Colour Me Yellow

Colour Me Yellow

By Thuli Nhlapo

Kwela Books. R209

There is an autobiographical genre often dismissed as 'misery memoir' – books in which an author bangs on at length about how awful their life was, is, and ever shall be. And judging by the tale that Thuli Nhlapo recounts in Colour Me Yellow, she would have been well justified in adding to the misery pile. But her story, while harrowing to read and obviously worse to live through, is not merely a tale of woe. Her determination and intelligence shine through, and make her book compelling, sobering and ultimately satisfying. Nhlapo, the oldest child in her family, grew up with feelings of rejection. Throughout her childhood, her mother reiterated how much she had hated being pregnant with her. A light-skinned child, at home and at school she was reviled for being 'yellow' and despite being the oldest, found herself regularly at the bottom of the pecking order. She soon became convinced the man whose name she bore, who treated her appallingly, and who was married to her mother was not her real father, and her life became a long struggle to find out the truth. There is no fairy-tale ending, but one that will resonate with many people in a bitter, divided society. And above all, Nhlapo shows that courage and faith in the rightness of what one is doing can bring a kind of peace.