Thicker than sorrow by Khadija Heeger

In this much anticipated second collection, Thicker than Sorrow, Khadija Heeger focuses on appreciating and honouring her roots and unearthing her history.

Her work has the wisdom and power of a griot, a seer, and a storyteller. When she speaks her words in person, she has an incantatory power, which can be felt in the words on the page.

In rummaging through the drawers and closets of her blood family and the family she has chosen, the poet discovers inspiration and beauty in the most ordinary places: a bowl of rice, a kitchen, a daisy chain, a sunflower garden, a galvanised bath. The poems reveal a poet who is, “falling in love with my roots & me, life. And it’s just the beginning. I am a multitude of voyages.”

She looks at the past as a map, a way of understanding the present, she looks for the treasures in her past and her family and community. Things that survived the heartless brutality of apartheid and colonialism.