Family First—A Fathers Legacy

Impacted by this loss and the marital infidelity which caused it, the women commence a campaign to take back their bodies and their lives from the men who carelessly endanger them with their faithlessness. Magona's rage at the South African male who ignores the risk of transmission is evident throughout and her mantra to women like herself 'Not to die a stupid death', 'Get tested' and maintain monogamy is a clarion call to women's freedom and independence from patriarchal domination. Through Chasing the Tails of My Father's Cattle , Magona transports the reader into the rural villages of the Eastern Cape, but unlike the earlier two novels which depict the simmering anger against the selfishness of black men, she gives us a father who dearly loves his wife and adores his daughter, the first living child after years of inexplicable loss.

Jojo is unlike any male character yet portrayed in African literature and through him it is as if Magona desires to compose a new script for future generations, encouraging African men to re-create the close family unit for which the isiXhosa were once known. Although the mines have always been blamed for apartheid's attempt to destroy the black family, Magona writes of a father who resists this monetary lure and returns to raise and care for his daughter. The new chant, spoken as the dying request of Jojo's wife Miseka, Please look after my baby , is repeated throughout the text and not only guides but compels the father to fulfil his nurturing role.

In the isiXhosa culture, the naming ceremony is sacrosanct, signifying a declaration and enunciation which speaks into and over the life of the child. As the child's birth ushers in her mother's death, the maternal grandmother, Manala, titles the infant Nokufa, Mother of Death.

Yet, her mother Miseka intended space and place for her last born and, even while she was sprouting in her womb, named her Shumikazi, a name signifying the tenth child, remembering the nine children who had not survived, while celebrating the life and significance of the tenth. The community felt that Nokufa was a more appropriate name and murmured their complaints that this child carried death with her.

In fact, the child escapes death numerous times, first when her mother dies in childbirth, then when as a toddler a snake swirls itself around her, next when her cousin drowns while saving her and finally after three young cousins die following a lethal meal she should have also eaten. But her father refuses to accept this moniker for his beloved child and when he leaves the mines to take his child to his paternal homestead, establishes her as Shumikazi, his tenth and living child.

Before her granddaughter leaves her, Manala delivers profound advice reminiscent of words Magona herself may have uttered: It is with this last proverb that Nokufa sheds the stigma of that name, abandoning the taint of death it carries to embrace the baptismal name bestowed by her prescient parents, 'Shumikazi', acknowledging her invaluable worth. Many in her maternal village of Khubalo reviled Shumikazi as a harbourer of evil and rejoiced to see her leave.

Yet for the youngster, her departure heralded a fresh start as she was now numbered in a family that loved her, by a father who adored her. No longer would fat be smeared around her mouth in a ploy to suggest she's eaten a meal that her mouth never tasted, a fact which probably saved her life when death was carried in the pot from which her cousins ate. Now living with her father, she would be an integral part of a cohesive family unit.

It reflects the fire of gossip that sweeps across and between every village, carrying, initially, the debris of unkindness. Many times, it is believed that witchcraft has something to do with the events that surround Shumikazi - whether the numerous inexplicable and tragic deaths or the amazing good fortune enjoyed by her father.

1. Similar authors to follow;
2. A Father’s Legacy.
3. Tectonically Active Landscapes.
4. .
5. ;
6. .

Jojo insists that witchcraft has nothing to do with the wealth of his homestead, declaring it was his own sweat-filled labour and shrewd business sense that produced those results. Magona creates a male protagonist whose diligence and dedication set him apart from the other disreputable male characters that she has created in previous novels.

By fashioning a man of such substance, she heralds a new vision and voice that subverts essentialist feminist notions that men are generally self-serving bullies. Written within the bildungsroman's motif, Chasing the Tails of My Father's Cattle explores the emotional and spiritual development of an impoverished African girl, who grows into a mature and autonomous woman in spite of and because of the dynamic interaction of an engaged external family and community.

Their integral shaping and moulding of her character and her resultant acceptance and resistance establish her self-actualisation. Although the novel heralds her success, it comes from witnessing the bruises and brokenness of women such as her aunt Funiwe who succumbs to the cruelty and indifference of males who have completely abandoned their African traditional role of nurturer and protector. Battered by an abusive husband, Funiwe is utterly dependent upon her brothers to rescue her from this violent marital relationship.

Yet it is only Jojo, her youngest brother, who exerts persistent effort to free his brutalised sister, taking her case to tribal court for recompense and relief. Although the court agrees to the payment of five cows for damages and allows her respite in her paternal home, she is charged with returning to her husband once her physical recovery is complete. Although Funiwe is appeased by the required bovine payment for her suffering as it appears to acknowledge the court's support for beaten wives, she rages at the ruling requiring her to return to the site of repeated abuse.

A book about family and life written by former State Senator

This watershed event solidifies for Jojo the importance of education in guaranteeing financial independence for his beloved daughter and he actively pursues this. A compilation of writing from to The following is the last I wrote in before making copies and sending a copy to each of them. As it has turned out I only wrote on seventeen days. My reason for writing is with the hope we will always have a love relationship. You are commenting using your WordPress.

You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Your words, quoted above, would have been graciously received in January. You have been on the taxpayer's payroll for so long, you have become like many bureaucrats who have forgotten the basic employer - employee relationship.

• From the Book Jacket?
• Relationship or Rights.
• Hypnosis For Sex | Erotic Hypnosis | Hypnodomme.
• Seek His kingdom..

You are the employee and the taxpayers are the employer. To paraphrase your arrogance, mine is; I believe my 68 years, which includes WWII service on a destroyer in the South Pacific, a master's degree in Theology, seven children, twelve grandchildren and forty-six years of community service, make me an expert in recognizing a shallow person playing the role of a bureaucratic big shot.

Three and one half years ago I was sure I would have nothing more to write.

Services on Demand

Having read the following books, I have more to write. The career change I had at age 37 from life insurance sales to teaching adult Catholics about the changes inaugurated by Vatican II has influenced me all the way to age The teaching of adult Catholics only lasted ten years.



The desire to understand the meaning of life never diminished. From childhood to age 83, as a Catholic, I felt I had to accept the virgin birth of Jesus, the miraculous healings of Jesus, his resurrection from the grave and his ascension into heaven. What I had learned of how the planet Earth came to be billions of years ago and how life slowly evolved and continues to evolve caused me to question those beliefs. Nothing like them have ever re-occurred.

We homo sapiens evolved into consciousness and in trying to determine why we were so different from all the other animals got to thinking there has to be a power existing beyond our ability to understand. At least four thousand years ago they made up a story to fit their imagination. The story is recorded in the book of Genesis. It is such a good story there are some people these four thousand years later who give it some credibility.



• About caseylac;
• Mighty Man of Valor:One Man Against the Odds?
• Hamburg umsonst (German Edition);
• Seek God’s righteousness.?
• .

It is just a story. By the time our species evolved another two thousand years some of them decided the god they had been expecting came as a baby born to a young girl who had been impregnated by a supernatural spirit which was part of god. Everything written about this baby who was given the name Jesus was written between twenty to seventy years after he had been executed by the Romans. The written accounts attributed to Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were all done to convince the reader that Jesus was the God they had been expecting for a thousand or more years.

They agreed he emphasized forgiveness, compassion, patience and kindness. Paul wrote time and time again saying we people are temples of the Holy Spirit. So where to find God; find Him in ourselves when we exercise forgiveness, compassion, patience and kindness. I believe in the dignity and value of human life. This belief is god enough for me.