Home > Work > Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter
1 " There is not a man in the world who is worth your dignity. Do not confuse self-sacrifice with love. "
― J. Nozipo Maraire , Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter
2 " To love is a beautiful, mysterious event; do not miss it. Be neither too cautious nor too absorbed. Too many of us reason with our heart and experience with our heads. "
3 " Until we begin to put pen to paper, we historically do not exist. "
4 " Racism is a phenomenal thing; it is like a thick mist that obscures the vision and judgement of even great minds. "
5 " Welcome, my dear, to the Western world, land of democracy, freedom, and bigotry. "
6 " The heart knows no logic beyond need and desire; the head has no senses except the common and the pragmatic. Neither, frankly, is particularly useful in love, anyway. "
7 " I had once been naïve enough to believe that all would be well if you lived by the rules. Good things happened to good people, blessed are the meek, et cetera, et cetera. How disillusioned I have become since then. It hurt, because I wondered now what all the discipline, repression, and suppression had been for if it had not procured me the thing I had most wanted, and it certainly did not guarantee happiness. "
8 " I suspect, even more importantly, the aged are hidden away so that we do not remember that one day we shall all walk that path, that we shall one day grow slow and stooped. "
9 " Foreign Cash is not the answers to our problems, my friend. Africa needs the hearts and minds of its sons and daughters to nurture it. You were our pride, Mukoma Bryon. When you did not return, a whole village lost its investment. Africa is all that we have. If we do not build it, no one else will. "
10 " You shall be distinguished overseas by your colourful plumage, graceful flight and beautiful songs. There are so many lovely features that will make you conspicuous among the flock. "
11 " You cannot reject a custom simply because it is vulnerable to abuse. That is like not going to church because there are so many hypocrites there. The important thing is that you understand the meaning of it and abide by it. "
12 " Mama, what do you think it means to be an African woman? ... It is to be strong, Zenzele. It is to be at peace within. You must always listen to that inner voice and not permit others to drown it out. It is to measure your words; to balance your works with your gifts carefully; it is in some ways to be selfless, to serve others yet to know and defend your rights to the bitter end. "
13 " Shiri, at the end of the day you will meet only two men in your life: One will make your hands tremble; the other will make them steady. The first will be your passion of youth, but like the blazing fires of the bush, it will soon die to glowing embers, then cool ashes. The second will enter your life quietly, like a thief in the night. He will be like the mighty trees in the forest that we do not see before us, yet they are there, strong and tall; in rain and sun, they dig their roots deep and shade us with their leaves. It is the second one who you must marry. He will be a good husband and father to your children. "
