Ndleleni

Musical Statues with Cecil John Rhodes

So the story goes that when my mom put in for her maternity leave because she was expecting me, her headmaster (she was teaching English in an Mthatha high school at the time) wouldn’t let her go for the normal allotted time.

Mum was irreplaceable, and her matrics might fail if she didn’t come straight back to work.

So, when I was a week old, I was taken to the staffroom, and left with a nanny while Mom taught her matrics.

When I needed feeding, the nanny would take me to the classroom, and Mom would step outside and feed me in the corridor.

As soon as I was strong enough and old enough, I would go back into the classroom with her, and her students would play with me while learning their English lessons.

And so from my earliest days I was a traveller, and Mom’s colleague named me just that: Ndleleni.