Publisher's Synopsis
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.
First published in 1948, Zulu Woman is placed in new context by an introduction and afterword which consider the book's relationship to other African literature and oral history, attend to questions of power and authorship, and draw upon newly available archival materials.