Women Writing Africa
1 total work
In 1934, American writer Rebecca Hourwich Reyher recorded the remarkable life story of Christina Sibiya, the first of sixty-five wives of the uncrowned king of the Zulus. What Reyher faithfully recorded - and then crafted into a moving narrative - is the riveting story of a South African woman who entered life among the Zulu royal family, and then, after enduring abuse, found the courage to leave. In 1915, fifteen year-old Christina Sibiya leaves teaching at a mission school to become the first wife of Solomon ka Dinizulu. While at the royal household, Sibiya successfully adjusts to the expectations of her new position: finding her place among the other wives, and negotiating Zulu and Christian traditions. After a series of hardships, climaxing in a beating by Solomon, Sibiya at the age of nearly twenty eight, escapes to Durban. Although pursued by Solomon's representative, Sibiya successfully resists Solomon's authority by testifying first in a European magistrate's court, and then at the royal headquarters that her marriage was invalid.