CAPE FLATS KARMA™: Biography Of A So-Called Coloured Seed by Earl Albert Mentor

I felt the strong urge to write this book simply because my trauma that I have experienced in my life, and observing what trauma has done to my parents, has taken on life in my dreams, in acting out, in “life lessons” coming from a broken home, and has given me insight into my family’s suffering.

Discovering the transmission of trauma, how trauma from my parents has meant coming to know and tell a narrative, a stubborn narrative that has set the scene to be played out in our lives, with the same script, adapted by preceding generations, for future generations growing up in our communities. I am here to disrupt this narrative of the suffering of my people, in order for us to use our struggle as a springboard to help us realise our power.

In my book I speak what my parents could not. I recognize how their own experience has been authored, how one has been authorized, if unconsciously, to carry our parents’ injury into the future. We have taken on board the injuries of our parents and therefore adapted the same script for our lives.

My book, hopefully, will help my people rise above the remnants of our ancestral trauma, in the hope of helping to heal future generations.