No Turning Back (13 page)
Authors: Beverley Naidoo
amatrolley:
(mixture of Zulu and English) shopping cart(s)
baasie:
(Afrikaans) little boss
baba:
(Zulu) father
bafana:
(Zulu) boys
bhiyo:
(based on the American word “bioscope”) movie theater
bra:
(slang) brother
buti:
(Afrikaans) brother; here it is used like “pal”
cha!:
(Zulu) no!
cheesekop:
(mixture of English and Afrikaans)
“cheese-head”; used as an insult
gumba-gumba:
(from the Zulu word “umgumba,” the swooping tail of a bird) a large police van
hamba kahle:
(Zulu; “k” pronounced as “g”) go well or good-bye
hawu!:
(Zulu) expression of shock or surprise
hayi!:
(Zulu) no!
heyta!:
hi!
iglue:
(based on the English word “glue”) glue
Ja:
(Afrikaans; pronounced “ya”) yes
Jabu:
(“j” pronounced as in English; “injabulo” in Zulu) joy
kulungile:
(Zulu) “it’s good”
magents:
(slang) gentlemen
malunde:
(Zulu slang) a person living on the street
Matomatoes:
(slang) the man with the red face
mbamba:
(Zulu) beer
mealie meal:
cornmeal, which is made into porridge
mealies:
(from Afrikaans
“mielie”)
corn
mfana:
(Zulu) boy
pozzie:
(slang) a safe place or hideout
rand:
1 rand = 100 cents
sola kahle:
(Zulu “k” pronounced as “g”) stay well or good-bye
sawubona:
(Zulu) greetings—day or night
scheme:
(slang) gang
shesha!:
(Zulu) hurry up!
Sipho:
(pronounced “Seepo”; “isipho” in Zulu) gift
stompie:
(Afrikaans) cigarette end or stump
takkies:
gym shoes or running shoes
Themba:
(pronounced “Temba”; “ithemba” in Zulu) trust or hope
tiekie-dice:
(mixture of Afrikaans and English) a gambling game using small change and two dice
tsotsi:
(Sotho) a gangster or thug
umlungu:
(Zulu) a white person
umrabaraba:
(Zulu) a game like checkers
vuilgoed:
(Afrikaans; “v” pronounced as “f,” “g” hard and guttural) dirty rubbish
we bafana!:
(Zulu) you boys!
yebo:
(Zulu) yes
Pronunciation of Zulu vowels
A as in “ark”
E
as in “bed”
I
as in “ease”
O
as in “ore”
U
as in “pool”
I
owe special thanks to a number of people from Street-Wise in Johannesburg: Jill Swart-Kruger, whose research with street children was invaluable; Knox Mogashoa, shelter manager; Nomfundo Gwaai, care worker; Webster Nhlanhla Nxele, assistant care worker; and the children themselves for their openness during workshops. Special thanks are also due to Martha Mokgoko, director of the Speak Barefoot Teacher Training Project in Alexandra, and to the Barefoot Teachers for all their insights both at the beginning and final stages of this work. I thank Pippa Stein, Department of Applied Language Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, for her help. I thank most warmly my colleague and comrade Olusola Oyeleye for her collaboration in the workshops that preceded my work on the novel. My thanks also go to the many young people who commented so perceptively on the novel at the final draft stage, including Sibi Madlingozi, Louise Gerardy, Jongisa Klaas, Zipho Nonganga, Deepa Daya, Saleha Seedat, Leigh van den Berg, and Kathy Hansford, and
their teacher Lesley Foster from Collegiate Junior School for Girls, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and all the 1994 Standard Fives and their teacher Michael Phillips from Orange Grove Primary School, Johannesburg; as well as Ben Holman, Emily Whitehouse, David Myhill and Rosa Bransky in England and Aidin Carey from Boston. My thanks go to Rosemary Stones at Viking Children’s Books for her encouragement, and finally I wish to thank my daughter, Maya, my first reader, and my husband, Nandha, our wonderful cook.
For many years South Africa was the most openly racist country in the world. Beverley Naidoo learned about it not only as a white child with privilege, but later as a student who joined the active resistance to apartheid. In exile in England, Beverley wrote her first children’s book,
Journey to Jo’burg: A South African Story,
in 1985. Although banned in South Africa until 1991, this enormously successful book helped hundreds of thousands of young readers elsewhere to understand what life under apartheid meant for children. A sequel,
Chain of Fire,
followed her young characters as they tried to resist the government’s bulldozing their homes and forcing them to move to a “homeland.”
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No Turning Back
A
Novel of South Africa
Copyright © 1995 by Beverley Naidoo
First published by the Penguin Croup, London, England.
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EPub Edition © APRIL 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-00793-3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Naidoo, Beverley.
No turning back : a novel of South Africa / Beverley Naidoo.
p. cm.
Summary: When the abuse at home becomes too much for twelve-year-old Sipho, he runs away to the streets of Johannesburg and learns to survive in the post-apartheid world.
ISBN 0-06-027505-7.—ISBN 0-06-027506-5 (lib. bdg.) ISBN 0-06-440749-7 (pbk.)
[1. Street children—Fiction. 2. South Africa—Fiction. 3. Blacks—South
Africa—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.N1384No 1997
[Fie]—dc20
96-28980
CIP
AC
Typography by Tom Starace and Michele N. Tupper
First Harper Trophy edition, 1999
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