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My Worth Crowned You
R250.00
My Worth Crowned You is a novel that locates the new black middle class individual in his/her ‘belonging’ in today’s society; somewhere between modernity, western education and black culture. It is written in first person and follows the journey of Kearabetswe Mohale, the narrator. She is an ordinary young woman who was born and raised in fictional Tholoana Kingdom. Tholoana Kingdom is rich with culture, locates culture above all else, and centres its entire existence on culture. It is a country that is under the rule of King Mohato Mohale – Kearabetswe’s husband.
Kearabetswe is educated outside of Tholoana Kingdom and under western education, therefore being in possession of a Master’s degree. She was born in Tholoana Kingdom but practically grew up in Johannesburg where she attended boarding school as well as university. After years of all of this education, she – like many other graduates – was looking forward to being a graduate in some company out there or a young professional. Her family had other plans for her. These plans led her back home to Tholoana Kingdom and forcefully married off to King Mohato Mohale.
Her marriage is all kinds of challenges because of the unavoidable clash that continuously happens between modernity (Kea’s education and shift in her way of thinking and comprehending as a result of her strong educational background) and cultural beliefs (Mohato’s way of ruling the Kingdom being solely based on his cultural education that remains untainted by western ideologies).
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Description
Description
My Worth Crowned You is a novel that locates the new black middle class individual in his/her ‘belonging’ in today’s society; somewhere between modernity, western education and black culture. It is written in first person and follows the journey of Kearabetswe Mohale, the narrator. She is an ordinary young woman who was born and raised in fictional Tholoana Kingdom. Tholoana Kingdom is rich with culture, locates culture above all else, and centres its entire existence on culture. It is a country that is under the rule of King Mohato Mohale – Kearabetswe’s husband.
Kearabetswe is educated outside of Tholoana Kingdom and under western education, therefore being in possession of a Master’s degree. She was born in Tholoana Kingdom but practically grew up in Johannesburg where she attended boarding school as well as university. After years of all of this education, she – like many other graduates – was looking forward to being a graduate in some company out there or a young professional. Her family had other plans for her. These plans led her back home to Tholoana Kingdom and forcefully married off to King Mohato Mohale.
Her marriage is all kinds of challenges because of the unavoidable clash that continuously happens between modernity (Kea’s education and shift in her way of thinking and comprehending as a result of her strong educational background) and cultural beliefs (Mohato’s way of ruling the Kingdom being solely based on his cultural education that remains untainted by western ideologies).
The Mohale elders arrange for Kearabetswe to sleep with Mohato’s cousin to birth the heir to the throne because Mohato is infertile. The response to this approach is met with mixed approaches (the cultural approach and the western approach). It leads to an event that makes Kearabetswe flee from Tholoana Kingdom. The ending of the novel sees the story comes full circle at the end when the death of someone important in the family forces Kearabetswe back into the royal palace and back into her marriage with Mohato.
The book addresses issues of infertility and the impact it has on marriage in the cultural context. It conventionally and unconventionally discusses love, its challenges, its values, and its power.
A journey of finding the balance between modernity and culture; not just in the way that you live your life as a new black middle class graduate, but also in the way that you love AS WELL AS in your understanding of “life must go on”.
A novel written for your heart
A novel written for your entertainment
A novel written for a journey unknown
A novel written for the ordinary you and me
…
A novel written by Ketso Madonsela
If you are a woman or man who is of an ethnicity that is rich with culture and then somewhere along the blood line, someone in your family decided that they are no longer interested in being deep within cultural practices and swiftly brought you up in modernity – then this book is for you.
Culture always interferes with the big events in our lives – whether we want it to or not and it is no different for the characters in this book.
No matter how modernised you have grown to become, you will never enter into a marital union without lobola, for example. This example is symbolic of the need of culture in our lifestyle regardless of education or change in lifestyle.
In Rabi’s journey, a Masters degree graduate, culture breaks her, holds her hostage, destroys her, and perhaps crowns her queen of a system that is foreign to who she has become. Culture chooses love for Rabi. This entire novel is told in narration from her, highlighting her challenges of being a modern woman married to a man who only understands culture. Furthermore, she is living in a country where culture is the only explanation to the playout of events in a person’s life. Kea is modernity living in a home that is draped in culture.
The conflict between modernity and culture is literal in her journey. It is also figurative in that you see it in its essence in her marital issues. You will find yourself on the journey with her, playing hopscotch and trying to find the balance between modernity and culture simply because the reality of the new black middle class woman and man today is found in the balance of modernity and culture.
Lumka Sityata –
One would naturally be inclined towards thinking that infertility would be a source of breaking the bond in a marriage. However, in the book, the husband’s infertility serves as a tool to not only create, but to seal the bond between husband and wife. Mohato’s infertility almost becomes the ‘basis’ of Mohato’s and Kea’s marriage. The idea portrayed by Kea’s readiness to overlook Mohato’s infertility and fight for a solid marriage may be a positive one. However, we have come to learn (as especially emphasised by the book) that every human ideal is flawed: is Kea’s acceptance of the situation a reflection of the genuinity of her heart or her thirst for control in a situation where all her control over her own life was ruthlessly stripped away from her?
The journey that the royal couple walks with regards to not being able to conceive an heir to the throne vividly depicts how cultural taboo can magnify the strain on a marital bond by exposing and preying on a different kind of intimacy in the marriage – vulnerability
Naledi Dlamini –
My Worth Crowned You” is the ultimate definition of a page turning, emotional rollercoaster. The book follows the life Kea, a master’s degree student of note, with a gorgeous man Skhu. They’re life is practically picture perfect until her parents take her life’s plans into their own hands. Fast forward, the modern, educated, go-getting Kea finds herself in the highly rural Tholoana Kingdom at the right hand of the King and is expected to be the definition of submissive.
Not only is she strifled by the culture shock but the sheer demand of life she’d never seen for herself. We see her tackle problems she’d never thought possible and staggering grief. My Worth Crowned You is about exploring Kea’s life but you find yourself discovering Your Worth as an individual. Be prepared to laugh, to cry, to be annoyed and to be provoked in thought: it is definitely a must have for everyone.
Sandra Maphoto –
“The book has no precedents – not that a similar story has not been told before, but the magnitude of its intricacy is rare to find. It tells of a silent war bearing symbols and motifs we can all identify within ourselves. My Worth Crowned You is a tale intricately woven using the thread of modernity versus culture – a universal struggle we can all identify with – while telling the story in a charismatic, personal and funny-at-times tone which will not only place the reader in Tholoana but also make the reader fall in love with the characters”.