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In 1856 the young AmaXhosa prophetess, Nongqawuse, was visited by ancestors who revealed that the spirits of the dead would rise up and drive the occupying European settlers into the sea. This, on condition that all cattle belonging to the AmaXhosa people be slaughtered and homes, crops and grain stores destroyed. All would be replenished and made new, without the diseases brought by the settlers to the AmaXhosa herds. Nongqawuse’s vision was interpreted and preached by her uncle, the renowned seer, Mhlakaza. The prophecy was circulated and widely taken up by the AmaXhosa population living in the region now known as the Eastern Cape, particularly amongst the Gcaleka, and resulted in what is referred to as the Cattle Killing Movement of 1956-57.
Herbert Dhlomo’s play, “The Girl Who Killed To Save” (1935), imagines the circumstances that led to the slaughter of an estimated 200 000 cattle and the subsequent deaths of an estimated 20 000 people. The first play to be published in English by a black writer in South Africa, “The Girl Who Killed To Save” is one of a series of texts, censored or banned during apartheid, to be painstakingly brought back into print by Bridge Books through archival material. The new edition pairs the play with Dhlomo’s epic poem “Valley of a Thousand Hills” (1941) and will be launched at the independent Johannesburg bookstore on 27 May as part of the Open Studios Joburg programme.
In response to the text, contemporary artist Mongezi Ncombo has produced fluid and energetic line drawings, which resonate with Dhlomo’s description of the unique contribution made by black theatrical creations to modern drama in 1933: “...strong, fast rhythm, speedy action, expressive vigorous gesture and movement…”. Ncombo’s drawings are incorporated into the publication and prints will be available at the launch.
Nongqawuse’s story has formed the basis of numerous novels, historical texts and other creative works. Zakes Mda’s novel ‘Heart of Redness’ (2000) moves through time to make connections between the illusions of Nongqawuse and dreams of democracy in post-apartheid South Africa. ‘The Dead Will Arise’ (1989) by Jeff Pieres is a non-fiction account that draws on oral traditions, private letters, police reports and other obscure sources in an attempt to understand and contextualise the cattle killings. Perhaps the earliest text to use
fictional means to tell the story of Nongqawuse, Dhlomo’s “The Girl Who Killed to Save” humanises the events surrounding the cattle killings and their aftermath through the reflections of a doubt-filled and anxious Nongqawuse, her confident uncle and interpreter of her visions, Mhlakaza, a frothing missionary, and various colonial administrators and their servants.
While the grave impact of the cattle killings on the lives, livelihoods and political position of the AmaXhosa is brought into sharp focus in the play, the suggestion that the AmaXhosa need to be absolved of archaic traditions in order to progress, looms over the narrative unambiguously.
In the foreword to Bridge Books’ new edition, South African author and journalist Fred Khumalo writes: “Looked at through today’s lens, it can readily be dismissed as the work of an Uncle Tom, a black apologist for the abuses perpetrated by colonialists on the African person’s dignity and history. But when it came out, it rattled many as it was the work of a black man who went on a limb and sought to tell the story from a black person’s perspective, notwithstanding his privileged and Christianised background.”
Khumalo goes on to describe Dhlomo’s poem “The Valley of a Thousand Hills” as part of a more radical turn in the politics of its author, who used his work to “...depict the frustrations among Black South African intellectuals by the mid-30’s of White liberals, whose ‘support’ was now perceived more as an instrument of Black subordination, than a means for their reprisal.”
Herbert E. Dhlomo (1903-1956) was a prolific journalist, dramatist, poet and political activist who strongly believed in the capacity for art to affect social and political change. From a young age, he wrote for local newspapers such as ‘Bantu World’ and ‘Ilanga laseNatal’. The latter was established by John Langalibalele Dube, the founding president of the African Native National Congress, which later became the ANC. “At a time when no one had spoken of the writer as an activist - at least not in the South African context - Dhlomo was already living that reality unashamedly”, writes Khumalo.
Through its promotion of South African and African literature and commitment to engaging the community in which it operates, Bridge Books is ideologically well-suited to address the scarcity of publications by authors like Dhlomo, whose work has all but disappeared from the literary landscape in South Africa. “Our goal is to get these books back into circulation. You can find these books but it will be one copy in a University collection that is falling apart,” explains Natasha France, publishing coordinator at Bridge Books.
It’s not without difficulty that Bridge Books secured the funding and support to realise this and other similar projects. “It was quite a lengthy process, because we have to access the books (which is a challenge on its own), scan every page, retype every page and then re-design the book itself,” continues France.
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