“ This work speaks for itself: it whispers, cries, weeps, sings, reaches far for consolation. It invokes and even delicately touches at times the great wings spread over us if we but bother to look. It was a joy (and a sorrow) to read this manuscript with an editorial eye. It is joy alone to watch the formidable talent of Malika Ndlovu unfold. This is a voice the our healing nation needs to hear.” Shauna Wescott (Editor and Writer)
“Malika has created a piece of work that gives grief a voice. I know this will bring solace to all those who read it, anyone who has lost any loved one will see themselves in her words.” Joy Mc Pherson (Founder Midwives Inc.)
“ Malika’s words hit a deep chord and resonate in me. Her writing and my visual art share synchronous metaphors that recur in both our work. I am overjoyed to collaborate with Malika in the illustration of her journal Exits and Entries. In this project, word meets image. These different mediums merge, contrast, complement and interact with one another. They speak for each other where the one cannot… creating a third form of the two merged together – more full and rich than a version in which only text or only image would be pale to express.” Daya Heller (Visual Artist)
Whenever I have witnessed the dread in a mother’s eyes suddenly turning cold, on hearing that their baby has died, I have had to curb the urge to run away. This intensely personal and powerful journal that Malika has brought to us should become an essential adjunct to any journey that begins with that moment of sharing a baby’s death. Not only does her writing elicit the full range of human emotion, but the additional resource section makes this book extremely relevant, especially to South African women.
Dr Carol Thomas, Specialist Obstetrician Gynaecologist
at theWomanSpace
In the 7 years since my own loss and subsequent ongoing counselling for other bereaved parents, I have never read more explicit and perfect words that describe the gut wrenching feeling that all mothers suffer. This is a must read for all family and friends who want to begin to try and understand the enormity of our desperateness.”
Kim Palmer, The Compassionate Friends: Support Organisation for Grieving Parents
Praise is due to Malika Ndlovu for having narrated such a powerful story that takes a reader through one of the most painful and profoundly life-changing experience.
Inspired by baby Bongiwe’s passing within her, Malika uses the delicate language of poetry and journaling to invite her audience to bear witness to her deep pain, grief and sorrow.
As I read this manuscript and felt moved by its honesty and immediacy, I couldn’t resist thinking that this is the first time a woman has managed to get to the core of what “inimba” really means without mentioning the word. Inimba represents the seat of our soul that connects us to our ancestors, and at the same time provides a link to future generations. It represents that which makes us truly respond to each other’s pain and suffering and most importantly that which gives us the ability to ‘feel for”.
This is indeed a treasure from a generous heart and soul. Malika not only invites us to bear witness to her journey, but offers all those who have travelled her path a resource to soothe their souls and aide their healing processes. Her offering is both a balm and a well of wisdom that invites fellow sisters, and their supporters to use which will inspire and replenish their weary and flagging souls.
Abaphantsi bathi Camagu sis’wam! The Ancestors Salute you, my dear sister!
Nomfundo Walaza,
Clinical Psychologist & Executive Director of Peace Systems
Previously CEO of Desmond Tutu Peace Centre
"Malika Ndlovu writes the way she lives. 'Invisible Earthquake - a woman's journal through stillbirth' is filled with abundance - from terrible grief and sorrow to healing and the joy of her son's words 'I have a sister' as he draws her - bigger than the page.You feel Iman Bongiwe's presence in Malika's life and poetry. You hear the pain of a mother who rocked her baby in her womb and felt her baby's heartbeat echo her own. As she gently lowers her white daisy onto the waves of the ocean Malika honours Iman's journey through life and death. Her poetry and song hold you, her reader as she holds herself. As you hold this book, as you read her words, you feel the pulse and rhythm of your own heart...and of the children who come 'through you but not from you'
Pregs Govender, SA Human Rights Commissioner & Author of Love & Courage – A Story of Insubordination
Praise for the invisible