By M'pho 'M'atsepo NthunyaI can't recall where I heard of this story, but I was intrigued by the geography of Lesotho - a country completely surrounded by another country. It's rare (unheard of?) to find a country that shares a border with only one other country that has no coastline. But what really stays with me is this woman's victorious spirit despite her hardships.
Told from oral tradition, this is the story of a well-educated woman (by Lesotho standards) who deals with the tragic losses of her husband and many of her children. Nthunya works as a cleaning lady at the University of Lesotho, where she shares her stories with a faculty member (who eventually helps get this memoir published). The tone of the book is never self-pitying, even though it's clear Nthunya lives a very difficult life, not just because of her losses, but also due to poverty and prejudice. While she credits her Christian faith for the power that gets her through tough times, she also sometimes consults a seer (Sangoma) when she feels she is given "bad medicine". In one instance, she talks about a brother-in-law who cast a curse on her for refusing to marry him upon the death of her husband (as is tradition in Lesotho). Though she has not accomplished anything noteworthy by human standards, Nthunya is nevertheless remarkable by American standards because she is a survivor, and her story has lessons for all of us.
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