Written Out: The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala

Written Out: The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala by Joel Cabrita tells the story of Regina Gelana Twala, a Black South African writer, anthropologist, and intellectual whose work was largely forgotten after her death in 1968. Twala was a prolific writer who spoke about race, gender, class, politics, and African society, but racism and sexism prevented her from receiving the recognition she deserved. Cabrita uses Twala’s letters, family papers, newspapers, interviews, and other archives to reconstruct her life and show how her contributions were deliberately or indirectly erased by white academics, editors, apartheid officials, and male political figures.

A major theme of the book is who gets remembered in history and who gets left out. Cabrita argues that Twala was not simply forgotten by accident; the academic and political systems around her made it difficult for a Black woman to have authority over her own ideas and writing. At the same time, Cabrita reflects on her own position as a white historian writing about a Black African woman and recognizes that even trying to restore Twala’s story can repeat some of the power dynamics that originally silenced her. Ultimately, Written Out works to bring Twala’s intellectual legacy back into view while showing why it is important to question whose voices have traditionally been included in history.