Alicia Mdaka
My aunts Robina and Theresa lived with us in my grandmother's mud house, with their children. Every day they would lash out at me, slapping me for all the things I did wrong. Their children could do nothing wrong but I could do nothing right, even though I was doing my best in my chores, milking the cows and helping to plough the fields.
One incident makes me laugh when I remember it now. I was sent to the shop and got distracted on the way back, starting to play ball. When I got home my granny gave me a lecture about being late. Some of her words really stuck. 'You know what, my granddaughter? The early bird catches the fattest worm,' she told me.
I took her words to heart and soon, when no one was looking, I went poking around in the ground, looking for the fattest worm. The truth is, I didn't really know what on earth she was talking about. But oh, those years were horrible and the unhappiness I was feeling made me question myself. 'Other children are happy with their grandmothers. Why not me?' I started to wonder. 'Is there something wrong with me? What is the point of my life? Why was I even born?'
Nothando Kbukeli
I had grown up looking after my father's goats, sheep and cows in the mountains on his farm, Kleinplaas, near Cradock in the Eastern Cape. It was a big farm, with hundreds of animals. My sister and I looked after them together and we were very happy. For me, childhood was a wonderful time. My father was a wealthy man because he had so much livestock.
My brother had gone off to Johannesburg to look for work, which left only my sister and me to look after the animals. So my father took me out of school after I had completed Standard Three, to help him. My mother was not happy about it. She said, 'You need to go to school because you will need an education later on in your life.' But my father, who loved me deeply, disagreed and let me look after the animals.
Tenjiwe Tutu
When you are mixed children from many families all staying together, then when something goes wrong they point to you. And when you're a child you don't understand why. My aunt had a son who was just a little bigger than my sister, and he was a very naughty boy. When they played together he would hit her, just taking a chance, because she was smaller than him.
She cried and went to my aunt, but my aunt took no notice. I felt very sore for Nothemba. There was also a daughter who was older than me and was full of lies. She would tell my aunt that I said bad words about her and was hanging around with lots of boys. My aunt took a stick and beat me, not just once but until I was lying on the ground.
By Jo-Anne Smetherham