Pulani: A Memoir of a Young Woman in Apartheid South Africa

Unexpected challenges, an unexpected love story, PULANI shows us life in Apartheid South Africa as told by a young girl who saw her country and her life change forever.

South African author Ruchel Louis came of age during apartheid's last turbulent days. "Pulani" is her African name. It means "rain."

Pulani's journey from the princess gates of childhood to teen pregnancy to an early adulthood is set against the South African veld, with its endless sky, native tribes, a mix of Boer and British cultures-and a growing climate of cultural mistrust, racial injustice, violence and murder as society falls apart. Pulani must learn very early what it means to be strong.

Raised by a dynamic mother in an affluent household of a small South African town, Pulani was a proper "English school girl." Mother followed her own rules. If one of the staff was caught without their passbook, Mother rescued them from jail. If needed, she came into the townships, the hospitals and anywhere else the rules of apartheid said she was not supposed to be. Sotho head cook Evelyn was Pulani's comfort and protector. Jewish Grandma Gussie was her strength.

Evelyn calmed Mother's anger when Pulani fell in love with a tall, wickedly handsome Afrikaner boy. Together Gussie and Evelyn soothed Mother's hysteria when seventeen-year-old Pulani learns she is pregnant.