In Braids & Migraines, the newest publication from Holland House Books, South African writer Andile Cele delivers a striking and emotionally resonant debut that explores the intersecting struggles of race, mental health, and identity through the voice of a young Black girl navigating the unforgiving social terrain of post-apartheid South Africa.

Andile Cele, a runner up for the Island Prize in 2023, greatly impressed the judges who called the early manuscript “A novel of insight and emotion. Cele has the talent to both shatter and uplift, making her an invaluable new voice in South African literature.”

At the heart of the novel is Nomandla, a teenager from the township of Ziyabuya whose scholarship to the elite Cameron House for Girls in Durban is supposed to be a ticket to a better life. Instead, it becomes a battleground.

From the outset, Cele immerses us in Nomandla’s world—one shaped by poverty, grief, and resilience. Told in an intimate first-person voice, Nomandla’s journey unfolds with brutal honesty and tender introspection. The scholarship that is meant to lift her out of hardship instead places her under a microscope. At Cameron House, she is not celebrated for her intelligence or individuality, but rather displayed as a symbol of institutional “transformation” and racial unity. Her presence is commodified, her culture reduced to spectacle.

Cele does not flinch from depicting the psychological cost of this tokenism. Nomandla is not only grappling with the expectations of her new environment but also haunted—literally and figuratively—by visions and trauma stemming from her sister Treasure’s death. Her mental health deteriorates, leading to hospitalization and further alienation. The novel’s exploration of grief, loss, and psychological fragility is powerful and necessary, especially within the often-silenced context of Black mental health.

Yet Braids & Migraines is not a story of defeat. In fact, its strength lies in its emotional range—moving between rage and vulnerability, sorrow and joy. A scene in which students question the relevance of reading The Catcher in the Rye—a canonical Western text—instead of works from African authors, is particularly telling. It highlights Cele’s sharp critique of colonial legacies in education, and the importance of storytelling that reflects the lived experiences of its readers.

Nomandla’s Saturdays with her father—gardening at the Smiths’ home—introduce a complex relationship with Casey, a white girl whose actions upend Nomandla’s fragile hopes. This dynamic brings race, privilege, and betrayal into sharp relief. Through Casey and the environment of Cameron House, Cele carefully dissects the veneer of post-racial South Africa, revealing deeply embedded inequalities and microaggressions that still define many lives.

What lifts the novel, even in its darkest moments, is the lyrical care with which Cele handles the metaphor of Black girlhood, symbolized in Nomandla’s longing for braids. Hair becomes a site of memory, beauty, and defiance—a way for Nomandla to reclaim power in a world that so often seeks to strip it from her.

As Nigerian British author Rachel Edwards, who was also a judge for the 2023 Island Prize, puts it beautifully in the foreword to the novel:

The beauty of this novel is that while it takes a close-up look at human strife, in doing so it shines a light on the humanity we all share. Hopeful, hard, as honest about pain as it is about love, Braids & Migraines takes seemingly unmanageable strands of life and weaves them into something altogether more uplifting.

Andi Cele has a degree in Journalism from the Tshwane University of Technology, and a Creative Writing and Theory of Literature degree from the University of South Africa. She is an MA candidate at Stellenbosch University, and is the current holder of the Gwen Knowles-Williams Bursary, administered by the English Academy of Southern Africa. Her short fiction has been published in Botsotso and Short.Sharp.Stories.

Get your copy of Braids & Migraines here!