My first published book, A Woman, Once a Girl- Breaking Silence is a life gift for women and girls

The time to break silence is right here and now. Womanhood and motherhood are under attack!!!!

A mother experienced violence, and her daughter, aged six, stood up and urged her to report. She suppressed her voice and silenced her poetically with a “Shh, we don’t say domestic things in public.” A few years later, the mother died in cold blood after heavy beatings by her husband. It led Betty Makoni to be a mother at age nine, and the book takes readers through a journey of inner pain that is unleashed when she becomes a globally acclaimed activist.

The journey Betty Makoni has trod leaves permanent and visible footsteps. Today, her poetry book takes a new approach to self-empowerment by presenting breaking culture of silence—poetic prose verses in short story form. Easy to read and yet very powerful for reflection and evoking you. The stories are personal experiences, and there is a poem for everyone to easily connect to a situation similar to their own experiences.

The poetic prose storybook is a forerunner of Betty Makoni’s official much-awaited biography. Her trials and tribulations as she tried to be a woman, a leader, a wife, and a mother and balance all these roles is an open testimony. Transitioning from being a girl to becoming a woman is with hurdles and hardships, and A Woman, Once a Girl: Breaking Silence takes a sigh of relief that mission is accomplished as one overcomes gender inequality and wars being fought against their bodies and breaks vicious cycles of poverty and gender-based violence.

Using simple poetic verse, she has shared everyday stories that may be taken for granted and yet can undermine an individual’s abilities. This book is for anyone defending their rights and those of the most vulnerable. It speaks to you to keep positive energy.

Two verses of her opening poem entitled, Anger made me a poet she sums what the book is about.

When it hurts my heart
I find poetry soothing
Then I feel a sharpest phew
A release and a relief
I let go anger
It mocks and mops
I let go tears and they are wiped away
When I feel disappointed I use poetry to reappoint
I rejoin poetically

Here then is poetry for passion
Poetry to make and not break
Poetry to touch and not torture
Poetry I breathe and bring
Poetry I play and party
Poetry I pass on
Poetry I put right here

According to Betty Makoni, We are born victorious and not victims.
This poetry book gives a holistic empowerment package to those feeling hopeless, rejected, abused, and undermined in any way. The poems are real-life experiences that you can always derive inspiration from.

(Order a copy here http://bookstore.trafford.com/Products/SKU-000526911/A-Woman-Once-a-Girl...)

Book cover shows little Betty Makoni aged 6 and her later mother. That was Betty when she was forced to be silent and once a girl. Now she is grown into an activist)