The Girl Who Killed to Save (Nongquase the Liberator)

An English play by H.I.E. Dhlomo.

(Also written Nonqause: The Girl who Killed to Save, uNongqawuse: The Girl Who Killed to Save, or simply The Girl Who Killed to Save.)

The original text
A version of the story of the tragic Xhosa starvation resulting from the slaughter of the cattle under the chief Kreli, in response to the visions of the prophetess Nongqause (or Nongqawuse).

Written in 193-35 as a reaction against the play Nonqause by Mary Waters, which he considered the "white people’s" version by of the story.

It was first published by Lovedale Press in 1935 (with the quaint spelling of her name as "Nongquase") and was the first published play in English by a black writer in South Africa. It was republished in the collection H.I.E Dhlomo: Collected Works (Eds. Tim Cousins and Nic Visser) by Ravan Press in 1985.

After 1994 it has become customary to use uNongqawuse, a "corrected" form of her name, in the title to Dhlomo's play, which now often reads: uNongqawuse: The Girl Who Killed to Save, or The Girl Who Killed to Save (uNongqawuse the Liberator).

South African productions
2013: Directed by Mfundo Tshazibane, under the altered title of uNongqawuse: The Girl Who Killed to Save featuring the UCT final year Drama students in the Arena Theatre, Cape Town.

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