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“Algebra is all very well, my dear Reverend Whitaker, but I trust that Moses is learning a useful trade too. Let us not forget that the colonists’ support of our work depends on our missions supplying industrious native Christians.
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Title: Eye brother horn
Writer: Bridget Pitt
Publisher: Catalyst Press
ISBN: 978-1-946395-76-4
This reader impression was written and sent to LitNet on the writer's own initiative.
Bridget Pitt’s novel, Eye brother horn (2022), is about a missionary family living at uMzinyathi missionary station in 19th Century Zululand, also known as KwaZulu-Natal. The family consists of Reverend Charles Whitaker (uMfundisi), his wife Mrs Whitaker (Kazi), their biological son, Daniel, and their adopted son, Moses – a Zulu child abandoned by the river as a baby.
The main plot of the novel is that their father (uMfundisi) wants them both to go and study in England in order to become missionaries like him. Especially Moses, since this will aid uMfundisi in his goal to convert even more native Zulu people to Christianity. However, for this to become a reality both brothers will first need to win their uncle’s favour so that he’ll sponsor their education.
Even though Daniel would rather stay at the missionary station, he agrees to travel with their uncle, Sir Roland, in the hope that Moses will get the opportunity to go to England to pursue his real passion, studying science.
The journey they embark on challenges their beliefs, identity, place in the world and relationship as ‘brothers’ by the conflicting differences of religions, cultures, science and the oppressing views of the colonial society they encounter.
Will their brotherhood survive this journey or will they allow everyone’s expectations and political views to break their bond and harden their hearts?
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It is difficult to read about all the injustice that accrued and how some missionaries were funded by slavery, but it is also a beautiful story about people who were able to see beyond race, culture, beliefs and societal status.
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Before reading Bridget Pitt’s novel it seemed that it was going to be a heavy and possibly difficult read, as it is a reflection of how colonisation impacted South Africa between 1862 – 1879. However, even though the topics discussed in the novel are indeed heavy and at times even challenging, it was gripping and easy to read.
Bridget Pitt wrote her novel from Daniel and Moses’ perspectives, switching between their different points of view by using the third-person narrator. This allows Pitt to highlight two main impacts colonisation had on Africa; the impact it had on the native people and the environment.
Moses mainly represents the impact colonisation had on the native people – their culture and beliefs. Pitt even points out how the colonial rule used missionaries to make the native people conform to the British ways – moulding them into the colonial image.
The mission party is preparing a Sunday service. Moses and Daniel spread grass mats on the earth for people to kneel on while uMfundisi puts up the bishop’s drawings on the side of the wagon. The drawings are supposed to depict Africans, but the men wear some sort of loincloth, not proper Zulu clothes…The next drawings show white missionaries reading the Bible to black people; a black man and woman getting married in a church; black people growing sugar cane and vegetables in front of little square houses. The people in these ones wear European clothes.
This would make it easier for the British to communicate and dominate the native people, since conforming to the colonial image could make them receptive to British culture or authority.
However, Pitt also comments on how the colonial rule was selective in what they thought necessary to teach the native people. They wanted the Zulu people to “look” and “act” like the British, but not necessarily have the same level of education or knowledge of the world.
“Algebra is all very well, my dear Reverend Whitaker, but I trust that Moses is learning a useful trade too. Let us not forget that the colonists’ support of our work depends on our missions supplying industrious native Christians. They need education only to render them more able at their tasks than their heathen brothers.”
The reason for this is embodied within Pitt’s character, Sir Roland, and his fear that Moses will be dangerous to colonial rule if he gains too much knowledge. Not properly educating the Zulu people on science, maths, the English language and Western ways, made it easier to trick them out of their land and into slavery. Moses was seen as dangerous, because he knew what the power of education meant.
“I don’t think the amaZulu need Christianity. They need knowledge. They need to understand the English so that they can negotiate with them as equals and not be fooled into making bad bargains. They need technology to make their lives easier and medicine to cure their ailments.”
“The amaZulu don’t need magic charms to ward off English bullets, they need their own bullets and an army trained to use them. They need to be able to read and to understand English laws and treaties, so that they’re not tricked into giving away their homeland.”
It is through Moses’ perspective that the reader is also made aware of various conflicting views between Zulu traditions and beliefs, Christianity taught by the missionaries, political views and science.
“uMfundisi always taught me that the Bible was the truth.” Moses’ words escape in a sudden angry rush. “He said that by bringing the Bible to the amaZulu we were bringing the highest truth known to humans. But now it seems that we’re bringing them fairy stories. Fables, with no more truth than the Zulu stories of uMvelinqangi and uNkulunkulu”... “But you don’t believe the Bible is all true? Because you can’t believe both in evolution and in Adam and Eve.”
It enriches the novel, colouring it with diversity. Showing how different people are, but at the same time how similar. Everyone has a belief, a culture, fairytales and ways to treat ailments.
Through Daniel’s perspective, Pitt comments on the environmental impact colonisation had. Showing the reader how the land was changed to build houses, harbours and to create plantations.
They ride through Hanbury Estate, then through a neighbouring farm. The cane fields roll out silently in the dim light, dreaming of wealth. In their fetid depths, cane rats scuttle, dodging the black mambas that lie in wait.
“These lands are much changed,” Baba Mbanda sighs. “I no longer know myself in this place. The grasslands where my forefathers’ cattle grazed have gone, and gone too are the buffalos and antelope that once passed over these hills.”
She also comments on how the British hunted animals into extinction, which contributed to Africa’s current animal poaching culture.
The conversation turns to the ivory trade, which was one of the interests financing Mrs Harris’ ribbons and lace. But Mr Harris reports that it is no longer so lucrative.
“Ten years ago, we were exporting close to a hundred tons annually - around thirteen thousand tusks. When we arrived in ‘55, there were still elephants in Berea. But now we’re running out of them. Last year we only exported around eleven tons. Same with the rhino horn - about two and a half thousand a few years back, now almost nothing. No animals left. Luckily the sugar trade is picking up.”
Apart from the social commentary, Bridget Pitt uses Daniel’s point of view to introduce a fantasy element to the story. This is seen in Daniel’s connection with animals. How he manages to feel their pain, and in the end, ‘body-switch’ with them.
Moses kneels down and grasps his shoulder.
“Dan! Wake up…what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
Daniel’s eyes flutter open. He sits up, rubbing his head.
“What happened?”
“You fainted, I think. After you shot the jackal.”
“I felt it,” Daniel said. “I felt the jackal.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was like…we swapped bodies, and I was looking at me, holding the gun, and I felt the bullet ripping through me, and this terrible pain in my guts as if I’d shot myself. Then everything went dark.”
Alternating between these two perspectives Bridget Pitt creates an interesting use of contrast which not only shows the different things the brothers perceive, but also reveals the contrasting things that are important to them.
Pritt’s use of contrasting perspectives contributes to her use of irony in her novel. This is seen in how Moses, a Zulu child, with his knowledge of medicine, maths, science, understanding of colonial politics and passion to further his education resembles a British person more than his brother who is of British origin. Daniel with his awareness, bond and love of nature and animals is described as a “shape-shifting witch”, which wasn’t normally associated with a white British person during this time.
This use of contrasting imagery is further emphasised through the book's cover – a picture of a rhino and the constellation system in the background. This could be seen as the two brothers. Moses, being represented through the constellation system due to his love of knowledge and science. While Daniel is represented through the image of the rhino, as he shows a bond with nature and more specifically a rhino who is frequently referred to as uBhejane.
Bridget Pitt’s novel is a well-told depiction of the colonisation history of South Africa during 1862 - 1879. Showing readers how the lives of native Africans, like the amaZulu-people, were forever changed by the British Empire and other European countries.
Pitt is blunt in writing about the racism during this period in history, by shocking the reader with the racist comments made by some of her white European characters. She balances this out with her subtle references to the overall consequences of colonisation. This can be seen in the casual mentioning of hut taxes, sugar cane plantations, the ivory trade and slavery through dialogue or what her main characters perceived.
It is difficult to read about all the injustice that accrued and how some missionaries were funded by slavery, but it is also a beautiful story about people who were able to see beyond race, culture, beliefs and societal status. Pitt also captures interesting stories and imagery on the amaZulu culture, rituals and beliefs – using the traditional Zulu language and terms to add to its authenticity.
Bridget Pitt’s novel, Eye brother horn, is a novel that should definitely be recommended to everyone living in South Africa or anyone wishing to read historical fiction based in South Africa. It captures a culture and history that should be preserved and not forgotten.
“Eye brother horn. An eye to recognize his brothers, be they human, plant or beast, and a horn to defend them against the monsters of the world.” (360)
See also:
There is no us: A reader’s impression of Eye brother horn by Bridget Pitt