Gillian Slovo

Gillian Slovo was born on the 15 March 1952 in South Africa. She is a memoirist, novelist and playwright. She abruptly lived in London with her family after they were put in exile. She has been awarded with a Golden Pen Award. Gillian is the daughter of the anti apartheid activist Ruth First who was assassinated during the apartheid area.

Quotes

• If you look at this society you can see what capitalism delivers to people who have money
• The reality of capitalism is not everyone gets what it promises
• One of the strongest pieces of Isis propaganda I’ve heard is the attack on the way women are “forced” to dress in the west.
• Gilliaon Slovo: ‘I think the 2011 riots sparked something in me’ (21 February 2016) by Andrew Anthony retrieved 23 July 2022

• The consequences of marginalizing people on the basis of what they wear or what they say is very dangerous.
• “The actions of al-Qaeda or Islamic State can force our governments, and some of us, to give up on some of the hard-won democratic rights which is what makes us different from them. I’m talking about all sorts of things, freedom of expression being one of the most important ones.”
• “If our response is to stop people in our societies from saying things they don’t want us to say, we are falling into their trap
• “In the same way, one of the things in common from these very different people who went to Islamic State is the feeling that they don’t know where they belong, they are looking for a sense of belonging and they wrongly think they will only find that in this mythical caliphate that they think has been established.”
• Anyone feeling vulnerable can feel attracted to the “idealistic world
• The problem is that it’s all fake because they only respect women’s bodies by restricting them to the house and forcing them to cover up, which is not the same as someone choosing to cover up.”
• it appears that the appeal is not so much the religious rhetoric but the promise of an alternative to capitalism.
• “When you write a memoir you have to think about your responsibility to your audience that you’d be completely honest, and to people in your life. Your honesty is going to affect them.”
• “ask questions that they might not be asking of themselves” because as she says,

• Gillian Slovo: The art of questioning (6 May 2016) by Angeles Rodenas retrieved 23 July 2022

Quotes about

• The issue of how revolutionary parents may have failed our own children is still with me to some degree. And it is with many others, especially women (who always seemed to be expected to do more than the men). A number of important books have been written by some of the children who grew up in such environments. One of them is Every Secret Thing, by Giliam Slovo.
  • Margaret Randall Interview (2016)

External References

• lliaon Slov: ‘I think the 2011 riots sparked something in me’ (21 February 2016) by Andrew Anthony
• Gillian Slovo: The art of questioning (6 May 2016) by Angeles Rodenas