Hi, Zoleka

by Gcina Mhlophe

"Hi, Zoleka friends call. But Zoleka has something on her mind. So she walks quietly with her mother and her little brother to church. Will she remember all the words of the verse she has to recite for the Palm Sunday service?" Children's picture book about a little Girl in South Africa.

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 1998

About the author

Born in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal in 1960, Gcina Mhlope now lives in Johannesburg. Gcina Mhlope has been writing and performing on stage and screen for over 20 years. She has written many children's books as well as adult audience poetry, short stories and plays. She produced and performed on a CD for children with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. She has written music for the SABCTV series Gcina & Friends where she performed her own stories for television audiences.

In 2000 she released an award-winning storytelling CD called Fudukazi's Magic for German audiences. She has also written both story and music in collaboration with guitarist, Bheki Khoza, for the Animated Tales of the World TV series. In 2001 her CD and book of Nozincwadi Mother of Books was produced as part of her nationwide reading road show to South African rural schools. Her work has received awards from BBC Africa Service for Radio Drama, The Fringe First Award in the Edinburgh Festival, the Josef Jefferson Award in Chicago, and OBBIE in New York.

Gcina Mhlophe has received Honorary Doctorates from the London Open University as well as the University of Natal. This year sees the publication of her book and CD, African Mother Christmas by Maskew Miller Longman, as well as the re-publication of Love Child (now in English), and Have You Seen Zandile by University of Natal Press. Her work has contributed to preserving storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and has encouraged South African children to read.

Reviews

[Khanyie]

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[LeAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any child who has had to speak in public will identify with Zoleka's fear of saying her Bible verse in front of the whole church on Palm Sunday. We see her practicing during the week, "Bavumeleni abantwana beze kum." Only on Sunday do we English readers learn that the verse is Jesus' words inviting the little children to come to him. The setting is a small rural town. The church could be Anglican.