The Girl Who Killed to Save (Nongquase the Liberator)

The Girl Who Killed to Save (Nongquase the Liberator) is an English play by H.I.E. Dhlomo (1903-1956).

Also found as Nongqawuse: The Girl Who Killed to Save, Nonqause: The Girl who Killed to Save, uNongqawuse: The Girl Who Killed to Save, The Girl Who Killed to Save (uNongqawuse the Liberator), or simply The Girl Who Killed to Save.

Not to be confused with the play Nonqause by Mary Waters

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). Dhlomo's play is informed by a belief in progress and its desirability is not untypical of the values and beliefs of the 'progressives' of the day. The cattle killing is seen as a largely beneficial event since it destroys old tribal structures and prepares the people for the modern world.

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 as The Girl Who Killed to Save (Nongquase the Liberator), with a foreword by Frank Brownlee. It was republished in the collection H.I.E Dhlomo: Collected Works (Eds. Tim Couzens and Nick 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.