Eyes in the Night: An Untold Zulu Story

by 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.

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 16, 2016

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This here is a story about Nomavenda's grandmother, Nombhosho, as a child torn away from her family and community by a people who greedily and violently uprooted a whole people from their homes, families and land. How she had to battle her way as a teenager without the support of a nuclear family just to survive. It is also a story of how Nombhosho's mother, widowed, homeless, landless, marries a man twice her age just so that her children can be sheltered from the elements, get a meal and become clothed.

The story starts with Mama Nomavenda and her older sister Albertina, Sisi Ahh, reflecting on the life of their grandmother just after burying their mother. It is told from two perspectives. In the first person by their grandmother, Nombhosho, and in the third person by Mama Nomavenda. It spans over 100 years weaving a tale of displacement. A tale of a black people forcibly and violently uprooted by a group of Europeans hell bent on enslaving, possessing, abusing and breaking them down in their own land.

This is not a read-in-one-session book. I found myself pausing to reflect after a couple or so pages on my great grandparents history. Retrieving snippets of conversations with my paternal grandmother 25 years ago. How I wished I had paid more attention to her tales of John Langalibalele. Tales of the unfortunate plight of the SSMendi.

Nombhosho's journey was filled with uncertainty and frightful experiences as a child. Living like a nomad in caves and foraging for food like a wild animal in the land of her birth. Her widowed mother ultimately agrees to marry a man twice her age just so that they can be part of a family. A community. To be protected from the elements and not die from starvation. To ward off diseases from malnourishment.

With the usual narrative of farm workers, a widely prevalent phenomenon in South Africa, their story was no different. The systematic and deliberate abuse suffered at the hands of the thieving white farm owners designed to break the spirit of a people. To degrade and humiliate men and women of the soil. To plant seeds of enslavement and low self-worth in their children the effects of which are still being experienced to this day.

This story demanded that I scrutinize and question the status quo. Demanded that I breakdown a lot of the labels and the languages especially used to describe a myriad of incidents which broke down black South Africans and reduced them to third class citizens in the country of their birth. Life before the Bible for instance.

Nombhosho, Mama Nomavenda's grandmother, was forced to flee, like a thief, in the middle of the night to escape atrocities which were definitely going to be inflicted on her by her white Baas. The Baas is a peculiar creature. Despised black people whom he described as baboons but lusted after the very same black bodies. This caused such emotional upheaval in my heart that I vowed to be earnestly grateful for my parents' lives. Grateful that my siblings are only a phone call away. Grateful that my own children are safe, nurtured, supported and loved. Grateful that I CAN care for them. Be their rock. Their refuge.

Nomavenda's narration forced me to scrutinize my own origins. Ignited a spark in me which propelled me to look at my genealogy. Investigate and document it.

This book is not only a call to action but a force of action. It pulled me in so many directions that I ended up both physically and emotionally fatigued. To continue to fight the socioeconomic injustices which deny our children and us, opportunities. To fight this invisible financial apartheid.

The beauty in this book is the description of the Zulu nation. For centuries we have been fed a story of a wild, unruly, violent, promiscuous and homophobic nation. A nation of uncultured and disrespectful louts. A nation of a violent prone people. Gluttonous. Careless. Rapists. A history written by a white man about black lives. Black history. A view which distorted and humiliated a whole race.

In here, Mama Nomavenda through her gogo's eyes, Nombhosho, depicts a proud nation. Tall and regal in stature. Orderly with a commitment to developing themselves. Learning and working together in and with their communities. A solid people of the land with norms and customs promoting harmonious living. A people who lived and loved well. Not a people surviving on crumbs from "their master's table". But a proud nation of chiefs and a knowledgeable people in accordance to standards which THEY have set for themselves.

A well written and exceptionally told story without any creative embellishments. Just plain storytelling of yesteryear by a masterful journalist.

If I never read anything else historic, I'd be proud to say, "This, I have read".

[Ayanda Xaba · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Gogo's story. It opened my eyes to a few things, as well emphasized on some things that I already knew.

[Boitshepo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nombhosho was the first born child of Mqokotshwa Makhoba, one of King Cetshwayo's most trusted advisors (King Cetshwayo, the one who was King Shaka's niece).
Not only that, but her husband was bosom buddies with Langalibalele Dude, who was the South African Native National Congress's first president.

Nomavenda Mathiane, the author of this, Eyes In The Night and her grandchild, collected sizeable fragments of Nombhosho's life story especially from her much younger years, stories which Nombhosho orally passed on to her granddaughter Albertinah, who grew up under her care. Nombhosho also left her reference book with one of her daughters.

I can only imagine how hard it must have been for the author to piece together the story of someone who is no longer with us, relying mostly on the heir's memory, and corroborating events with what history has written down.

That said, this book is a rare treasure. You know how elders for various tend to keep secrets, secrets which sometimes makes it hard for them to give us a full account of our roots? Never mind (sometimes) lack of interest from the youth, or parents who die before even getting an opportunity to pass it on.
So this is rare.

It's a touching story unfolding during turbulent times, told with the flow of a beautiful song. It is told from the heart. Leaves one aware of how much they don't know which they have no reason for not knowing.

For me, it was a slap in the face of just how yesterday it was when when King Shaka was King. Heart breaking account of how the white man killed and plundered from our people our own land, and then left us feeling like he was doing us a favour for letting us stay in our own land, all squeezed up together, while he exploited our hands for his own benefit.

[James Mace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Fascinating and Heartbreaking Look into the Zulu War and its Aftermath

The author of this story is the granddaughter of the main protagonist, and it was through intense research, as well as recollections of other family members, that she was able to compile this story. It is then told in the first-person, as if her grandmother, 'Gogo', was telling the story of her life.

I read this mainly to hear about the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 from the perspective of the wives and children. They suffered famine and deprivation, while having to hide in caves, living off of "roots and rats", not knowing what was happening to their husbands, brothers, and sons. Interestingly, the Anglo-Zulu War, which took place when Gogo was about ten years old, is only the first third of the book. The remainder follows her years of poverty, abandoned by relatives who survived the war, cruel life on a Boer farm, running away, and forging a new life. All the while, the savage changes and the attempts at destroying Zulu culture and beliefs are given a new perspective, as is the apparition of apartheid and the resistance which would eventually become the African National Congress.

While I found this a powerful and moving story, which I finished in just two days, I regrettably feel compelled to take a star away due to some extremely glaring historical errors. Some can be forgiven, as the author was learning this knowledge third-hand; however, others are common knowledge. Example: In the narrative, Gogo talks about her father and his elder brother being part of the iNgobamakosi Regiment. This would not be possible, as the Zulu regiments were all age-based, and the iNgobamakosi were all unmarried young men in their early twenties. None of them would have wives, let alone a ten-year-old daughter. I imagine the iNgobamakosi was used in the narrative, because it is among the most recognizable Zulu regiments from the war. Dates of certain battles, such as Khambula and Hlobane are also wrong, as is the role and deaths of certain prominent warriors, such as Mbilini. Also, in the later narrative, dates get confusing, as the other bounces back and forth (sometimes over periods of decades) with no explanation; i.e. the story of Gogo meeting her future husband is written after the death of King Dinuzulu in 1913, only to later have it mentioned that Gogo became betrothed many years earlier when Dinuzulu was battling the civil war against Prince Zibhebhu, who is erroneously referred to in one instance as King Cetshwayo's uncle and another as his brother. Zibhebhu was actually neither, but a distant cousin of Cetshwayo.

I only list some of the historical inaccuracies so that the reader knows upfront and is not blindsided. Within the context and intent of the story, these do nothing to detract from a very readable ans important tale of those who suffered some of the worst deprivations of the war and its decades-long aftermath. It is time their voices were heard and I highly recommend this book.

[Andy – And The Plot Thickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eyes in the Night is an elegiac and graceful memoir, in which journalist Nomavenda Mathiane recounts her extraordinary family history. Inspired by an old photograph of her grandmother, about whom she knew very little, Mathiane sets out to discover more information about this woman, and in the process uncovers a story that is gripping and magical.

Mathiane's research takes her back to the bloody Battle of Isandlwana of the Anglo-Zulu War during the first half of 1879. By interviewing her older sisters, Mathiane reconstructs the life of Nombhosho Makhoba, an epic tale of survival above all.

Mathiane personalises Nombhosho's life by writing as her grandmother, in the first person. It is an interesting technique, that creates a vivid and gripping picture of loss and love.

There are so few books written that explore the colonial history of South Africa in this way (the only other story I can think of offhand is Zakes Mda's Little Suns), humanising the black nations whose culture and way of life were destroyed.

A beautiful and compelling read.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not easy to classify this book: it’s a kind of reconstructed autobiography, which emerges from the recollections of the descendants of the subject.
The author, Nomavenda Mathiane is a South African journalist who became interested in her family history. She interviewed relations who remembered her grandmother Nombhosho and recorded their recollections of her memories from the war between the Zulu King Cetshwayo and the English, during the Battle of Isandlwana and the Anglo–Zulu War of 1879. This oral history has become a book mostly written in first person, as if Nombhosho herself were recounting her memories, but these words are not actually Nombhosho’s. They are drawn from the memories of Albertinah a.k.a. Ahh, who is the author’s much older sister. At other times the narrative shifts so that it is clear that Sis Anh is recalling what Nombhosho has told her. And there are also occasional bridging sections in first person, but these are in the voice of a narrator who we assume is the author herself .
What’s interesting about this book and its shifting narrators is that it tells the story of war and dispossession from the perspective, not of the British victors nor the defeated Zulu warriors, but from a woman’s point of view. Nombhosho is on the verge of puberty when conflict erupts between the invading settlers and the Zulus who own the land. Her narrative of these events is written as if she is a young girl, not an older woman recounting it to her grandchildren. She recounts the conflict with considerable detail in a manner not entirely consistent with her age because she realises what’s at stake if the invaders win. But whatever narrative voice is used, Nombhosho’s concerns are primarily domestic.

Sis Ahh responded. ‘Gogo, together with her mother and little sister, lived in the caves in the Shiyane mountains, surviving on roots and rats. Occasionally, their father Makhoba – our great-grandfather – would travel from the king’s palace at Ondini to the mountains, a journey which took him days because there were no buses transporting people in those days. He did this trip, which is about fifty kilometres, barefooted. And since his country was at war, he had to be vigilant and watch out for the English soldiers, because they would kill him on sight or abduct him and turn him into a slave.
‘Gogo described their abode in the mountain as a single entrance cave that was secured by a huge boulder against which was an enormous tree trunk. A small strip was left open to let in light and a bit of air. The interior was perpetually damp and since the cave was a narrow structure, there was little room to manoeuvre. They could only lie down or sit with their legs folded. The ground was covered with grass, soft tree leaves and branches which served as a mattress beneath their grass mats. To gain entry to the cave one had to crawl, one person at a time. Apart from the chirping birds in the morning that heralded the beginning of another day, there was no way of telling night from day.’
The mood in the room had changed from jovial to serious as we listened to Sis Ahh, who at that point had transformed to personify Gogo for the benefit of her narration. (Kindle Locations 728-739).

When they are forced to flee the coming conflict, becoming refugees in their own land, Nombhosho misses the space and order of her own home. She misses the routine of her days, the chores she had to do and the games she played, and also the relaxed presence of her extended family. When looming defeat means they have to hide even further away, she is separated from her extended family altogether, and she misses her cousins, her aunts and uncles and most of all, her grandmother. She recalls the hunger, the lack of hygiene, the fear and the boredom, but she also recalls her mother wanting to delay the onset of puberty for reasons not expressed but which the reader can guess at.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/08/01/e...

[Tilly Ngope · Rating 3 out of 5]

It gave me a light in all the land issues that we are currently experiencing in our country

[Marion Roux · Rating 4 out of 5]

One regret that I have is that I never kept a record of my family's elders stories. I respect this author for having the patience and interest to track down as much of her grandmother's history as she could get her older sisters and her cousin to remember. Her oldest sister and cousin had both been brought up by their granny so they would have heard the stories first-hand. These were stories that they would have listened to 60 years earlier.
The first small section of the book I found rather repetitive and dry, but I am so glad that I persevered as I became totally engrossed in the book. It is a side of South African history very vaguely touched upon - from the perspective of the Zulu women.
The stories, as related by Sis Ahh, are told in the first person so one feels like one is listening to the granny herself.
These are stories of dispossession and depravation of home, food, family, land, contact with the men at war and, to a great degree, beliefs (tribal traditions to Christianity) .
The book also recounts the very start of the ANC party.
Recommended reading this.

[Surendra Naidoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal book. A history lesson provided as a narrative that tracks the Author's granny's transition from innocent barefoot carefree in her father's Zululand kraal through the AngloZulu war and destruction and displacement of the once proud Zulu nation; and finally to her radically changed adult life.

The writing style flows so colourfully and dispenses a history and Zulu cultural lesson all the while keeping the reader spellbound by the journey of the child and the Zulu nation.

[David Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've know Nomavenda for a long time - she's a great story teller - now she's finally put a beautiful sotry down on paper - the story of her grandmother - its a snapshot of rural Zululand taken at a time when a political earthquake was changing the lives of millions of people. Nomavenda made me feel like I was there.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. Although not particularly beautifully written, Nomavenda Mathiane's exploration of her Zulu grandmother's life is an interesting and engaging read for those interested in South Africa.
Definitely glad I read it during my stay in Johannesburg and on the flight home.