Search results for ""Author Nomavenda Mathiane""

'1879, the year in which I grew up faster than I could shout my name. That year was the one in which we experienced events and encounters that no one, particularly a child, should ever witness. It was also the year my people lost everything – their land and fields – and were reduced to being vagrants and beggars in the land of their birth.I am the daughter of Mqokotshwa Makhoba, one of King Cetshwayo's generals of the iNgobamakhosi regiment, he named me Nombhosho, which means bullet. He said I would come out of any situation fast and unscathed, like a bullet…'Nomavenda Mathiane stumbled upon her grandmother's story well over a century after the gruelling events of the Battle of Isandlwana that formed her life. Astounded to hear how her grandmother had survived the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War between the British and Zulu nations as a young girl, Mathiane spent hours with her elder sisters reconstructing the extraordinary life of their grandmother. The result is a sweeping epic of both personal and political battles. Eyes in the Night is a young Zulu woman's story of drama, regret, guilt and, ultimately, triumph – set against the backdrop of a Zululand changed beyond recognition. A true story almost lost, but for a chance remark at a family gathering.

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This volume is a fascinating collection of pieces by South African journalist Nomavenda Mathiane. Unlike much that is written about South Africa, these pieces are very personal observations and reflections based on day-to-day experiences. They range from descriptions of the horrors of 'necklacing' (the practice of placing a car tire about the body of an alleged informer or collaborator and setting it afire with gasoline), to the joy of a new birth, to the heartbreak of a mother whose son murders a neighborhood peer. Ms. Mathiane's analysis of politics and education is must reading for anyone who cares about the effects of apartheid. Her frequently pungent and controversial views have won for her an ever-widening audience in South Africa and other African countries. She deserves to be better known in other countries as well.

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