Barbara Masekela: Poli Poli

Aangebied deur/ Presented by Jonathan Ball

Die ouddiplomaat Barbara Masekela gesels met Glynis Breytenbach oor haar openhartige memoires, Poli Poli. Die titel verwys na die liewenheersbesies wat hulle as kinders gevang en Poli Poli genoem het – boodskappertjies wat die kinders wat by oumas grootword, na hulle ouers “gestuur” het. Sy vertel van haar Afrikaanse ouma Johanna Mabena Bower, haar grootwordjare in ’n steenkoolmynlokasie in die 1940’s.

Former diplomat Barbara Masekela talks to Glynis Breytenbach about her candid memoir, Poli Poli. The title refers to the ladybugs they caught as children and named Poli Poli – little messengers that children who grow up with grandmothers “sent” to their parents. She talks about her Afrikaans grandmother Johanna Mabena Bower, growing up in a coal mine location in the 1940s and in Alexandra township in the 1950s, her musical brother Hugh, and her political career that took her to being Mandela’s chief of staff and an ambassador