ZULU WOMAN - The Life Story of CHRISTINA SIBIYA

University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Softcover, 228 pages. Very good condition. 

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 psychological and physical abuse, found the courage to leave. In 1915, fifteen-year-old Christina Sibiya left teaching at a mission school to become the first wife of Solomon ka Dinuzulu. While at the royal household, Sibiya successfully adjusted to the expectations of her new position, finding her place among the other wives, and negotiating Zulu and Christian tradition. The royal headquarters, however, became increasingly plagued by divisiveness, dissolution, and ill health. After a series of hardships, climaxing in a beating by Solomon, Sibiya, at the age of twenty-eight, escaped to Durban. Although pursued by Solomon's representative, Sibiya successfully resisted Solomon's authority by testifying first in a European magistrate's court, and then at the royal headquarters, that her marriage was invalid.