Sisonke Msimang chatted to Heather Robertson of Nal’ibali recently about stories, activism, and her forthcoming memoir, Always Another Country.

Always Another Country, which will be Msimang’s first book, will be published by Jonathan Ball Publishers in October. The book is a memoir about her exile childhood in Zambia and Kenya, young adulthood and college years in North America, and return to South Africa in the euphoric 1990s.

When did you start conceptualising “Always Another Country” and what inspired you to write it?

It’s a memoir. I started writing it in 2013 after a sabbatical at Yale University in the US. It felt like the easiest way to write a first book – to write about growing up, to reflect on what it was like in exile but not from the point of view of an activist. I thought it was an interesting story – to recall a childhood spent moving from place to place, and then to have been able to return and build a life in a place you weren’t sure you’d ever see.

How is post democratic South Africa different from the country you imagined when growing up in exile in Kenya and Zambia?

You’ll have to read the book to find out! In some ways the heart of the book is in the dissonance between the SA of our dreams and the SA we have built.

To read the full interview, click on the link above!

Categories Non-fiction South Africa

Tags Always Another Country Jonathan Ball Publishers Nal'ibali Sisonke Msimang