, tell me they hadn't read anything in years till they were inspired to pick up and read Mulberry Dreams and that made me very happy. Because that's all you really want as a writer, that people read your work and hopefully engage with it.
“Although it has local appeal, I hope it will also reach a wider audience with the introduction of a character set in Cape Town and a description of the city at the turn of the century. Again much like Mulberry Dreams, the setting may be southern Africa, but the themes of love, loss, heartbreak, struggling for identity and a place in the world, family dynamics and finding our own truths, is universal. One of the greatest messages is love and acceptance.
“Sharifa, for me, is the epitome of those qualities. She is hurt and disappointed many times, but she never stops loving. She is from a time and a place where ideas around what was right and acceptable were narrow, but she had wisdom, understanding and tolerance way beyond her time. Love wins. Always,” she added.
Kee-Tui said the reviews and feedback for the book so far have been great.
“l do believe it's a more complex story line than Mulberry Dreams which had a more linear plot and time line. So it may not be the quick read Mulberry Dreams was but, hopefully, still a page turner with that element of suspense that's only revealed nears the end.
“We are working on an ebook, as well as launches in Harare, the Falls and possibly Cape Town. I would also like to hold discussion groups as I did with Mulberry Dreams. These are not so much to discuss the specifics of the book or the writing but, rather, to inspire vital discussions around its themes.
“There are things Zimbabweans of all races need to say out loud to each other, albeit with sensitivity and even if they hurt, if we ever hope to heal from the pain of the past.”
