Join us for the launch of We Inherit the Fire by Kagiso Lesego Molope, presented in collaboration by Library and Archives Canada and the Ottawa International Writers Festival.
In late-1980s South Africa, teenager Kelelo transfers to a newly desegregated school, where her status as the daughter of famed freedom fighter Kewame “Dolly” Malaka makes her an instant curiosity. While classmates view her as a symbol of progress, she struggles with a mother who is emotionally unreachable, still haunted by the violence and deprivation she endured as a political prisoner under apartheid.
Though Kewame now lives in comfort, she conceals a growing inner collapse as memories of prison life and the women who helped her resurface, triggered by her grandmother’s illness and the pressure to appear perfect. As mother and daughter navigate a shifting political landscape, We Inherit the Fire interlaces their voices to reveal the unspoken wounds, buried histories, and complex inheritance of resilience, pain, and responsibility that bind and divide generations of Black South African women.
About the author
Kagiso Lesego Molope is an Indigenous novelist and playwright of the San people of Southern Africa. She is the author of four previous novels, including Dancing in the Dust, The Mending Season, Such a Lonely, Lovely Road, and This Book Betrays My Brother. She has received numerous honours, including the 2014 Percy FitzPatrick Award, the 2019 Ottawa Book Award for Fiction, and the inaugural 2019 Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award. Her work is read in schools across Southern Africa and Europe. She is a multi-award-winning writer and the creator of the play Maya Angelou: Black Woman Rising.
Seating is limited.
This event will take place at Library and Archives Canada (395 Wellington Street). Visit the website for information about parking and transit options.
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