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Layered: Lebo Mazibuko’s novel Fabrics of Love came out in August. Photo: Thandukwazi Lungelo Gcabashe

Exploring the fabric of family and identity in Lebo Mazibuko’s Fabrics of Love

Lebo Mazibuko’s second novel, Fabrics of Love, looks at themes of family trauma, black womanhood, absent fathers and heritage

Author Michelle Kekana

Road to mental wellness: Michelle Kekana and Marion Scher’s books give voice to the silent struggles within

Michelle Kekana and Marion Scher challenge the narrative, highlighting mental health as a universal human experience

Life and death matters: Author Khaya Dlanga deals with the loss of his brother and mother in Life is Like That Sometimes. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

Khaya Dlanga: Writing his way to inner peace

Writer confronts family, grief and recovery in his most vulnerable, honest book yet

Home is where the heart is: Hendrik Nieuwoudt as Sean and Anathi Rubela as Gift in a scene from the Netflix Afrikaans series Tuiskoms.  Photos: Courtesy of Netflix

Tuiskoms: Finding healing in humour

Series captures the complexity of grief, family and rediscovery through love

Tangible elements: ‘Ilangalibalele’ uses steel, wood, imphepho. Photo: Supplied

Meditations on the interconnectedness of the earth, the body and spirituality

Buhlebezwe Siwani’s new exhibition is both a project for healing and an appreciation of traditional indigenous knowledge systems and medicine

Epitome of ethics: Author and cultural critic bell hooks insisted that care, love and spirituality were the core of black feminist practice and freedom. Photo: Karjean Levine/Getty Images

A spirit guide to ethical black feminist thinking and praxis

bell hooks’s refusal to ‘get in formation’ foregrounded healing as the foundation to a communal liberatory agenda

Clea and Theresa with their father, Clyde Mallinson. The family spent many happy beach holidays at Crawford’s Cabins in Chintsa East in the 1980s. Photo: Brenda Mallinson

A holiday for the soul: Home is where the beach is

Revisiting a childhood holiday spot — Chintsa in the Eastern Cape — helped to kickstart recovery from burnout and depression

Quality time: After Dr Zolelwa Sifumba was in a car accident, which occurred after she worked for 36 hours straight, she realised how important it was to get enough regular rest. (Paul Botes/M&G)

Q&A Sessions: Dr Zolelwa Sifumba on learning to rest and healing herself

Dr Zolelwa Sifumba went from being a frontline healthcare worker to stepping back from clinical work. She speaks to Elna Schütz about her shift into more open spaces

UCT initiates reparation and healing

Healing circles can help learners deal with trauma

Recent crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic have exacerbated life’s struggles and losses have overwhelmed many children.

African traditional medicines, similar to other traditional medicines such as those from China and India, have been used by African people long before the advent of “modern” medicine, and still continue to be used for the treatment of a range of diseases.

Traditional healers need new spaces

Proper facilities supported by well-researched cultural principles will go a long way to improving the image and perception of the practice of traditional medicine

Beautiful puzzle: Msaki has found the lockdown difficult, but has also been turning her hand to mastering new production skills, like sound engineering and video editing. (Tseliso Monaheng)
Video

Msaki sings, and we heal

Msaki views her singing as a space from which to gather strength and courage

Nesting: Banesa Lolauoa Tseki (left) and Anesu Mbizvo (right) have created a yoga, meditation and healing centre in Greenside. Photos: Delwyn Verasamy

Birds of a feather: Yoga to find yourself

It’s easy for the African voice to be lost in the global evolution of wellness. So Anesu Mbizvo and Banesa Lolauoa Tseki opened The Nest

The Gauteng health department has responded to “confusion” about the preparation of mass graves in the province

Learning to commune with the dead

In visiting her loved one’s grave and talking to them, the writer treks an unknown path.

Milisuthando (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/ M&G)

Heal yourself by healing your ancestors

"Our very presence on Earth is to heal the broken parts of ourselves in collaboration with those who came before us."

Spiritual milestones: The artworks have been described as having the reclamation of African spirituality and indigenous faith as practised by black women, at its core.

Art and the heirs of redness

Buhlebezwe Siwani’s latest exhibition grew out of a trek and conversations with several women