Far and Beyon' - Softcover

Dow, Unity

3.98

97 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1879960648 ISBN 13: 9781879960640

Publisher: Aunt Lute Books, 2002

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Far and Beyon’ tells the story of a Botswanan family’s struggle to cope with the devastatation of HIV and poverty. Reeling from the loss of a second son to AIDS, Mara turns to traditional magic to fight the curse she believes is destroying her family. Her children, Mosa and Stan, increasingly reject such beliefs, choosing instead to fight the powerlessness and oppression that have made the family so vulnerable to HIV. In the process, they must challenge adult authorities and scrutinize the ways in which they unwittingly consent to the forces that constrict them.

"The Botswana of village life, of ceremony, of family, noise, rites of passage, love, tragedy, food, violence and kinship are gritty on the page. Dow writes this world the way men and women in her country sing--with a zest fed by connection to the earth and to a shared past ... She has Botswana’s dirt under her nails and is not anxious to scour it out." Morag Fraser, The Age

"This is a novel for everyone ... embrac[ing] life in Botswana and the challenges involved in growing up, confronting adult hypocrisy, poverty, abuse and exploitation." Sheldon G. Weeks, Mail & Guardian

Unity Dow is Botswana's first female high court judge and a long-time activist for women's rights and the rights of the poor. Explaining her choice to focus this, her first novel, on the AIDS crisis, Dow says, "I really could not have written a contemporary novel on Botswana without devoting a major part of it to AIDS. I can’t imagine a five-minute conversation about anything not somehow veering towards AIDS. If I invite guests to dinner, I can expect at least one to cancel at short notice because of a funeral or illness to attend to."

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About the Author:

Unity Dow is Botswana's first woman High Court judge, has a long record as a human rights attorney. She is known for launching the Dow case which challenged nationality and other laws in Botswana. She co-founded the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Project.

From Booklist:

Gr. 9-12. Botswana's first female High Court judge draws on her experience in the women's rights struggle to tell a searing story of a contemporary family in southern Africa. The focus is on Mora, 17, who has seen two brothers die of AIDS within the last year. Mora, who dropped out of school when she became pregnant and had an abortion, is now back in class, determined to get "far and beyon'" the traditional role of women stuck at home. Her single-parent mom helps her break free, as does her brother, who lives with a white teacher's family and learns foreign ways. Dow neither romanticizes nor demonizes the ancestral tradition. As only an insider can, she shows the ignorance, the abuse, and the corruption of power as well as the richness of extended family and community, and the dynamic roots that give Mora her strength. In a dramatic confrontation, Mora organizes her friends to end the sexual abuse by several teachers in her school. It's a victory that will move teens everywhere who feel silenced by powerful authority. Adults will want to read this, too. Hazel Rochman
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