WOMAN ZONE STORIES - Lansdowne Dearest: My family's story of forced removals

The forced removals of the apartheid era in Cape Town saw communities ripped apart, families damaged and the hearts of many individuals irreparably broken. Decades later, as a journalist BRONWYN DAVIDS covered many forced removal stories but was always reluctant to tell her own. Until one day the floodgate opened. Writing first on facebook, then on a retreat, with the input of a number of people and several drafts later, she finally put together Lansdowne Dearest: My family’s story of forced removals a book that’s filled with rich memory and colourful narrative. It begins in 1920 with the house that great-grandpa Joe McBain built and tracks the family members that follow with passion, honesty and humour. Bronwyn has written for the community and for her family’s legacy – but more than anything, to free herself.