WOMAN ZONE STORIES

Photographer Ajay Lalu is donating proceeds from A Mountain Divides, his book about Cape Town's famous ' Klopse' minstrel parade, to shoot4purpose, an initiative empowering women through photography.

To mark the end of 2025, The Women's Library was 'fully booked' with a big fat Book Swap and the back stories of a brace of book babes in the publishing biz. Happy listening - and happy holiday reading!

The Smallest Ones  (Penguin Random House) is a personal account of survival in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo of the early 2000s. Captured by rebel soldiers, Popina Khumanda, and many others were captured tortured and raped. Amazingly, Popina and her older sister managed to escape, and find their way to South Africa. But their nightmare was not over. Popina writes about this journey with unflinching honesty in a testament to the power of hope and resilience.

Through a campaign called #Doekwithadifference, the Cancer Alliance https://canceralliance.org.za/ wants every woman to know that whilst it can be a killer, Cervical Cancer is also 100% preventable. In the first in a series of Story Cafe's and in partnership with Woman Zone and Artscape, they share the info.

Author and founder of the hugely popular victim-focused podcast series True Crime South Africa, NICOLE ENGLEBRECHT speaks to Beryl Eichenberger about the making of the series and about her fourth book, BARE BONES: Cold Cases from True Crime South Africa (Jonathan Ball).