Kamogelo Masoga confronts parental abandonment in her novel The Bastard Child

Kamogelo Masoga, a 28-year-old author from Mmotwaneng village in Sekhukhune, Limpopo, drew on growing up without a father to write The Bastard Child. She says she sought out her father, who showed neither remorse nor happiness when they reunited, and eventually accepted he would not be the father she needed and forgave him without an apology. The novel follows Keith, rejected by both parents and raised by his grandmother; her death leaves him without the love and stability she provided. Masoga aims to show the consequences of parents’ decisions and the unanswered questions children face when a parent is absent.