The Madams

by Zukiswa Wanner

Thandi loves her life. She loves her cute son Hintsa, her witty husband Mandla, her comfortably challenging work with the tourism board, and her best friends Nosizwe and Lauren. But she has to admit – its tough being Superwoman in South Africa today. Try being the perfect traditional wife and African mother at home, the perfect promotable black woman at work, and the perfect foil for her Benetton friends one black and Xhosa, one white and English! Thandi admits defeat and decides she needs that great South African bourgeois a maid. And since she doesnt have the heart to boss about a sister in her own home, she decides it must be a white maid. Marita joining the household seems to disrupt the comfortable space Thandi, Siz and Lauren have settled into. The secrets of the three womens lives are dramatically exposed and they are forced to confront their assumptions about relationships, history and each other.

Genres: South Africa, Africa, Fiction, African Literature

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Born to a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother in Zambia, Zukiswa Wanner is the author of the novels The Madams (2006), Behind Every Successful Man (2008), Commonwealth and Herman Charles Bosman Award shortlisted Men of the South (2010). Her two children’s books Jama Loves Bananas and Refilwe will be out in October this year.

As an essayist she has written The Politics of Race, Class, and Identity in Education http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/3429/...
and 2011 Mail & Guardian’s book of Women Introductory essay , Being a Woman in South Africa http://bow2011.mg.co.za/essays/on-bei....

She co-edited Outcasts – a collection of short stories from Africa and Asia with Indian writer Rohini Chowdhury in 2012. Wanner is one of 66 writers in the world (with Wole Soyinka, Jeanette Winterson, and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, among others) to write a contemporary response to the Bible. The works were staged in London theatres and at Westminister Abbey in October 2011. 66 Books: 21st Century Writers Speak to the King James Version Bible’s proceeds benefit disadvantaged art students.

Wanner co-authored A Prisoner’s Home (2010), a biography on the first Mandela house 8115 Vilakazi Street with award-winning South African photographer Alf Kumalo as well as L’Esprit du Sport (2010) with French photographer Amelie Debray.

She is the founder of ReadSA - a writer-initiated campaign to get South Africans reading more African literature with a particular emphasis on donating locally-written books to school libraries (and where unavailable, start libraries) and was in the inaugural writing team for first South African radio soapie in English, SAFM’s Radio Vuka.

She has been a regular participant at the prime literary events in South Africa, Time of the Writer, Franschhoek Literary Festival and Cape Town Book Fair and has also participated in literary festivals in England (London Book Fair), Denmark, Germany (BIGSAS Festival of African Literature), Zimbabwe (Intwasa Arts Festival), Algeria (Algiers Book Fair), Norway and Ghana (Pan African Literary Festival). In addition to this, she has conducted workshops for young writers in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Denmark, Germany and Western Kenya.

Wanner has contributed articles to Observer, Forbes Africa, New Statesman, O, Elle, The Guardian, Africa Review, Mail & Guardian, Marie Claire, Real, Juice, Afropolitan, OpenSpace, Wordsetc, Baobab, Sunday Independent, City Press, & Sunday Times.

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

11 years ago I read this book. I was like, "Wowza, someone out there is talking to me. Talking about me doing this life thing!!". I attended its launch at Maponya Mall. The venue was packed, Mugg & Bean. The air electric. Zukiswa was engaging and available to the hordes of us in attendance. I loved the three friends and identified with their challenges. I laughed with them. Cried with them. Got sloshed with them.

Fast forward to 2018. New updated cover giving the book a fresher afro-centric look.

If you are growing into yourself and need a good laugh and a good cry, the three women's adventures will sort you out. Zukiswa highlights the bigoted communities we come from and live within. The misogynistic attitudes of the men in our lives. A pro-feminism black man is a myth. He exists within his female networks or on a podium. Put him with a group of men and watch him reveal who he is and this, is our daily struggle. We all know the three husbands. We've hosted them in our homes. We've been to their homes.

The Madams is a stark reminder that 11 years later, nothing much has changed. From classist attitudes to reducing barren females to incubators. Siz was so much more than a baby-maker for Vuyo who was a total cad. The Madams also highlights the strange and fraught relationships we have with the women who look after our babies and clean our homes. Who do we call them post-apartheid South Africa? How do we relate with and to them? I understood Thandi's employing Marita. Takes out the uncomfortableness out of that relationship. Baby Mama. Such an ugly label. This baby mama was once your lover's love. Reducing her to this ugly patriarchal label does nothing for her or for you, the current ________ (insert title).

The Madams is both light and heavy. If you take out the frivolity you are left with a punchy narrative poking holes at the widening inequality gap, the simmering classism amongst us blacks, the underlying sexist behaviour and attitudes meted to us by these black men in our lives and these gender roles which are perpetually forced on us by our families...

The Madams makes a good social commentary on everything ugly and good in our communities. From the township to the suburbs.

The Madams is a conversation starter. Get a copy for you, your siblings, colleagues and friends. Grab a copy for your parents, aunts and uncles. Give a copy to your children. All of them.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4 shiny stars...

😙😙😙😙

[Boitshepo · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read this book ten years ago and I kept thinking,
"Why did Thandi employ a white person to be her domestic worker? Why? Why is she taking bread away from a black family just for show and to rattle her white friend and neighbour, Lauren, Lauren with her racist undertones?"

Lol I was so disturbed hey. Only now when I read it again did I kinda sorta forgive Thandi when she explained that,
"Not only does getting a maid make me feel bourgeois, but it also makes me feel like I am exploiting another individual... The thought of... to have another woman touching my bras... it gnaws at my social conscience."

I understand and empathise with that situation - the challenge especially if the domestic worker is older. It's not like it's at the office when a subordinate is older (not that that does not come with challenges).
But you know we can go on and on about the challenges that come with employer-employee situations in the home. It's home, where one goes to kick off their shoes and throw their bra on the couch or wherever else. It's not that formal setting.
Anyway, Me aside...

#Woke is a term that kept coming up in my head as I was reading, on just about every page. It was so funny, because the author addresses pertinent issues of today, of #BlackTwitter. It's a novel sure, but one gets so engrossed in Thandi's world that one forgets that they're listening to a fictitious protagonist, the way she could be chilling drinking wine in the same room.

BEE, a beautiful father-daughter relationship, a love story to melt the hardest of hearts, domestic abuse, body image, dynamics of exploitation of live-in domestic workers, infidelity, and other issues that make it hard to take a break from this funny and intelligently thought-out story once one starts reading.

[mou · Rating 3 out of 5]

gens el que m’esperava

[Kari · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book delightful! I mean it is not much of a labor women's studies book if you are looking for something heavy in the labor area. This is why I liked this book because I like themes in my books being subtle. This book examines three South African women's lives, all madams, all women who work and employ maids.
This book demonstrated what it means to live in a society which heavily values class and race, and it also shows that they are not the same thing. At times the book takes the reader too far into the lives of the madams, and the reader is wondering how realistic it actually is. However, the depiction of the maids is wonderfully accurate...the thankful maid who loves her madam and is honored to be like "one of the family," the maid who is abused by her madam and still keeps the family secrets, and the maid who has an affair with the mister of the house.
The class issues in the book are portrayed by the madams; the reader experiences the race issues and conflicts of having a maid of a different race. They are quick to discuss how lucky the maids are for having the opportunity to work for them regardless of the abuses they suffer or how they are spoken down to. I think it is a wonderful representation, and these madams could very well be in New York, London, or Hong Kong. I give it a 4/5.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

It touches the heaviest subjects (abuse, racism, addictions, jail) without flinching, always with a Sex and the City vibe. Plus you get to know so much about South Africa. Liked it

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting tales of the complicated, yet familiar family lives of three south african women. Their perspective on life, domestic life, marriage, and society is humorous. One would mistake their vain elaboration for feminine wiles but I dare say the author has successfully written a story of modern suburban life.

[Giovana Cavalca · Rating 3 out of 5]

As “madames” são mulheres modernas - trabalham fora de casa, têm vidas independentes e vibrantes… Mas também são lotadas de preconceitos e outras burrices, o que pode fazer este livro parecer raso.

Thandi não é uma narradora confiável. E como qualquer ficção traduzida, alguns diálogos não parecem naturais. Passei muito tempo me sentindo “superior” a ela e às suas amigas. As diferenças culturais da Africa do Sul marcam toda a leitura e pedem sensibilidade total.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly Confused by The Madams

(Why do you insist on provoking me?)

Dear Zukiswa,

I have white servants. They’re from Bulgaria and they’re mine two hours a week. They come in at 8.30, reduce our chaos to neat, little piles, clean around them, and then leave quietly. I don’t think either of them is sleeping with my wife, and I’m convinced neither of them (they’re a married couple) has any desire to sleep with me. However, if I were to impregnate Danica, I’m pretty sure my wife would not travel to Sofia to claim the child on our behalf. She’d slice my nads off and send me packing, and she’d make my life a living hell if I failed to pay for the upkeep of my little Dutch-Bulgarian bastard, but she would never feel she had the right to claim another woman’s child.

All of which brings me to your book, which (un)fortunately did not provoke me as wildly as the cover promised. It did raise a lot of questions, but I’ll try to restrain myself here: Do women like your Thandi and Siz and Lauren really exist in South Africa? And if so, do they think and act in this way? Don’t get me wrong: I’m not asking if they’re based on real people; I’d like to know whether the circumstances and characters accurately reflect a subset of South African society. If so, these new black madams (who I obviously don’t know very well) look a helluva lot like the old white madams (who I know all too well).

Is that where the provocation lies? That a misplaced and misguided sense of superiority is not restricted to a particular race (although we whiteys have done our best to corner the market)? That exploitation of one class by another is driven by a universal urge to subjugate others for our own ends or convenience? Or am I reading too much into it? Has your publisher’s desire to provoke led me astray? Or am I so far removed from your target audience that I am totally missing the point?

Whatever the case may be, I’d like sit down and get some answers sometime. But please don’t invite Thandi and Siz and Lauren, because they frighten me and keep drinking my cocktails and laughing behind my back, acting all superior.

[Linda Ogoti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read. Zukiswa ventures into territory most african authors dont touch. writing in contemporary african context. we are all afraid (even those aspiring to be authors) to write our stories based on the surrounding we grew up in, mostly because our fore-runners write about traditional africa where civilization was unheard of.

I totally relate with her story. Thumbs up!!!

[Jandy Kanini]

Very funny already.

[Hussaina Gambo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am glad I read this book, after I had read her second, London, Capetown,Johannesburg. I would definitely have skipped it otherwise because the new book is so superior in every way. Sure there were traces of Zukiswa there and her style but on the whole, they are not even comparable.
My main problem with this story is how much the writer managed to create an unlikable protagonist(judging from the comments, for me). I hated her know- all attitude, it coloured the entire story for me. I will give examples: It was when Thandi decided that Sizwe caught her husband with his pants down. Thandi didn't want to come outright and tell Sizwe her husband was sleeping with the maid, so she suggested she go home and surprise the husband with lunch. Lo and behold, she caught them in the act. Like really? When It came Thandi's turn and her own husband strayed, she kept it to herself for more than three months, when she was up in every other person's business before. And prior to the straying, he was just the model, ideal husband. Going out on Friday nights, getting along well with her friends and their husbands,cooking meals for the family, blah blah blah. When she decided to get back at the husband, she travelled to Victoria Falls with the intention of finding a hunk to sleep with, a hunk did she find to sleep with. A Denzel Washington, who just like her, wanted no strings attached. And the lovemaking was out of this world. Please which planet does Zukiswa live in? It should have been that she settled for someone totally not worth it, or that the experience was crap possibly because she was suffering from guilt or the man couldn't get it up or something. That is what happens in real life. Things don't happen because wewant them to. Even Thandi's relationship with her father is straight from the books. And Sizwe's mother even preferred to stay with Thandi than with her own daughter even though she was dying. And that letter to her friends!!!! And it was supposed to be conciliatory. It angered me no end, I almost dropped the book at that point. And she had the temerity to think or acknowledge that ever since the letter, Lauren changed her ways with her black maid, which was a point that she made in the letter.
Having read both books Zukiswa has written, I see a common thread in both stories. When the going is good, it's too good. It's not real life. She tries so hard to make her characters, especially the protagonists, cool, that it veers from real life to story telling. Even the dialogue in her second book is too right to be believed. If she can tone this cool factor in her writing, I think her talent would come out more.
The Madams was supposed to give the reader a glimpse of the life of a modern woman in today's South Africa, but I am afraid, it was a bit pigeon holed to a certain class that the author wanted to write about. I would think that the modern South African woman, despite her education and success in life, would still have relatives in Soweto or Brazzavo who were very much a part of her life with all the attendant consequences.

[Zinhle Ngidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Madams by Zukiswa Wanner

About the book
When one of the madams (3 middle class friends) decides to hire a white maid, an ex corn, it forces them to relook at issues like race, classs, relationships and broke barriers that were caused by apartheid. It also becomes a lesson to the 3 of them on how can madams and maid relate to one another as both parties need one another.

The book also covers issues of infidelity where we have seen some marriages break because of affairs between husbands and maids, cheating of men regardless of the type or the class of a side chick vs the wife, domestic violence regardless of race and class, body weight issues, etc

Its a light read that will make you laugh, cry and at some point you will crave for their lives and wish you can have such friends who will be there for you in good and in bad times. As their lives are exposed you will sympathize with them and you will surely identify with the attitude of their husbands as we have many of those even these days. You will see that even though the book is more than 12 years old, nothing much has changed in our society. We still have abusers and cheaters. We still have women that defend these type of guys or rather hide bad behaviour of their husbands.

Good writer there Zuki, I cannot wait to read your new books as well and see how you have grown as an author.

[Lukorito Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review may be a little biased, since I have worked closely with Zukiswa Wanner and greatly admire her writing.
That being said, she did paint a beautiful and easy to read story in The Madams. The first three chapters, where she gives background information on the three titular characters, might seem like a drag but as soon as you move past that, the book livens up in front of you like a party at 10pm.
The themes that it carries i.e, racism, feminism, marriage, etc are very heavy. You however never feel the weight as you read as they have been ensconced in very beautiful and humorous prose that will keep you turning the page.
This book paints a realistic picture that's neither black nor white, but several shades of grey therein. You find yourself rooting for the characters even when it's evident that they should try harder to be morally superior. They make you understand the realities of life, and the book is sweeter for that dose of honesty.
This is one of those books that you purchase for your closest friends and family just so you can have someone to discuss the characters and the plot with.

[Ngosa Chibuye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book felt like someone secretly took notes from real-life kitchens and living rooms and turned them into a story. The relationship between the house helps and the madams was too relatable—I kept nodding like, “Yes, this happens,” and sometimes laughing like, “Why is this so accurate?” The language was simple, the scenes were entertaining, and I flew through the pages. Unfortunately, the ending packed its bags and left without saying goodbye. I’m still waiting for closure, answers, and maybe an extra chapter or two. Overall, it was a great read—just emotionally unfinished, like a conversation cut off by load shedding.

[Lauren Maresca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this novel! Wanner uses the genre of chick-lit to draw readers in and then utilizes this medium to covertly present interesting critiques of femininity, class, and race dynamics in South Africa. The familial and sassy tone of the narrator is so fun and kept me laughing throughout the novel. This tone also makes complex issues accessible to the average reader.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this book!!! Very light-hearted and fin. You know it's been a great read when you spend some time after you've completed the book, wondering what's now going on with the characters' lives (characters the author has explicitly indicated were fictional🤔🤔😊).

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great concept about the madam-mais relationship that was pulled off quite well in about the first half of the book. But then the story went on and became cliché. The end events didn't seem in keeping with earlier characterisation.

[Charlene Bole]

best book iv read so far, yearning for more from the author

[Rue Chime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written!

I reall enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting! Good telling of true African experience. Loved it loads!

[Louiza Peace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and could see myself as Thandi in so many ways haha!

[Donna Wangechi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an true page turner, read this book in 8 days I couldn't put it down.
Zukiswa Wanner is a beast! I loooove the book I would rate it 5/5

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

South African soap opera-like novel about three female friends. Nice to have the South African setting.

[Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Books like these reaffirm my love for African contemporary literature. This was just so good.


Side note: I can’t believe this is the same person who wrote “Behind every successful man”

[Wangari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book and sad that I took too long to finish it. Thank you, Mercy M.

[Spiegel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Achei a narradora superficial, mas talvez essa fosse a ideia, já que é uma “madame”.

[Phillipa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I freely admit that I am generally a sucker for South African fiction. I don't really know why ... it's not generally any better. Actually, to be honest it's usually worse but, that's purely because I read South African fiction from genres I wouldn't ordinarily consider.

So, based on the above description, you'd think we were looking at a fairly funny girly sort of novel, set in sunny SA with a local topic of interest. I for one was interested in hearing from "the other side" ... I mean how do Black women feel hiring a "sister" to clean up after themselves?

Sadly although the book started out based on this simple premise, it didn't really fulfill my requirements. It wasn't particularly amusing and every adult male in the book turns out to be a complete dog. Someone poking fun at ye old standard South African Male? Not quite. It's more sad than anything else really. *Spoiler Alert* The White Husband is a Wife-Beater, the two Black Husbands (one of them an ex-jailbird), cheat on their wives ... But the women rally thru. Siz taking her man dutifully back and Lauren finding herself an Indian Yogi instead, while her husband turned to Islam (yup, there was no BEE stone unturned!). Far-fetched, I think so.

Anyway, it's a pretty quick read, so if after that you're still interested, by all means ...

[Tiah]

- I am tired of having to be a Superslave at the office, a Supermom to my son and a Superslut to my man. I am tired of the fact that if I so much as indicate that I need 'Me' time, I have somehow fallen short of the high standards set for me as a modern woman. -

- Although she loves children, I do not quite understand why Lauren had four of her own. When she is reading a good book (which is more often than you know), she shuns motherly responsibility entirely and gives the children to her maid, MaRosie. -

- He went to Siz's workplace, walked in through the gate and flattened all four tyres on Siz's C200, which goes to show that when you are white and you are dressed nicely, security will let you go through anywhere in South Africa. -

- Vicious? I should think so...'Ma, would you please stop with the big ass jokes?'
'Haibo,' she answered, 'you want me to stop, you go to the gym and do something about it, or ndiyadlala Mandla?'
Knowing who kept his bed warm, Mandla just shrugged. -

[Vivian Adjai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book number 9 of 2025 done.🤌🏽 This one was read in 3 days.🤭 It was an interesting read, enjoyed the drama to my fill. The book was written over 12 years ago, but it still paints a realistic picture of what's happening in our societies today. The plot revolves around 3 best friends and how they're navigating their lives and their families. Through them, Thandile, Laureen and Nosizwe, we learn about the good and the ugly in our communities. Zukiswa addresses different themes; racism, friendships, feminism, classism, misogyny, gender roles, the complexities of relationships and marriages and lastly, sacrifices. The book is relatable, thought provoking, hilarious, emotional and infuriating at some point. It's a simple read, but heavy at the same time. The first POV was a plus.🤭 I might read more of Zukiswa in the future and would highly recommend this specific one.
4/5.✨

[Star · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know much about South African culture and I was looking forward to getting a look into the lives of the three women who were the main characters. I wasn’t drawn into the story and I wasn’t able to connect with the characters or their situation at all. Unfortunately, this was a “Did Not Finish” for me.

[Zookey . · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zukiswa Wanner's Madams was my introduction to having a fond relationship with South African Chic-lit. I identified myself in this unique friendship outlined in the book and it made me laugh and ponder at the same time.