Name Khaya Gqibitole | ||
Books Tutaishi: The African Tale | ||
Khaya Gqibitole is the author of the novel Tutaishi: The African Tale;uthando and undoqo sibindi of which he wrote it in Zulu and later translated to xhosa for radio play. he has also written a number of short stories.
The novel was published in December 2009. 'Tutaishi' is a Swahili word for 'we will survive'. As the title suggests, this is a story of survival which straddles the Congo and South Africa. This is a tale of a girl, Theo, who escapes the brutalities that take place in Bunia, Congo where she loses her family while her little brother is forced to join the militia. She is kidnapped by the same militia and kept as a sex slave. She manages to escape and finds her way to South Africa with the hope of a better life. However, she endures xenophobia, racism and other forms of exploitation. In the end though, she manages to get to school and befriends a South African young man, Qhama with whom she struggles until she becomes a respectable artist. Even then, they are not untouched by the scourges of HIV/AIDS and drug abuse. By the end of the novel they have become a husband and wife and have adopted HIV positive children.