Nozibele Mayaba

In the poignant memoir Positively Me: Daring to Live and Love Beyond HIV, Nozibele Mayaba, writing alongside acclaimed author Sue Nyathi, provides a visceral and deeply personal account of her life journey, from a childhood marked by financial struggle to her public emergence as a prominent HIV activist. The narrative is framed by the central conflict of her life: a startling HIV-positive diagnosis at the age of twenty-two, which initially felt like the end of her world. Through its chapters, the book deconstructs the myth that certain “types” of women are immune to the virus, while exploring themes of generational trauma, religious rigidity, and the redemptive power of self-forgiveness. The Burden of Ancestry and the Foremothers The story begins not with Nozibele, but with the women who shaped her, starting with her mother, Sindiswa Fezzie Mbukanto. Sindiswa’s life was defined by early abandonment; her own father left for Johannesburg (the “City of Gold”) to find work and never returned, leaving her mother, Makhulu Nondiyazana, to raise five children alone. Makhulu died prematurely from the stress of single parenthood, leaving the children orphaned. These circumstances forced Sindiswa to grow up instantly, caring for her younger siblings in a mud hut where...