Compelling Stories of Contemporary Africa

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Set in a remote South African village, The Rainy Season: Three Lives in the New South Africa takes an intimate look at the complex realities and seeming contradictions of daily life in modern Africa. Told through the compelling stories of three diverse characters, author and journalist Maggie Messitt’s debut sheds new light on rural African poverty and the AIDS epidemic and examines a community that must confront its own racially charged past. At the intersection of traditional African ways of life and modern Western practices sits Regina, a tapestry weaver in her 60s; Thoko, a middle-aged traditional healer; and Dankie, a young student coming of age as part of the first class to be educated entirely under a democratic government. With the glare of apartheid still shining on their lives, these multifarious villagers must learn to face the incongruities of African society, where the crushing AIDS pandemic collides with traditional religious beliefs and where luxury cars park next to crumbling thatch huts.

Messitt lived and worked in South Africa from 2003-2011, during which time she founded a writing school for rural African women and worked as a freelance reporter. Her passion is telling the stories of communities too remote for most people to visit, with a focus on social justice and environmental sustainability. Messitt is currently a doctoral student at Ohio University. Her previous reporting and essays have appeared in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance magazine, Mother Jones and Edible, among others. Messitt will appear at Boswell Book Co. to discuss her book The Rainy Season at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 6.