Book 40: Streets Paved with Gold

Senzo Ngubane lives near a mission station in rural Kwa Zulu-Natal. His first daughter becomes a nun at the mission. When his second daughter expresses the wish to follow in her sister’s footsteps, he feels the need to be compensated. This poses a problem for the parish priest at the mission station, only recently arrived from Germany, who knows little about Zulu cultural practices. This can be read at two levels: a simple humorous tale or something a little deeper namely the clash of cultures.
A woman and her four year old child alight at a bus terminus. She belong to the Xhosa ethnic group and has arrived at a predominantly Sotho town. She chose this town because no-one would know her. For some unknown reason, she plans to abandon her child. She asks a fellow traveller to look after the boy for “five minutes” while she buys something from the supermarket. Instead, she disappears leaving the child with the other woman. This is the story of the child growing up in a completely different culture alternating between acceptance and rejection. Instead of reconciling himself to his lot, he makes it his goal in life to find his biological mother and father.