That was the way it was

Ruth HartleyConflict, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe1 Comment

My last blog post was about children of violence. Today I write about how I am also a child of violence and its impact on my family and children.   War was always around me but as a child, I didn’t know that. My parents were scarred by it – a normal human reaction after all. As a schoolgirl, I […]

All that Jazz

Ruth HartleyApartheid, Jazz, Memoir, Short Stories, Southern Africa, When We Were Wicked, ZimbabweLeave a Comment

Monday 26th July Marciac Jazz Festival At 10.30 am at La Chouette Qui Lit I will be signing my latest book When We Were Wicked.  Please come – I’d love to see you and I will have copies of all my other books with me as well. La Chouette Qui Lit is a lovely bookshop where you can also get […]

Helen Lieros and the Delta Gallery

Ruth HartleyArt Gallery, Art Process, Mpapa Gallery, Southern Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe2 Comments

Honouring Helen Lieros I heard yesterday the sad news that Helen Lieros had died after a short illness. Helen was an artist whose paintings and murals had a spiritual luminosity and beauty that made them unforgettable and inspiring. She was recently honoured by the government of Zimbabwe as one of the Living Legends of the Cultural and Creative Industries. In […]

The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah

Ruth HartleyColonialism, Displacement, Family, Migration, Politics, Race, Racism, Southern Africa, Zambia, ZimbabweLeave a Comment

New Year in another country On New Year’s Day we fled from France across the snow-covered Pyrenees pursued by stormy winds and heavy rain. There we wandered along empty twisting roads among ruined and isolated stone villages and ancient monasteries in the  brutal mountains of Spanish Aragon. In our hotel room the television showed no news and told no stories […]

Driving back over my childhood

Ruth HartleyDisplacement, Family, Poetry, Southern Africa, Zimbabwe1 Comment

Going home to Zimbabwe Because of the unexpected changes in Zimbabwe last week I am posting two poems – one from 1980 when I returned to my father’s farm, and another from 1961 my last year at school. Ford Laser speeds up the dual highway. (Commercial break) Camera pans back to parents. Airport to homecoming – half an hour and […]