Theatre
The Girl Who Killed to Save
Herbert Dhlomo · 1935
Synopsis
In Xhosa country, the young Nongqause says she converses with the spirits of the old heroes: they will return if the people slaughter their cattle. Her interpreter Mhlakaza carries her word with assurance, while she herself doubts and gives up a love for the salvation of her people; the chief Kreli rages at being unable to fight. In five scenes, the play follows the movement from its beginnings, passes to the Europeans, where the missionary Hugh speaks of metamorphosis rather than national suicide, and goes as far as the victims.
Context
The play appeared in 1935 from the Lovedale Press, with a preface by Frank Brownlee. Dhlomo wrote it in response to Mary Waters's Nonqause, which he regarded as the white version, and his historical note reads the episode as the clash of the old and the new: the play, carried by the faith in progress of the educated circles of the time, presents the killing of the cattle as the necessary end of an old order. Arthur Rose compares it to Shaw's Saint Joan. Reprinted in 1985 in the author's collected works, it was staged in Cape Town in 2013 by Mfundo Tshazibane.
Who it is for
Play in English, in five scenes; it assumes knowledge of the story of the 1856 prophecy and its aftermath.
Prizes and reception
The first play in English published by a Black South African author, and the only one by Dhlomo to appear in his lifetime.