Nwelezelanga: The Star Child

by Unathi Magubeni

With a rich vocabulary that is poetic and uncluttered, this debut novel is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is both a well-written and philosophical book. The story begins with Nokwakha giving birth at her village home, and when it is discovered that the child is an albino the midwife convinces her that it is a curse and she should snuff the life out of it before it takes another breath. The dreadful deed is done by the river, but the ‘all-knowing one’ has other plans … With an assured voice and eloquent prose, Magubeni invites us into the life of this extraordinary being, Nwelezelanga, the child who should not have been, contrasting the themes of darkness and light, embracing the unknown and unseen in a way no one else has – or can.

Genres: South Africa

200 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2016

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book under a bit of pressure. I am in-between exams and the book was on loan from Exclusive Books, Rosebank.

I finished the book two days ago, closed it and exhaled. Unathi's prose is so lyrical. So melodious. The subject matter is a "thing" so well known in black communities worldwide. An Albino is said to possess powers. Magical powers. Healing powers. Therapeutic powers.

Unathi transports us through a world of magic. Black magic. Healing magic.
Nwelezelanga's entrance into this world was traumatic. Yanked out of her mother's womb and flung into a river. To die. To cease to exist but was protected by the very magic others would kill for to be rescued and live with a family which valued her. Her being. Her worth. Her preciousness. Like any other child.

We see her grow and develop into her translucency. Her ability to live between realms. The physical and spiritual worlds. She is a seer this Nwelezelanga of ours. She sees the torment and anguish which has become her birth mother's life. The guilt which slowly suffocates the life out of her and she rescues her.

A beautifully written book. Unathi has a firm grip on the subject matter. Through this book, the sangoma is demystified. The sangoma is shown as a healer. As an intercessor with our ancestors. As a prayer warrior. As a giver of life. We are also shown te sangoma as a deceiver. As someone who uses her God given talent of herbs, roots, medicine, spirituality to bring harm. To destroy. Like a thief in the night, to steal.

Kudos to Unathi for bringing African mysticism to our level .Healing is in all of us. A kind word here. A hug there. The universe is always workin with us for us. Looking forward to more stories.

[Tumelo Moleleki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am perplexed by this story. This is tragic. I cannot decipher anything from this story. Most of the time I was not sure what I was being told but I found that I understood some of it. I cannot say I know what this child came to do in the physical world as it is not clear to me what she came to fulfill. Was it to stop the killing of albino people? Was it to bring death to the Midwife who killed all infant albinos that were born under her surveillance and sacrificed those that we somehow able to escape death by the luck of the draw? At the end of this story I am left with many questions of what I could have gleaned from the story. Perhaps it is to understand the ways of those who believe in ukuthwasa... perhaps it is to tell me that I am fooling myself by thinking that I am not a god? I just wonder...

I think the story could have provided more meat to the bones... I feel like Nwelezelanga's suffering in the physical world due to her albinism was not depicted as horrid as I have heard it to be. She experienced the same kind of ostracizing that is experienced by children who are rejected by society because they are too ugly, too dark, perceived to have senyama, of some unfortunate child that some believer in medicine made from human parts preys on. She was mocked, I was mocked. She herded cattle, I herded cattle. She collected water from rivers and wells, I did the same. She collected firewood, I did the same. She hoed maize fields, I did that and more.

I was never invoked to sympathize with her even though her mother threw her away because to her it did not result in any suffering and she somehow expected it.

I give it 2 stars because it was written in simple easy to understand language. I think perhaps I am just not capable of appreciating this kind of story. Or maybe it is the Christian in me that rejects the notions in this story.

I hope the next book Unathi writes will not be so confusing to me because I wish to support him.

[Zina · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the opening lines, this book reminded me of K Sello Duiker’s “Thirteen Cents”, and even as I continued reading it, so much of Nkwenkwezi reminded me of “Blue”.

Reading this book felt like a revision of my childhood, which I appreciated so much! The use of names I grew up being mentioned, especially those related to the “Underworld”, things that were used to scare naughty kids away😂 (I swear I never thought they were actually real!), ukwelusa, spending time ploughing the fields. Those were things my sister, dad and I spent time doing, and it was such a joy to know that they exist in a book.

Then there is the simplicity of the writing. I’m such a sucker for simple but powerful writing, and Unathi did that so beautifully! The extensive research into all aspects of spirituality- both the good and bad, the use of language to invoke imagery. This was so simple to manoeuvre because I have existed in the spaces I mentioned in the book, as a child who grew up ezilalini. I connected so much with the book.

And I loved how validated Nkwenkwezi was by her mother. So often, spiritually gifted children are outcasts, but Nwelezelanga had a safe space in her mother and family. She was loved, she was listened to, and she was protected. That was such a highlight for me! Her mom!? Give that woman the world.

And uNokwakha!? Oh honey, she proved me wrong! I was so wrong to think that usisi was a weakling. She fought the good fight for her child, and I admired her for the. One of my favourite characters from the book.

This book is by no means an unputdownable, but it’s a book you definitely should read. It’s got so many lessons on spirituality, on chasing dreams and our overall being. It’s also got quotables to get you through life. My favourite: “Remove the malady of self-doubt and move forth with conviction…”
What a joyous read!🥺❤️

[Sarah Key · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having completed Unathi Magubeni’s lyrical novel, ‘Nwelezelanga, The Star Child’ one is left with much to ponder. Nwelezelanga is a young albino girl, rescued from near drowning in the Umfolozi River. Her birth mother, Nokwakha, has the misfortune of falling into the clutches of a wicked midwife - a terrifying character - who ‘descended to the lower ranks of the underworld and served the world of suffering and black magic.’ Luckily, the star child is saved from death by her adoptive mother, a sangoma.

The author draws on daily activities of clan life, in rural South Africa, as the backdrop to the story. One gets a clear sense of life that is hard, yet centred around a close family unit that, interesting for a male author, only includes the female line. From tiling the soil, to looking after herds, and collecting fire wood, the characters ‘work to stay alive and keep up with the earth’s heartbeat.

Multiple themes are stitched into the rich prose. These include the complexities of being called, ubizo, by ancestors to train as a traditional healer. Attempts to awaken the selected person’s awareness might include hallucinations and mental disturbances. Magubeni also presents the importance of the recognition of the wisdom of sages exemplified in the time Nwelezelanga spends with Nomkhubulwana who ‘showers [her] with wisdom, filling [her] cup from her overflowing knowledge about the book of life.’

The boundless love felt by mothers, for their daughters, is another theme poignantly developed in the story. Nokwakha, the biological mother, is plagued by regret and ‘drunk with depression’ as a result of agreeing to kill her newborn child. Nokwatha is taken on a heart-stopping, perilous journey and must fight for her life. Only when she opens her heart, and pleads to the divine spirits and entities of light, does she find solace. The discrimination faced by, and plight of albino children, and the fact that they are targeted for muti killings, is highlighted as an unacceptable practice.

Unathi Magubeni is a writer who, clearly, has spent much time on his own mystical journey refining his metaphysical paradigm. His characters access portals to the spirit land, either working for good or evil. Nuggets of wisdom glisten throughout the story that resonate with spiritual people of all persuasion – ‘Blessed are the meek and ego-less, for they inherit the divine power,’ and ‘Be humble to the supreme, there’s power in complete surrender. Everything else is secondary. You are connected to the source.’

This thought provoking and, I found, comforting tale reminds us that there, surely, has to be more than one dimensional reality. The author’s reference point is ancestral spirits who reincarnate, their never-ending energy re-birthing in many forms, both human and natural. His book gives us hope and encouragement by reminding us, in his beautiful writing, that ‘inside us lies a radiance, a most magnificent presence and it is this inner essence that we all justly desire and seek union with.’

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nwelezelanga is an albino child who wasn't supposed to live. Her biological mother Nokwaka had been deceived and convinced by a wicked midwife to throw the new born in the Umfozi River in order to avoid a bad omen to the entire village. Luckily for the child, she is saved from drowning by a Sangoma who raises her like her own. The author shows us the daily life and activities of clan life, filled with ancient knowledge, African wisdom. We witness the complexities of being called by the ancestors to teach the living dead how to heal people traditionally, to bring awareness to mental disturbances, to be an interpreter of dreams etc... So many themes are packed in such a small book (128p) but I really enjoyed every words in it. It is spiritual, traditional, philosophical and above all rooted in Bantu culture. #Whatnottolove ?

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetic writing transported me through this painful, exhilarating and hopeful story. A mix of magical realism and mysticism, it is both a strange and deeply thoughtful journey. It is an insight into South African spiritualism as told through the very real and disturbing context of an albino person living in a deeply hostile society. Magubeni may be creating, and is certainly an excellent exponent of, a mystical, otherworldly genre of South African writing.

[Tumelo Motaung · Rating 3 out of 5]



I was walking, on the morning after I read Unathi Magubeni’s Nwelezelanga, when a young lady carrying a child on her back met my way. She was playfully asking the little girl if she had eaten, and the baby would reply, “No, no.”, and again the mother would tease, “Ojele?” and the baby would laugh. This amused me; and as I was taking it all in, she complimented me on my own bulging tummy and went on her way. So surprised was I that all I could utter in response was a thank you entwined with a chuckle before she passed me. I had just enough time to notice that the beautiful little girl on her back, pink head band and all, was an albino child. “Nwelezelanga!” I thought aloud, bringing a very wide smile to my face.
I started reading Nwelezelanga as an escape from Ellen Kuzwayo’s Call Me Woman, which I found a little heavy for the space I was in. The book, which was noted by Tshepo Masuku of the Book Club Society as one of the best they’ve so far read, was on my bedside table, and so I jumped right in. Evading sleep on those two nights was not a very hard thing to do. I excitedly hung on to every word of the text.
The first chapter in the book is complete draw-in, hooking and slowly reeling you in with enchantments of a spirit world. Even after Niq Mhlongo, at a reading of his short-story collection, Affluenza, warned me of the dangers of comparing literature, I couldn’t help think back to Ben Okri’s The Famished Road, which had a similar effect of my senses. Very early on you realise that this too is about those of us Okri describes as “the strange ones, with half our beings always in the spirit world.”
Nwelezelanga, is about the journey of a little girl who, because of her mystical powers, finds herself tangled in web of good and evil. Again separated from her spirit companions, she is born into “the world of the walking dead”, this time at the hands of a midwife who manages to convince her mother that an albino child is a curse. She is then, at her mother’s dismay, discarded into the mighty Umfolozi River before villager ears are blessed by the din of her neonate cries.
I’ve experienced the cycle of birth and death many more times that I care to count. I’ve donned and shredded many skin colours in my lifetime. I’ve lived the lives of many; the lives of the poor and the healers of Bantu and served the divine purpose in countless ways.
I was interested to see how Magubeni would go into issues of the spirit world without crossing sacred boundaries such as those said to have bestowed the crown of “outcast” upon Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa’s head when he published the marvelous Indaba, My Children. Magubeni, in what is described as “rich and poetic, yet uncluttered, vocabulary”, finds ways to slither into the deepest parts of one’s self-hood; forcing up thoughts of existence and purpose, without harrowing too deep into forbidden waters; just enough to hold one’s interest without losing them to the complexities of worlds unknown to the naked eye.
The best thing about this book, for me, is how Magubeni treats the subject of differently-abled children. While society still strives for normality, Magubeni, reminds all of us who are born normal, that there is nothing extraordinary about us; that it is those we are tend to discard as misfits who are the rulers of the cosmos. He also reminds those of us born of the moon of who we truly are; urging us to make space for dreams gone unexplained, the visions that often blind our sanity, and the voices of our spirit companions calling to us from a world beyond this one. The book, in a subtle way, calls us to embrace our god-self.
Over a period of time, the midwife noticed that there were special souls being born across the land; babies that had old souls and an incredible awareness of what is. These children were in some way handicapped for reasons she couldn’t comprehend. Some couldn’t speak properly and had difficulty in communicating verbally. Others were deaf and some were blind; they were born as outcasts but had the uncanny ability to see things that others couldn’t see.
It was also interesting to note that he pays attention to the pressures placed on women to bear children. This is something I recently came across in Taiye Selasie’s The Sex Lives of African Girls, which bears the recurring line “In the peculiar hierarchy of African households the only rung lower than motherless child is childless mother”; and again in Sol Plaatji’s Mhudi, where Queen Mnandi is forced to flee her land because of the ridicule from her fellow wife. In Nwelezelanga it is Nokwakha who loses her husband because she is not able to bear him children. “Bless me with a child, my lord, and I will be forever grateful,” she cried. “What is the use of a wife if she can’t bear children?”
Magubeni also brings us face to face with the ying and yang of African spirituality, giving life once more to the darkness that lived in the stories of our childhoods. Stories such as Belerutwane, the imp who, at the darkest of night would steal away the naughty children and transport them to the kingdom of Lord Bubi, ruler of the underworld, he who “robs souls of their divinity and true magnificence”. He brings back the dark high priest and priestess, Mpundulu and Mthakathi, who tirelessly carryout his evil plans by sowing self-doubt in the minds of the children of light.
In this splendor that is riddled with proverbs, Magubeni - who is a sangoma and trainee herbalist based in the Eastern Cape, makes an effort to end some chapters with a short prayer, reminding the reader that he too, in his role as author is only a messenger; that an all-knowing God exists.
A fantastic read, which adds value to the almost uninhibited library of African traditional writing. This is one you’ll want to read to your children, and them to their children many years on. Camagu.


[Iryna Paprotska · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in Namibia looking for something that would help me understand and get to know local beliefs and way of thinking of tribal people. I was curious about how albino people are treated in Africa too. So this book cough my eye.

The book was not really what I thought it would be, but it was a nice story. What I gathered from this story is a bit of a way of thinking and some ideas about beliefs.

As all people in the world characters of this book also believe that that "Everything happens for a reason within the grand design of the natural splendor; we live and we learn and precious experience we earn"

What got confirmed for me here is all of the stories about albino people are true. Here are a few short abstract examples:
"I was informed of another terrible tragedy where a stepfather sold his stepdaughter. He was involved in the planning of hey abduction and chopped off her arms but she lived to tell the tale. The incident left her traumatized and she was never quite the same. She is mentally disturbed and has never got over the ordeal"
"There is an active cabal of witches who peddle and perpetuate dark spirits in our land, They sacrifice children with albinism to appease dark lords"
"Our children are killed and maimed for the purpose of those who believe that they will gain power and success as a result of taking a mixture of medicine made from human parts. Children with albinism are raped in the hope of curing sexually transmitted diseases and for other obscure healing purposes at birth to avoid the stigma"
"Families are motivated to kill their children with albinism at birth to avoid the stigma’ Mama serves another dose of the crazy reality"
"Children with albinism are the most prized as their innocence is highly valued. There was another incident | heard of some time ago in Mkhambathi village where the corpse of a person with albinism was disinterred and then stolen. The family had only buried the deceased the day before"

It's just something to think about.

[Tshegofatso Mogotsi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nwelezelanga: The Star Child by Unathi Magubeni opens with a compelling premise, one that promises an evocative exploration of a child with albinism and how her identity, spirituality, and village upbringing intertwine. The beginning feels grounded and purposeful, drawing the reader in with the expectation of a deeply rooted, culturally rich coming-of-age story.

As the narrative unfolds, however, the focus shifts more toward Nwelezelanga’s majestic inner world and poetic introspection than toward the external relationships and lived experiences that shape her upbringing. While the lyrical prose is beautiful and often moving, it sometimes takes precedence over dialogue and concrete storytelling. I found myself wanting more insight into how her spiritual gifts are nurtured, challenged, and understood within her community, rather than experiencing them primarily through abstract reflection.

That said, poetry remains one of the book’s strengths. It is atmospheric and intentional. Although the story has not been as captivating as I initially expected, it still holds enough depth and promise for someone who is starting out on their spiritual journey.

(This is officially my first DNF for 2026.)

[Maryke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the idea and the subject matter of the book, and this added another star to the review. Unfortunately I found the style to be quite inconsistent and almost immature. Other reviewers described it as poetic or lyrical, but I found that it read like a high school creative writing paper - where the writer has a rich vocabulary but is unable to choose the best words for the context ,so the reader is much more aware of the word choice rather than focusing on the actual subject or idea being portrayed. It holds great potential but needed more careful reworking.

[David Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a most extraordinary book.

Written by the South African poet Unathi Magubeni, it tells the story of a young albino girl who survives being drowned at birth. She then has a series of events happening around her and to her.

She is special, being aware not only of her past lives but also the spiritual powers that guide her.

The writing style drew me on without ever feeling sentences were overlong. Descriptions of people and places are bold. And the end? Well, you'll have to see for yourself.

[Snazy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that tackles albinism in a way that is direct and concise, yet delicate and necessary. It tells the story of an albino girl named Nwelezelanga (hair like the sun) and the dangers surrounding her birth. She grows up knowing that she will be facing dark spirits in her life, simply because she was born albino. This read is rich in vocabulary, a beautiful story overall and well told from beginning to the end.

[ReadingWithAngel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was too spiritual for my liking, there was too much reference to different dimensions. I didn’t enjoy the poetry element of the book, I prefer to get to the point. Nonetheless the storyline was interesting

[Mzoxolo Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book with much potential to be great. It falls short and loses it's momentum midway through as the protagonist's purpose is lost with weak ending.

Nonetheless, Unathi Magubeni style of writing is beautifully captivating, ever magnificently poetic and fluid. His writing on Nwelezelanga: The Star Child transports and transcends the spiritual and physical realms; shedding light and giving understanding to African mysticism, spiritual healing, works of African herbal doctors- both Sangoma's of light and darkness.

Most of all, and importantly so, the book reflects and shines spotlight on pressing plight people living with albinism face in the African context- fear, abduction, murder and dismembering of their bodies for the use in Muti; the believe their body parts heals certain incurable disease and/ or to empower those greedy for power and enrichment of wealth, which honestly is an issue in reality that is rapidly growing and is out hand.

Formidable work for first novel from a writer who has great potential to steer african writing to greater hights, and be amongst the leader of the new generational writers and story teller as the elders of yesteryear.

[Mahadi Legodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic,and good story telling. It grabs the readers attention much later in the book and makes it difficult to follow the story at as the author get carried away by poetic narration which could easily bore a novice reader.otherwise good book and Thanks it brought back my readingredients appetite after a 9month struggle.