Crown of the Desert Heart

Set in the early 1980s during the final years of apartheid South Africa, Crown of the Desert Heart follows the emotional and identity-driven journey of Mariah Abrahams, a young Coloured woman from Kimberley who travels to the Bophuthatswana homeland in search of long-buried family truths. When she is hired as a seamstress for a royal Tswana family’s harvest festival, she discovers that she may be more than just an outsider—she may be the daughter of a missing Tswana royal. As Mariah unravels secrets hidden in photographs, whispers, and ancestral memories, she finds herself drawn to Princess Dineo, the guarded but passionate heir to the royal house. Their growing bond—set against the backdrop of cultural tradition, political tension, and a nation in flux—threatens the norms of royal duty and challenges the expectations placed on identity, class, and love. Through heartbreak, healing, and rediscovery, Crown of the Desert Heart is a deeply personal tale of legacy, love, and what it means to belong—told through the eyes of two women on opposite sides of a crown they never asked to wear.

Disclaimer: This show may contain expletives, strong language, and mature content for adult listeners, including sexually explicit content and themes of violence. This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to real persons, businesses, places or events is coincidental. This show is not intended to offend or defame any individual, entity, caste, community, race, religion or to denigrate any institution or person, living or dead. Listener's discretion is advised.Less