Lifestyle

Threads of broken bonds

Nyathi during the book launch last Saturday
 
Nyathi during the book launch last Saturday

Threads of Broken Bonds is a memoir of Nyathi’s tumultuous life journey where fabrics of intimacy in her life were abruptly broken one after the other; at the hands of ruptured trust, loss of life, and even intricate threads having weakened over time. It is a journey of bouncing back from a broken marriage engagement that left her with a scar of rejection.

Nyathi’s account of her activities in her life was written in a space of 25 days in November 2023 and this shows the level of commitment and dedication she gave to pen her story. Some of the most beautiful tapestries were woven out of threads that resulted from tears, slits or trends. In her own life and words, the author reveals how every broken relationship has resulted in something beautiful. “I am not scared of sharing my life with the world. I am not even ashamed to do so and I hope this book will encourage someone out there to do the same, at their own time,” she said.

The 50-year-old mother of three, who is also a public servant, started writing during her high school days and used most of her spare time to write. She says she has always had a great passion for the power of words. Nyathi states that one of her greatest challenges was issues of vulnerability. She was not aware of how much to bare out there, as she did not want to come across as an open book or feel judged. The author, however, affirms that the sense of purpose defeated her insecurities but eventually, she was at peace to go all out in her memoir.

Nyathi’s imagination and thought process were that she had a chance to create a book she wished existed. This was because of the saying, “If you can’t find a book you are looking for on a book shelf, write one,” a statement which gave her the zeal and motivation to put pen to paper and give us Threads of Broken Bonds. The author boldly says that she was ignited by necessity and passion to write this moving memoir. She used to write poetry and now she writes for a purpose. Nyathi is on a mission to share insights with the world, hence she penned this memoir.

It is a story about her personal and intimate life experiences. She feels that writing the book was a way of having solidarity with others who might have faced similar circumstances. Nyathi is a firm believer in making things make sense; and her book, Threads of Broken Bonds, is meant to inspire about life lessons that were learnt from the past and are being learnt in the present which can also shape her future, like a thread intertwining and weaving through life. The slogan which she has coined, ‘’insights from the hindsight inspiring the foresight”, is testament to this. “In my lifetime I have written many books, which never saw the light of the day, and the difference with this one is because I was excited about my 50th birthday and this book was written two months prior to my big day,” Nyathi proudly explains.

She saw it as her birthday gift and a perfect time to write. The author felt that she had come full circle in her life journey and had an urge and desire to write hence she accomplished this feat within less than a month. The book, Threads of Broken Bonds, has a broad appeal and can be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers. Nyathi aims to have her memoir as a self-help book for women because they will be able to see themselves in it through their various age aspects in life. Threads of Broken Bonds was published by Poetic Blood Publishers and was launched on April 27 at the University of Botswana Conference Centre.