Book 23: Streets Paved with Gold

Nkosazana, or Princess, wins the lottery. She has been buying a ticket every week for several years and never won anything. Her husband criticizes her for wasting money. If she had saved it, they could have bought a new lounge suite by now. Nkosazana spends several hours of pleasure, thinking what she is going to do with the money. However, fate intervenes and she does not get to spend her winnings after all. Perhaps it is better that way.

The second of these two stories is loosely based on the events leading up to the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. The independent Zulu kingdom is pressed on the west by expansionist Boer farmers and from the south by the Natal Colony under British rule. The border between the competing land claims is ill-defined and the turbulent clans offer an opportunity for the colonial administration to intervene in the affairs of the Zulu kingdom. Confederation under British leadership is the key objective of the Natal administration. However, due to the lengthy process of communicating with the government in London, local administrators are given a free hand to settle the affairs as they see fit. This story is related by a tree, a huge Natal Fig Tree, centuries old, under whose branches the colonial administration and the Zulu delegation meet and where the Zulus are presented with an ultimatum effectively ending their independence. The style of the writing is that of a Zulu Praise Singer.