Cross of Gold

Cross of Gold is an expansive, heartrending, anger-inducing portrayal of Black life in South Africa after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Through the experiences of a range of characters, chiefly Mandla Zikode and his mother, Sindisiwe, the novel portrays the Sharpeville massacre and its brutal aftermath, the hardship of exile, and the brutal impact of the apartheid regime on Black lives and personhood.

It depicts apartheid's legion of crimes against humanity including incarceration, the dehumanizing labour farms where Black men were practically enslaved and often beaten to death, infant mortality due to malnutrition, and the grievous impact of the Pass Laws and land dispossession on Black life.

Ngcobo chillingly animates what she calls in the novel 'The Black Cross;' life under the perpetual brutality of apartheid, which dehumanized, brutalized, maimed, and murdered with impunity. Originally publishing the novel in 1981, Ngcobo, a mother of four and wife, was placed on the literary world stage. Though it was banned in South Africa and never circulated here, it opened for the writer new worlds of travel, invited lectures, conferencing, media interviews, and kinship with other African writers.