Library Journal Review

March 1, 2006

The story of the Mashininis of Soweto, South Africa, told here by American journalist Schuster, is one of politics, bravery, and sorrow. Of father Joseph and mother Nomkhith¿s 13 children, five became freedom fighters. The parents were against nighttime meetings, nonviolent marches, and protests in which their children participated, but what could they do? The June 16, 1976, student uprising in Soweto, organized by eldest son Tsietsi, was a more uniting event than any other in the struggle against apartheid. Arrests, beatings, and torture followed, and eventually all five brothers became exiles. Only Tsietsi did not witness the rewards of their work, for he died under mysterious circumstances in 1990 and was returned to South Africa to a hero¿s burial. By the time Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994, the remaining brothers had returned home. In an informative and admiring style laced with interviews, Schuster writes a riveting family history of an infamous time that still has ramifications. Required for all African collections and highly recommended.

Library Journal
March 1, 2006