Olive Trees Around My Table

Olive Trees Around My Table is the warm-hearted and moving story of Cecile Yazbek, a Lebanese girl growing up in South Africa under the shadow of apartheid.

Cecile is born into a household of Arabic, English, Xhosa and Afrikaans. It is a unique world of Catholic nuns, sumptuous Lebanese food, and an army of household servants all with a great capacity for love and warmth. Her life is filled with extraordinary experiences: learning to smoke at the tender age of three; overhearing the whispered stories of ANC-trained freedom fighters smuggled in by Eastern Bloc submarines; and brushes with the secret police.

Cecile conveys her family's awareness of the injustices perpetrated in their society. She recounts how streams of people approached her father in desperation, seeking legal aid - hers is a family prepared to use its privileged position to take action. Her father's connection to the anti-apartheid newspaper editor Donald Woods reflecting his strong beliefs. Eventually the trauma of these events leads Cecile to the crushing decision to one day leave South Africa, a decision her family would oppose.

Olive Trees Around My Table is a poignantly human story, and in it Cecile vividly describes how the long arm of racism destroyed the lives of those around her.

As she settles into her life in Australia, Cecile reflects on her grandparents' migration from Lebanon to South Africa at the turn of the twentieth century, the memories of her own Lebanese-African childhood furnishing her new life with richness, strength and resilience.