Unfathered
A reckoning with silence.
Cassandra Gudlhuza was nine years old when she left the warmth of her grandparents’ home in Limpopo and moved to Johannesburg to live with her parents. She believed she was moving toward love. She was moving toward danger.
Her father was a respected Soweto lawyer — charming, celebrated and untouchable in public. Behind closed doors, he was the most dangerous person in her life. Unfathered is the story of what happened inside that house, and what it took to survive it, reclaim her life, and finally refuse the silence she had been asked to keep.
Spanning four decades and thirty-one chapters, the memoir moves through a childhood shaped by systematic violence and fear; a mother who absorbed what she should never have been asked to absorb; the discovery of a devastating family secret that reframes everything; the death of her mother — and, ultimately, the building of a life of joy, purpose and unashamed power on the other side.
Brutal. Honest. Tender. Necessary.
“There are stories that need to be told, not because they are easy, but precisely because they are hard. Unfathered is one of them. It is Cassandra’s own story, but it is also the story of many black people whose first contact with trauma began at home long before it was defined by the structural constructs of an unjust world. It is a story about the silence that many continue to maintain to protect family members who harm them — and to give absolution to those who do not deserve it. But it is also a story about the honesty, empathy and self-compassion that genuine healing demands. And this is the greatest gift that the book bestows upon all of us — the gift of being seen, our pain being given a name, and our experiences being validated. This matters not only because black pain has always been subjected to minimisation and erasure, but because pain continues until someone is brave enough to feel it. With this book, Cassandra is being brave for all of us.”
“The axe forgets. But the tree remembers. And this tree has finally decided to speak.”
Cassandra Gudlhuza is a prominent South African media personality, former journalist, and business executive. Following an illustrious career writing for major national publications like the Sunday Times and City Press, she transitioned to business media where she was part of the team that launched Forbes Africa.
Today, she is the founder and Managing Director of Black Circle Communications, servicing clients in government, corporate, retail and nonprofit sectors. She is a sought-after communications strategist, reputation specialist, editor, copywriter, and media trainer. Unfathered is her debut book.
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