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Singing Away the Hunger
A compelling and unique autobiography by an African woman with little formal education, less privilege and almost no experience of books or writing. Hers is a voice almost never heard in literature or history, a voice from within the struggle of 'ordinary' African women to negotiate a world which incorporates ancient pastoral ways and the congestion, brutality, and racist violence of city life.
174 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 12, 2021
When I remember that time I am puzzled, because it always seems to be a time of light. I know many times there were no candles, no paraffin. But even when there were no candles, no paraffin, we made a fire at night and it seemed like there was a moon inside the house, there was so much light. I wonder if it was my mother’s prayers that made such beautiful light in the dark house. Or maybe it was her singing. She said she tried to sing the hunger away.
November 26, 2017
“I dream that this book will go far, and tell people about the Basotho, how it is with us, how poor we are and how we go on with life anyway.”
This is an unusual memoir, consisting of the stories of a poor woman from Lesotho, matriarch of a large family, who works as a cleaning lady to feed her many children and grandchildren. Though she speaks seven or eight languages and attended some school as a teenager, she spent all of her adult life busy with manual labor and raising children and is essentially illiterate. She “wrote” this book in collaboration with an American professor, by telling her stories orally, having them read back to her and dictating changes.
It’s a fascinating book in that it offers a window on a sort of life rarely encountered even in books: not only the lives of a ordinary African woman and her family, but the lives of people so poor they often go hungry or inadequately clothed, and may not even have a home large enough for the entire household to sleep on the floor. When you do encounter characters living so hand-to-mouth, they populate a book that ends in triumph, usually through education. But the lives of Nthunya and her family always feel precarious, even when they’re doing well, working in South Africa or farming in the Maluti Mountains. This isn’t a relentlessly depressing book – life always goes on – but it isn’t a feel-good story either.
Nthunya’s isn’t simply a story of poverty, though. Born in 1930, she remembers a Lesotho that has largely disappeared, with customs that might surprise many readers. She describes what we would call an open relationship with her husband; both were comfortable with the other having outside sexual relationships, and this appears to have been normal. She also talks about what seems to be a romantic friendship with another woman, which is celebrated by the community through multiple feasts. Meanwhile Christianity mixes easily with traditional beliefs, including several episodes of visiting sangomas (traditional healers) for “sickness which is not from God,” usually involving a curse from a jealous relative or neighbor.
Overall, I found this short memoir very engaging. Nthunya’s way of speaking is distinctive, and I’m not entirely convinced that having her tell her stories in English was the best choice. She makes several references to being much more comfortable in her native tongue, and her English grammar is idiosyncratic. The book contains a somewhat defensive afterward by the professor who turned these stories into a book (I got the impression that zealously ideological social-justice-oriented acquaintances gave her a hard time for being involved at all), in which she explains that they tried having a bilingual friend take down Nthunya’s stories in Sesotho and translate them, but that this translation was “much less powerful” than Nthunya’s English. Maybe they just needed a better translator? But regardless, the stories flow well and offer a great window into a world rarely seen in print. This is the sort of experience I’m always looking for in my world books challenge, and I’m glad to have read it.
This is an unusual memoir, consisting of the stories of a poor woman from Lesotho, matriarch of a large family, who works as a cleaning lady to feed her many children and grandchildren. Though she speaks seven or eight languages and attended some school as a teenager, she spent all of her adult life busy with manual labor and raising children and is essentially illiterate. She “wrote” this book in collaboration with an American professor, by telling her stories orally, having them read back to her and dictating changes.
It’s a fascinating book in that it offers a window on a sort of life rarely encountered even in books: not only the lives of a ordinary African woman and her family, but the lives of people so poor they often go hungry or inadequately clothed, and may not even have a home large enough for the entire household to sleep on the floor. When you do encounter characters living so hand-to-mouth, they populate a book that ends in triumph, usually through education. But the lives of Nthunya and her family always feel precarious, even when they’re doing well, working in South Africa or farming in the Maluti Mountains. This isn’t a relentlessly depressing book – life always goes on – but it isn’t a feel-good story either.
Nthunya’s isn’t simply a story of poverty, though. Born in 1930, she remembers a Lesotho that has largely disappeared, with customs that might surprise many readers. She describes what we would call an open relationship with her husband; both were comfortable with the other having outside sexual relationships, and this appears to have been normal. She also talks about what seems to be a romantic friendship with another woman, which is celebrated by the community through multiple feasts. Meanwhile Christianity mixes easily with traditional beliefs, including several episodes of visiting sangomas (traditional healers) for “sickness which is not from God,” usually involving a curse from a jealous relative or neighbor.
Overall, I found this short memoir very engaging. Nthunya’s way of speaking is distinctive, and I’m not entirely convinced that having her tell her stories in English was the best choice. She makes several references to being much more comfortable in her native tongue, and her English grammar is idiosyncratic. The book contains a somewhat defensive afterward by the professor who turned these stories into a book (I got the impression that zealously ideological social-justice-oriented acquaintances gave her a hard time for being involved at all), in which she explains that they tried having a bilingual friend take down Nthunya’s stories in Sesotho and translate them, but that this translation was “much less powerful” than Nthunya’s English. Maybe they just needed a better translator? But regardless, the stories flow well and offer a great window into a world rarely seen in print. This is the sort of experience I’m always looking for in my world books challenge, and I’m glad to have read it.
April 28, 2024
A non-linear autobiography, transcribed as it was narrated, that opens the door to a world unknown to many of us in the west. M'e Mpho has lived a life in (complete) poverty, full of cruelty (wuth instances of love, happiness and affection), full of loss and day to day struggly to have food on the table (very similar to what many of the previous generations here in the "civilized" europe have experienced). It is a hard life to read about, but M'e Mpho isn't bitter, isn't angry and above all hasn't given up.
I appreciated the fact that the text hasn't been polished to be grammatically correct, as this way it has kept it's authenticity intact.
I do hope, that if M'e Mpho is still alive, finds life a bit easier now..
I appreciated the fact that the text hasn't been polished to be grammatically correct, as this way it has kept it's authenticity intact.
I do hope, that if M'e Mpho is still alive, finds life a bit easier now..
August 25, 2012
The land was quiet, peaceful, and very pleasing to my eyes. I liked the colours, the shapes of the mountain-tops, the way the shadows from the clouds fall and move across the mountains so everything is always changing. Everywhere I could smell wild sage. I like the wild sage and clean mountain wind, the colours of the wildflowers: bright blue, deep yellow, or maybe red and orange like flames of the fire. I like the sounds, the birds and the crickets, the waterfall near the house, the music of sheep-bells and cow-bells, the silence. Most of all I like the silence.
So Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya describes the Maluti area of Lesotho, where she goes with her husband to live after police violence in South Africa becomes too much of a threat for them to raise a family safely there. It is not often that you read the autobiography of someone who is at once astonishing and ordinary. Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya is both. On one hand, she is a cleaning woman at a guest house in a university in Lesotho, often unable to feed her grandchildren from paycheck to paycheck. On the other hand, she is a strong, wise woman who speaks 8 languages, including Afrikaans and English, Xhosa and Zulu. Singing Away the Hunger: The Autobiography of an African Woman is the story, or more accurately a collection of stories, of her life. An American Fullbright Scholar--a writer and actress and grandmother herself--met Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya at the guest house and as she got to know her, realized that this was someone who could tell the world about life in little Lesotho--a place most Americans can't find on a map. She convinced the author to publish the stories with her help in navigating the world of publishing. These are well-told stories--about hardship, about love of place, about family, about rivalry, and hatred, and forgiveness. They are tales of an impoverished nation and the struggles of its people on a daily basis. They are the story of what change in South Africa has meant to its neighbors. But more than anything, they are the story of a smart, strong, patient, wise woman who loves her family and works hard to give them a life they can survive. I'm very glad to have joined the Great African Reads Group here on Goodreads, or I would never have found it and learned so much from my day Singing Away the Hunger.
So Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya describes the Maluti area of Lesotho, where she goes with her husband to live after police violence in South Africa becomes too much of a threat for them to raise a family safely there. It is not often that you read the autobiography of someone who is at once astonishing and ordinary. Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya is both. On one hand, she is a cleaning woman at a guest house in a university in Lesotho, often unable to feed her grandchildren from paycheck to paycheck. On the other hand, she is a strong, wise woman who speaks 8 languages, including Afrikaans and English, Xhosa and Zulu. Singing Away the Hunger: The Autobiography of an African Woman is the story, or more accurately a collection of stories, of her life. An American Fullbright Scholar--a writer and actress and grandmother herself--met Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya at the guest house and as she got to know her, realized that this was someone who could tell the world about life in little Lesotho--a place most Americans can't find on a map. She convinced the author to publish the stories with her help in navigating the world of publishing. These are well-told stories--about hardship, about love of place, about family, about rivalry, and hatred, and forgiveness. They are tales of an impoverished nation and the struggles of its people on a daily basis. They are the story of what change in South Africa has meant to its neighbors. But more than anything, they are the story of a smart, strong, patient, wise woman who loves her family and works hard to give them a life they can survive. I'm very glad to have joined the Great African Reads Group here on Goodreads, or I would never have found it and learned so much from my day Singing Away the Hunger.
September 3, 2012
This book is unusual in several respects: it is a type of memoir/autobiography (as told to someone) but it is non-linear. The point of view is that of a poor black woman from Lesotho who only finished primary school (yet speaks EIGHT languages)--not the typical memoir from the more educated or even elite class of Africans to which we in the West have become accustomed when trying to learn more about life in Africa. Also, it was translated by the author, Mpho Nthunya, in the sense that she translated all her stories and experiences from Sesotho into English as she told them to K. Limakatso Kendall, her transcriber and "editor" (they worked on the editing together).
Mpho is clearly gifted intellectually and worked hard her entire life whilst dealing with multiple tragedies and set-backs, all the while living more or less hand-to-mouth and often going without food for days in a row. She was a keen observer of people; in telling her stories about her life, she often reflected on the changes that were occurring in society. She was also perfectly aware of political changes that affected Lesotho and South Africa. When she grasped that Kendall wanted to write an actual book of her life, she was keen to participate. In the Afterword, Kendall described Mpho's enthusiasm upon seeing her words typed onto paper: "I laughed when I saw it was real, that my words could look like words in a book, and maybe my stories could be a book that other people could read." I hope many people do read her book; I think there is a lot that all kinds of readers can take from it.
Mpho is clearly gifted intellectually and worked hard her entire life whilst dealing with multiple tragedies and set-backs, all the while living more or less hand-to-mouth and often going without food for days in a row. She was a keen observer of people; in telling her stories about her life, she often reflected on the changes that were occurring in society. She was also perfectly aware of political changes that affected Lesotho and South Africa. When she grasped that Kendall wanted to write an actual book of her life, she was keen to participate. In the Afterword, Kendall described Mpho's enthusiasm upon seeing her words typed onto paper: "I laughed when I saw it was real, that my words could look like words in a book, and maybe my stories could be a book that other people could read." I hope many people do read her book; I think there is a lot that all kinds of readers can take from it.
July 2, 2020
One of the best books I have ever read. I never thought an autobiography would be so interesting. One of the best life stories out there. I learnt so much about the culture in that part of the world and how open it was until the the society slowly became more and more christian. Though there was a lot of suffering in her life, she knew how to sing it away. I Learnt a lot of lessons from her, about life and how to live it. It's definitely a must read for everyone and i am pretty sure myself I am gonna reread it.
October 27, 2014
Pretty amazing that women's lives are so different around the world - the author lives they way millions of unseen, unheard women live. It really puts my problems in perspective - she feels rich during those times in her life when she has enough food for all her children and a nice blanket to wear/sleep under. Have to try to remember this next time the slowness of my computer at work is frustrating me.
April 18, 2011
This book contains wonderful and heart breaking stories about life in Lesotho, Africa. The storyteller, M'pho, creates a vivid and unique picture of her world and her difficult and joyous journey through it that shows her strength and acceptance of life in southern Africa.
February 21, 2022
Gripping, to say the least. I was moved by this woman's experiences and, like many out there, her story was worth telling.
December 20, 2008
I have a bias in reviewing this book as the editor - Kathryn Kendall - is a friend of mine. While on a Fulbright in Lesotho, she became friendly with one of the local women and took notes as the woman told stories of what her life had been like while eking out a living in Africa. Care was taken to preserve the stories "as told" and one gains an appreciation of the hardships as well as the joys. A quick read of a couple of hours, but well worth the time.
March 22, 2019
So powerful.
I believe God puts exactly who we need in our lives exactly when we need it. As the book is about Africa, I didn’t go into it with an expectation of eye surgery. Don’t twist this, my meaning is that I chose this book to read about Africa. Not Bc of Eye surgery which is also a topic of interest to me Bc I will be having eye surgery soon. Thus why the chapter on her having & describing eye surgery was so powerful to me, like God put this book in my hand for this of many reasons. I know have a picture in my mind of what the surgery will be like.
She was so remarkable. “Sometimes, I would think so hard (About my mother) that I would cry.”
I also do this. So this was so powerful to me to hear it put into words when we live in a society that calls everything a sign of mental health issues. I feel deeply & think hard do this was good to hear affirmation that I’m not alone in this.
“I dream many things, but the dreams are gentle”.
paraphrase of the beautiful introduction:
I tell my story so my grandchildren can read it & know the old ways. I tell my story so my mother can read it in Heaven. I tell my story for me, like a photo album of my life. Whether others read it or not does not matter. This is my story.
I got this 2nd hand & loved the calmness of the book, the desire to live in the mountains, the loyalty to family. There were 2 underlines in the book that suggested the reader before me loved karma/revenge/had a vengeful mind. I was intrigued that these were the only 2 things underlined & they were in line with an interest in bad karma whereas the Mpho didn’t seem to have that intent. Her calmness of mind was so present in every word. A very clear beautiful mind. I read the foreword after finishing the book. She (a member of parliament) described my same thoughts, MPho speaks facts without judgement, anger or bitterness, this the emotion is in the reader not in the author.
This book was beautiful.
& I always love a book that is condensed/clear, not dragging on. The beauty of a book to me is in the story, the moral not a bunch of flowery language. Just human connection & understanding.
I believe God puts exactly who we need in our lives exactly when we need it. As the book is about Africa, I didn’t go into it with an expectation of eye surgery. Don’t twist this, my meaning is that I chose this book to read about Africa. Not Bc of Eye surgery which is also a topic of interest to me Bc I will be having eye surgery soon. Thus why the chapter on her having & describing eye surgery was so powerful to me, like God put this book in my hand for this of many reasons. I know have a picture in my mind of what the surgery will be like.
She was so remarkable. “Sometimes, I would think so hard (About my mother) that I would cry.”
I also do this. So this was so powerful to me to hear it put into words when we live in a society that calls everything a sign of mental health issues. I feel deeply & think hard do this was good to hear affirmation that I’m not alone in this.
“I dream many things, but the dreams are gentle”.
paraphrase of the beautiful introduction:
I tell my story so my grandchildren can read it & know the old ways. I tell my story so my mother can read it in Heaven. I tell my story for me, like a photo album of my life. Whether others read it or not does not matter. This is my story.
I got this 2nd hand & loved the calmness of the book, the desire to live in the mountains, the loyalty to family. There were 2 underlines in the book that suggested the reader before me loved karma/revenge/had a vengeful mind. I was intrigued that these were the only 2 things underlined & they were in line with an interest in bad karma whereas the Mpho didn’t seem to have that intent. Her calmness of mind was so present in every word. A very clear beautiful mind. I read the foreword after finishing the book. She (a member of parliament) described my same thoughts, MPho speaks facts without judgement, anger or bitterness, this the emotion is in the reader not in the author.
This book was beautiful.
& I always love a book that is condensed/clear, not dragging on. The beauty of a book to me is in the story, the moral not a bunch of flowery language. Just human connection & understanding.
October 14, 2017
In my effort to read books from around the world written by local authors I chose this from amazon. My husband worked in Lesotho and we went there a few years ago with our sons for a holiday. My husband commented that it had changed and there were a lot more trees than there had been which is a positive. Since Prince harry has raised the awareness of this country I think things have been looking up.
This book was told orally to a university lecturer ho befriended Mpho 'M'atsepo Nthunya in Lesotho this is the life story of this amazing woman who speaks eight languages and who lost her husband and worked at menial jobs, almost starved and supported a large number of children and grandchildren.
Her life has been one with many struggles that would have sent most people over the edge and yet she tells her story in a very direct and factual way. You can hear her telling the stories as her voice comes through strongly.
She believes in local witchcraft medicine and has consulted these people to help her through many problems but she also prays to God who has also helped her she believes.
She has lived in South Africa as well as different laces in Lesotho. She has walked many miles in bare feet with one or two of her children to visit her husband in hospital as well as to visit other relatives, sometimes she was pregnant too.
She must have been near frozen at times as it gets very cold in the Maluti mountains and she had just a thin blanket and cotton clothes to wear.
Despite living through some awful times, losing children and being so poor that she ate grass and her children were almost starving, she managed to keep a determined attitude and since the publication of the book she has had her life changed. She built her own house and is now able to eat and feed her family through her own endeavors and the help of her 'editor' who wrote down her words but did not edit them!
A very interesting and humbling read.
This book was told orally to a university lecturer ho befriended Mpho 'M'atsepo Nthunya in Lesotho this is the life story of this amazing woman who speaks eight languages and who lost her husband and worked at menial jobs, almost starved and supported a large number of children and grandchildren.
Her life has been one with many struggles that would have sent most people over the edge and yet she tells her story in a very direct and factual way. You can hear her telling the stories as her voice comes through strongly.
She believes in local witchcraft medicine and has consulted these people to help her through many problems but she also prays to God who has also helped her she believes.
She has lived in South Africa as well as different laces in Lesotho. She has walked many miles in bare feet with one or two of her children to visit her husband in hospital as well as to visit other relatives, sometimes she was pregnant too.
She must have been near frozen at times as it gets very cold in the Maluti mountains and she had just a thin blanket and cotton clothes to wear.
Despite living through some awful times, losing children and being so poor that she ate grass and her children were almost starving, she managed to keep a determined attitude and since the publication of the book she has had her life changed. She built her own house and is now able to eat and feed her family through her own endeavors and the help of her 'editor' who wrote down her words but did not edit them!
A very interesting and humbling read.
June 7, 2023
Singing Away the Hunger was my around the world journey pick for Lesotho - and it was a good choice. The book is a compilation of autobiographical stories spanning most of the 20th century. By the time I finished I felt as though I’d taken a histric and cultural journey to this landlocked, high altitude country in southern Africa. And that’s what this reading journey is all about.
May 16, 2025
A quick read, and worth the time to see the world through someone else's eyes. I appreciated that the story is Mpho's voice and story based on her memories alone, without heavy editing or clarification. I don't have the historical and political context to truly understand Mpho's story, but that's okay because the point here is her world view and her life. And she's a great storyteller.
November 10, 2024
I ended up sharing pieces of this one with others. I really enjoyed it. She's a very good storyteller, and it was great to see the world through her eyes for a bit.
Read
April 23, 2025This was truly, truly wonderful. I feel lucky to have gotten to spend so much time in Mpho's stories.
August 24, 2012
An interesting memoir of a Lesotho woman (farmer, mother, lover, domestic worker, and octolingual wordsmith) dictated to an artist/actress/professor from the US. The two edited the volume together over many hours of oral read-back so Mpho ensured all the writing remained in her narrative voice. The book is deceiving in that its rarity-- the autobiography of a poor Lesothan woman-- normalizes her account, leaving readers to assume hers is a representative life history, when in fact the book is an even rarer gift: the life of a great storyteller. That said, the memoir is definitely worth a look for those seeking African literature by African authors on lives of the rural, food insecure poor. Worth it too to read Mpho recount her and her husband's polyamorous, queer affairs and the quiet, musing way she wonders about the rise of jealousy and decline of this kind of love in Lesothan life.
[For the Great African Reads book club]
[For the Great African Reads book club]
August 28, 2025
I had some problems with the marketing of this book. I think it suffers from being published in the ’90s, when white saviourism was more acceptable and less questioned. My edition of this book has, emblazoned in all caps on the cover, the slogan: ‘Read this book if you want to get your life in perspective’. The implication here is essentially that reading this book will make you feel better about your own life because Nthunya’s life has been so terrible. It’s just schadenfreude, the idea that the only value in Nthunya’s story is to make white, Western readers feel better about their relatively privileged lives. I don’t think Nthunya would see her story that way, and I don’t think readers should, either.
(Full review at The Global Women's Library.)
(Full review at The Global Women's Library.)
January 4, 2012
I thought I knew something about Africa. I really thought I knew something about Lesotho and the other nations of South Africa. This book taught me that I really know nothing at all. Mpho Nthunya tells stories relating to her life's experiences. She knows what suffering is and she knows how to rise above it. She is a survivor. The most poignant moment for me in the book is, as she describes the death of her father, and writes: "I didn't know how to cry." As I read her stories I found that I did know how to cry, and I cried for her, for her people, and for me, that I had to be taught how things are on another continent not all too far from my home. Nthunya's strength of spirit inspires me and makes me awaken to the truth that my problems and whining mean nothing at all. Nothing at all.
August 2, 2011
M'e Mpho's voice comes through clear and strong in this remarkable memoir of life in Lethoso. Kathryn Kendall has done a remarkable job of bringing us the honest story of a different kind of life, a stark and dramatic story told without drama or sentimentality. An absorbing and thought provoking read. I immediately bought other copies to give as gifts.
April 8, 2008
It challenges you to open your eyes and view the world of an African woman from her own perspective. This is not a book I would normally seek out on my own, but I found it to be an eye-opening and revealing glimpse into another world, and I'm glad I read this autobiography.
September 18, 2007
Beautiful, deeply descriptive, journal-like, insite into the struggle against apartheid in Losotho. A woman's private daily cry for justice.
November 9, 2007
This book is written awkwardly, but still maintains it's tragedy and honesty.
June 5, 2008
About Lesotho by a Basotho woman. Done very well.
August 27, 2009
Good description of life in South Africa for the poor. Interesting and fast reading.
October 10, 2010
A raw, unique voice from Mpho'M'Atespo Nthunya in Africa. An insightful and wonderful biography from a woman with little formal education.
October 9, 2012
Thoroughly enjoyed these simple yet captivating stories. Amazing, ordinary life!
October 10, 2013
A great autobiography.
April 4, 2015
Makes our lives seem so easy compared to her life.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews