Sugar Town queens by Malla Nunn

Amandla lives with her mother Annalisa in a tin hut in a shanty town outside Durban. Annalisa is strange; for one thing she is white, and for another, she has weird visions and struggles to remember much from their past. Amandla doesn’t know what has happened to her father; she only know he is black, Zulu, and gone. Whilst Amandla and Annalisa live in Sugar Town they are separate from it, because they are different, outsiders. It is only when, in desperation, Amandla has to turn to a neighbour for help that she learns about Ubuntu, the Zulu tradition of neighbours helping each other, a community united by compassion and humanity.

Nunn’s novel is one of racism and racial divides that persist despite Mandela’s supposedly united rainbow nation of white, brown and black together. Life in Sugar Town is one of poverty, it is harsh and dangerous, especially for a young girl like Amandla. Just a short distance away is a whole other world, of gated mansions, with servants and guards, the world that her mother came from. Yet that world of wealth and power is also a trap, dominated by the cold and ruthless. As Amandla gradually uncovers the secrets of her mother’s past, she has to draw on her inner strength, and with the loyal support of her friends Lil Bit and Goodness, face up to the dangers that threaten from both sides.

This is Malla Nunn’s second book for young adults. It is just as captivating as her first 'When the ground is hard', winner of the 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature. Sugar Town queens is another story about a strong and resilient central character, the power of female friendship, and the hunger for justice. The chapters fly by quickly as the reader is caught up in the mystery at the heart of the story.

Themes: Racism, Class divisions, Male power, Female independence, Friendship, Love.

Helen Eddy