Born in Chains

Just like in the squatter camp in Atteridgeville, there was no electricity in our new home. But here it was very different: it was safe. Only years later I figured out why the crime rate was so low in our village: there was nothing to steal.

Born in Chains is a first-hand account of living in abject poverty in South Africa. Clinton Chauke was born in 1994 into a Vatsonga household and has faced all the challenges of growing up at the edges of society: first in rural Limpopo, then in a village bordering the Kruger National Park, and finally in a squatter camp near Pretoria.

Navigating a world of racism and tribalism and confronting urban life as a country ‘bumpkin’, the author depicts the lifelines and pitfalls of a young life: going to school, coming to terms with tradition, religion and politics, becoming a man and – ultimately – finding his identity as a young black person in South Africa.

Uncompromising, honest and witty, Chauke’s memoir is a story of hope and perseverance and of succeeding against all the odds.