Held, Portrait of the Black Family, a memoir by Lulama Mali (with Hlonipha Mokoena)
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"I write from a place of scarring instead of being wounded."
Professor Hlonipha Mokoena sits down with writer, cultural worker and music industry professional Lulama Mali for a rich, unhurried conversation on her debut memoir Held: A Portrait of the Black Family. They talk about the choice of memoir as a form, the freedom of writing from memory rather than fact, and Lulama's deliberate use of words like "sacred", "quiet" and "silence" to invite the reader into a particular mood. Hlonipha presses on the word "portrait" in the title, and Lulama unpacks how, growing up as a photographer, she came to think of family as a collage, made up of many hands and many households. The conversation moves through township life, mother's union Thursdays, and the raising of black children in community rather than nuclear isolation.
Lulama Mali's debut memoir is Held: A Portrait of the Black Family. At its heart, Held is the story of a girl raised by her grandparents in a house where grief and jazz shared the air, where books and politics coexisted with the daily rhythms of survival, and where abundance was measured not in wealth but in ritual, memory, and care.
Lulama Mali is a writer, cultural worker and music industry professional. She is the founder and managing director of Round Square Management and Consultancy, working across artist management, A&R, performance photography, and creative activism.
Professor Hlonipha Mokoena is a historian and the Director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER). She is the author of The Nightwatchman: Representing Black Men in Colonial South Africa (Wits University Press) and Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual.
Professor Hlonipha Mokoena sits down with writer, cultural worker and music industry professional Lulama Mali for a rich, unhurried conversation on her debut memoir Held: A Portrait of the Black Family. They talk about the choice of memoir as a form, the freedom of writing from memory rather than fact, and Lulama's deliberate use of words like "sacred", "quiet" and "silence" to invite the reader into a particular mood. Hlonipha presses on the word "portrait" in the title, and Lulama unpacks how, growing up as a photographer, she came to think of family as a collage, made up of many hands and many households. The conversation moves through township life, mother's union Thursdays, and the raising of black children in community rather than nuclear isolation.
Lulama Mali's debut memoir is Held: A Portrait of the Black Family. At its heart, Held is the story of a girl raised by her grandparents in a house where grief and jazz shared the air, where books and politics coexisted with the daily rhythms of survival, and where abundance was measured not in wealth but in ritual, memory, and care.
Lulama Mali is a writer, cultural worker and music industry professional. She is the founder and managing director of Round Square Management and Consultancy, working across artist management, A&R, performance photography, and creative activism.
Professor Hlonipha Mokoena is a historian and the Director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER). She is the author of The Nightwatchman: Representing Black Men in Colonial South Africa (Wits University Press) and Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual.
