A Shattering of Silence

by Farida Karodia

Eight-year-old Faith's life is shattered when she witnesses a massacre in her village in rural Mozambique. She escapes, but loses everything - her parents, her home, her identity - and her voice. A Shattering of Silence charts Faith's quest to find a place for herself in war-torn Mozambique, where she is caught between the white colonials and the local resistance. Karodia's fast-moving novel undermines traditional views of the role of women and the nature of resistance. It is a spirited response to the brutalising effects of war.

Genres: Africa, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Farida Karoida was born in the eastern Cape province, a location that inspired the setting for her first novel, Daughters of Twilight (1986). She taught in Johannesburg, South Africa, Zambia, Swaziland. In 1968 the government of South Africa withdrew her passport. Facing forced interment in South Africa, she emigrated to Canada. She remained there, where she published her first novel and wrote in multiple mediums, including film, television, and CBC radio dramas. She returned to South Africa in 1994. She now works as a free-lance writer and divides her time between Canada and South Africa.

Her first novel was Daughters of the Twilight was published in 1986, and was a runner up for the Fawcett Literature Prize. Although she was living in Canada at the time, the book concerns what difficulties non-whites faced in getting an education under apartheid. However by 1990 she had also written about Canada. Further during time spent in India in 1991 she wrote and filmed Midnight Embers. Her novel A Shattering of Silence (1993), set during the Mozambique civil war, follows Faith, the daughter of Canadian missionaries, after the murder of her parents. Against an African Sky and Other Stories (1994) was one of her first works after she returned to South Africa.In 2000, her novel Other Secrets was nominated for an IMPAC Dublin Award. Nor have her novels set in Africa focused only on South Africa. Boundaries (2003)focuses on the return of three women to a small South African town, Vlenterhoek

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Calzean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This didn’t work well for me. Faith is a white girl in Mozambique who witnesses the murder of her parents. The resulting trauma makes her unable to speak. She remains silent for most of the book witnessing various massacres by both the Portuguese and the Mozambique freedom fighters. The book just did not create tension or drive to any real conclusion.

[Daniel Apatiga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. This book helped me have a more humanistic understanding of the conflicts that occur in Africa due to colonialism. Colonialism had many positive affects (the bringing of "skilled workers"), however, the repression that they instilled on the native populations are and have been unjustified. The book is a fiction novel, but it has many realistic elements and a lot of it is, as I understand it, based on actual events. A moving, and goose-bump inducing novel. A must read.

[Lita]

Fascinating real story about a woman's experience in Mozambique during the civil war. Can highly recommend it.

[Meg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it. Tried, as I think it could be good. Was heavy reading .