Growing up in exile: ‘We had a difficult life filled with love, unity and camaraderie’

702's Thabo Shole-Mashao (in for Clement Manyathela) hosts Shirley Nkadimeng and Masechaba Mposwa as they share their experiences about growing up in exile.

Listen below:

They were likely not the types of childhoods the parents of Masechaba Mposwa and Shirley Nkadimeng had envisaged for their children.

For the two women, their early years were marked not by playgrounds or classrooms, but by border crossings, secret meetings and distant lands that became temporary homes.

Their parents, freedom fighters first, mothers and fathers second.

They share their experience with Shole-Mashao of growing up in the shadow of the revolution.

Nkadimeng left South Africa with her mother in 1979 at the age of 12.

"We've had a really, really difficult life, but filled with love, with unity and with camaraderie. We were comrades living together."

- Shirley Nkadimeng, Gauteng Department Of Housing

Unlike many who were forced into exile, Nkadimeng explains how she and her mother left the country 'properly', with passports at official borders and into the formerly-named Swaziland.

"At the time, I wasn't aware of what was going on. I was wondering where my father was. My father left in 1976 after the uprisings."

- Shirley Nkadimeng, Gauteng Department Of Housing

The uprisings in Soweto mark a significant time for Mpowsa too.

It is the same time her mother left the country at the age of just 14.

"I was born in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1983, so I spent the first five years of my life in Zambia, having been born in exile. I became quite fluent in Nyanja. My parents called me their translator."

- Masechaba Mposwa, Journalist

"We wore second-hand clothing, baby clothes that were donated by Progressive Mankind, the world over."

- Masechaba Mposwa, Journalist

Like Nkadimeng, Mpowsa says that as a small child, she had no idea what was going on in South Africa, nor that her family were living 'in exile'.

"There was nothing to compare it to; being surrounded by soldiers was the norm."

- Masechaba Mposwa, Journalist

Both women say the displacement and separation from their home country shaped their identities, instilling them with a profound sense of purpose, but also a lingering sense of dislocation.

Despite the trauma, they speak with pride of their parents’ sacrifices and a deep commitment to preserving the legacy of the struggle.

Scroll up to listen to the full conversation.