Our Generation

Plot

Intertwined with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa is the personal story of a courageous woman who strove to make a difference on her own terms. In this compelling autobiographical account, Zubeida Jaffer, one of the most senior black women in the South African media, documents her struggles during a 15-year span—from 1980 when she was a young reporter to post-1994 and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings where she testified. Her political experiences in the Western Cape—of activism, harassment, torture, and detention, once while she was pregnant—are interspersed with talk about babies, her passionate love for her husband, and her problematic relationship with Islam and its sexist rules. In her story, driven by an impulse toward joy, Zubeida Jaffer triumphs as an individual, a woman, a freedom fighter, a writer, and a mother.