Click Here To Purchase The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg

Publisher: Aflame Books

ISBN: 10-0955233992:  13-978-0955233999

Essentially, this is how the publishing industry works: Publishers print books to earn money. The more books they sell the more money they make. People like shitty books. People demand lots and lots of them. So, publishers publish shitty books and make lots and lots of money doing it. The formula is pretty straight- forward and easy to follow. There is, however, a group of misfit publishers out there who completely eschew this basic capitalistic notion.  Instead, they print books of quality knowing full-well they won’t make a nickel on the goddamn things. Anyone who is so brazenly anti-capitalist is no doubt a godless communist; but, I admire them nonetheless. It’s because of pinkos like that that those with a more discriminate literary eye can happen across inconspicuous gems like The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg by Sibusiso Nyembezi.

The novel is set in a remote and relatively serene village in rural South Africa. The pastoral tranquility of the simple and isolated village is, however, disturbed when an enigmatic urban denizen, named Mr. Ndebenkulu—the rich of Pietermaritzburg—visits the small backwater.  The villagers are both suspicious and captivated by the peculiar guest and the messianic promise of financial liberation he brings. One resident, a cattle farmer named Mkhwanazi, becomes particularly transfixed by the promises of wealth the visitor brings. Sensing Ndebenkulu’s tales of incredible cattle prices, unfathomable profits and air of benevolence is a swindler’s guise, Mkhwanazi’s son and another young man from the village seek to expose Ndebenkulu as a fraud and save Mkhwanazi and the rest of the village from the disaster of Ndebenkulu’s elaborate con. 

In this  novel, Nyembezi’s juxtaposition of the highfalutin city dweller with the rustic people of the village resurrects, in an inspired fashion, the ageless theme of urban arrogance versus folk wisdom. Taking robust strokes, Nyembezi creates a mural of this antagonism that although is teleologically predictable is nonetheless satisfying and a warranted reaffirmation of common sense and logic. With the author’s treatment of this theme, fairly memorable characters and a playful, jocular voice the novel withstands its more coarse areas of plot development and inconsistent perspective.

Although the book was originally published in 1961 this is the first English edition. Nyembezi, an acclaimed Zulu author and political activist has been a recognized figure in African Literature for some time. Although Nyembezi died in 2000, his work seems to be undergoing a rediscovery by Anglophones recently. What may be behind this resurgence and what comes out quite nicely in The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg is Nyembezi’s ability to emulate the subtleties of folk, oral tradition. His style is not hampered by superfluous description or verbose prose. It captures, the pace and tenor of the spoken word in a stunningly genuine way, encapsulating the reader in an ancient and forceful story telling tradition, a tradition that was nearly lost to the broader global population, forever, by the racist policies of Apartheid. 

Indeed, The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg is not the kind of book that makes publishers billionaires. It isn’t the kind of book that you’ll see at airport kiosks and drugstores. It is, however, the kind of book that deserves to be read and the kind of book people deserve to be able to read. This is probably what the communist bastards at Aflame were thinking when they decided to publish it. It is a book of unique and authentic point of view and until now overlooked merit. The book won’t make the publishers rich but it will enrich the perspective of the reader and provide a bit of enjoyment while doing so.