The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg

by Sibusiso Nyembezi

Translated for the first time from Africa's native Zulu language, this novel set in apartheid-era rural South Africa follows an urban swindler as he attempts to take advantage of well-meaning but naive villagers, claiming to be on a mission of salvation—but in truth looking for instant riches. Both hilarious and tender, it explores the fateful confrontation between pastoral benevolence and urban slyness in a peasant countryside that is being destroyed by the rapid loss of land and liberties.

Genres: Africa, Fiction, African Literature, South Africa

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Cyril Lincoln Sibusiso Nyembezi (1919–2000) was a South African writer known as a Zulu novelist, poet, scholar, teacher and editor. *Inkinsela yase Mgungundlovu was made into a television series because of the popularity of the novel.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's really a shame that this book is not well-known (at least not in the States). Originally written in 1961, but only fairly recently translated into English, it captures the time and place of a small town in apartheid-era South Africa while still feeling as fresh as if it was written today. The writing is both funny and suspenseful, with a satirical glee that reminds me of Vonnegut at his most dystopic, or Roald Dahl's biting character studies in his short fiction for adults.
I will be honest, I don't feel the need to own a copy, but I'm really glad that my library has it so that I can read it again in a few years, and see if I enjoy it just as much the second time round. It was a fast, fun read, though not at all fluffy, as it deals with greed, racism, and poverty. In the end, I'm really glad I read it. If you've never read a book translated from Zulu, I can't think of a better place to start.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an engaging story set in a rural village in S. Africa. It is a comedy of errors with a supposedly rich man from the big city who want a local man to set up a meeting with all the men of the village so that he can share some unspecified philanthropy on them. From the outset, the man's son has determined that the outsider is a scam artist, but because of customs of hospitality the head of the household becomes angry at both his son and his wife when they speak ill of the stranger. Some of the reviews indicated that this would be a tale that teens would enjoy. While I don't think teens would seek this out on their own, I can imagine it being a book assigned by a high school teacher to elucidate a culture very different from our own. If it was an assigned read, I think it might be one that teens would find much to discuss in it.