AUTHOR
Nakanjani G. Sibiya was born at Gcotsheni, in the Eshowe district, in deep rural northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has authored several volumes of isiZulu short stories, novels, dramas and co-authored or edited numerous anthologies of short stories and poetry. He has won awards for almost all his literary works, including the prestigious BW Vilakazi Literary Award and the M-Net Book Prize for his debut novel, Kuxolelwa Abanjani? (2003) as well as the SALA/ Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award for his collection of short stories, The Reluctant Storyteller (2020). In 2017 he translated MJ Mngadi's novel, Asikho Ndawo Bakithi into English and Fred Khumalo's Dancing the Death Drill into isiZulu, in 2021. In 2024 he co-edited isiZulu translation of Frantz Fanon's seminal The Wretched of the Earth. In 2023 the Book Behind Awards honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He has featured several times at the Time of the Writer International Writers' Festival, the Articulate Africa Literary Festival, and many other literary spaces. He has also made academic and literary presentations across the world including at the University of Barcelona and the University of Swazilandh. Sibiya holds a Phd in isiZulu and is the Director of Isikhungo Sesichazamazwi SesiZulu (IsiZulu National Lexicography Unit), an agency of PanSALB.
TRANSLATOR
Sifiso Mzobe studied Journalism at the Damelin Business Campus in Durban. Mzobe has worked as a crime reporter and sub-editor for The Chatsworth Tabloid, a community newspaper in Durban. His opinion pieces have appeared in The Daily News and The Sunday Times. For over a decade, Mzobe worked with Fundza Literacy Trust, an NGO that works to improve literacy levels of South Africa's youth by encouraging reading for pleasure, writing for meaning and learning for life. For the Fundza Literacy Trust, Mzobe wrote numerous opinion pieces, journalism pieces, over 20 fiction short stories and facilitated creative writing workshops. He has also worked extensively with young writers in Fundza's Mentorship Program, providing intrinsic creative writing guidance to several young writers who have gone on to get published. Mzobe writes in English and Zulu and translates between the two languages. He has translated over fifty fiction short stories and other works for the Fundza Literacy Trust. Mzobe translated the popular young adult series, The Shadow Chasers by Bontle Senne, from English to Zulu. In 2023, Mzobe translated Nathi Olifant's novel, Blood, Blades & Bullets from English to Zulu.It was during Mzobe's days as a crime reporter that the seeds of writing a novel were first planted. His debut novel, Young Blood, charts the life of a teenager who drops out of high school and joins a car hijacking syndicate. So visceral and detailed was Mzobe's rendition of the story that Young Blood went on to win the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the Herman Charles Bosman Prize for Best English Fiction, the SALA First Time Published Author Award and the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. Mzobe's Young Blood has been translated into German and published in Germany by the renowned publishing house, Peter Hammer Verlag. In 2020, Mzobe's Young Blood was published in the USA and Canada by Catalyst Press, where it was shortlisted for the Hurston Wright Foundation's Legacy Award. His collection of short stories titled Searching for Simphiwe was published in April 2020.
Mhlengi is the only child to his long-widowed father whose wife passed away when giving birth to Mhlengi. The son has come to terms with his identity and made a final decision to go for a gender-affirming surgery. He informs his girlfriend Nontobeko with the devastating news that they must part ways – without disclosing the real reason. He reserves the truth for his father who disowns him on the spot.
All goes well and Mhlengi embraces a new life as Mahlengi. Years on, a married Xolani, unaware of her past, sacrifices his family for her. Meanwhile, Mahlengi's father still harbours hope of reconciling with his son who might perhaps have reconsidered his sexuality. The father searches for the son with the help of Nontobeko who also still hopes to reunite.
Told by one of the most beloved authors of the isiZulu language, this novel takes us on the journey of a trans woman dealing with family, new and old. This is a rare and bold topic written in this language, and over the last twenty years, it has become a beloved story, in print and also online in audio. This story not only shows perceptions of gender from a Zulu perspective, but also shares the book more broadly throughout Africa, including to openly queer communities outside of the Zulu region who read English, but not isiZulu. I hope you will enjoy it. –E.D.E. Bell
"Published in 2006, Nakanjani G. Sibiya's Bengithi Kuzokuna, ably translated by Sifiso Mzobe as I Thought It Would Rain was a novel way before it's time engaging, as it did, sexuality and gender in a way that has only started coming into mainstream conversation in the last ten years."
– Zukiswa WannerHaving to wait a few months is nothing to complain about, neither are the many thousands of Rand he has to pay for the procedure. Mhlengi has saved for many years, making sure not to ask for financial help from his father, so that the money he uses comes from his own sweat and tears. This is deliberate, he wants to take pride in the fact that he owes no one for the procedure that is the key to his new life of freedom and happiness. He knows he is in for a long, hard, emotional, mental and physical ride. He is for all these challenges because he knows there is no easy road to freedom. He will bear the physical pain and get used to his new life. What is important at this very moment is to follow his plans for today so that by sunset he has completed all the tasks he set out to do in the morning.
Mhlengi glances at the watch on his wrist and looks at his reflection in the mirror. He is taken aback by the stark mask of worry that looks back at him. He focuses on his reflection but cannot find his radiant handsomeness. His red sunken eyes testify to the insomnia that has overpowered him lately. His jutting collar bones are testament to the loss of appetite he has suffered for a good couple of weeks. The anxiety of overthinking, looking for solutions to his many problems, has felt like he is at the bottom of a mountain he is not sure he can climb.
Although Mhlengi has lost weight, and finds no pride in his reflection, there are still traces of his radiant handsomeness. His jet black shiny locs complement his beautiful facial features and his neat and immaculate sense of dress. A 24 year old black man of bronze complexion, Mhlengi has smooth unblemished skin. His thin eyebrows sit well on his perfect forehead, his moustache a silky trimmed black line struggling to grow above his upper lip. He has no beard, and his cheeks are smooth except for short decorative sideburns.
After staring at his reflection for a while and shaking his head at his unsatisfactory reflection, he opens his wardrobe and sprays his cologne. He is back in front of the mirror patting his locs into place. He glances at his watch, lets out a strained sigh and heads out of his flat locking the door behind him. It is sunny outside and as soon as he takes a few steps he is met by a wall of hot humid gust that instantly elicits beads of sweat on his forehead. By the time he reaches the lift his silk handkerchief is quickly out of his hand and wiping sweat cascading from his forehead and down his cheeks. Inside the lift he fans his face with the same handkerchief, oblivious to the seven people inside the lift who have their eyes glued on this handsome well-dressed man who has entered and filled the whole lift with his expensive cologne.
He is still fanning his face with the handkerchief as he disembarks from the lift and crosses the road. He presses the button on his key fob and the driver's door of his car unlocks. He gets in, starts the car and puts the air conditioner to its coldest and highest setting. He looks at his reflection in the rearview mirror for a while and lets out a shallow prolonged sigh before putting the car into gear. A minute later he is on his way to Nontobeko's flat. She knows he is coming, she is waiting for him. That thud of anxiety bangs deep in his heart again when he thinks of the beauty that is Nontobeko and how deeply she loves him.
His anxiety shifts to the side for a while as he navigates through midmorning Durban CBD traffic. Mhlengi is oblivious to the sweet melody playing in his car stereo as his car creeps up Victoria Embankment. He can only use a few of his senses at a time so his eyes concentrate on the road and the rest of his brain is consumed by how to tell Nontobeko what he needs to tell her, which words to use so that she accepts and understands the bombshell he is about to drop on her. Despite the full blast of the air conditioner, Mhlengi's palms and forehead moisten with sweat the more he thinks of Nontobeko.
He is on the road next to Nontobeko's flat after a few minutes and circles a few times looking for a parking spot. He grows agitated after not finding one. All of this adds to his anxious foul mood and he shakes his head and clicks his tongue when he glances at his watch and realizes that he is running late to the agreed time he'd set to meet with Nontobeko. He is about to call her and let her know he has arrived and is just looking for a parking spot when a car not far from where he is leaves. Mhlengi quickly parallel parks into the parking bay, gets out and locks his car.
He tries to steady his trembling knees and thudding heartbeat. A bout of heavy sweating attacks him again and his hands rushes to his trouser pocket to retrieve his white silk handkerchief. He wipes the sweat on his forehead and fans his face. He heads to the gate which is opened by the security guard before Mhlengi can press the buzzer. The security guard greets Mhlengi with a jovial smile, like usual, but today he only replies with an out of character absent minded nod of the head. Mhlengi doesn't utter a word as he fills in his details in the visitor's register. He heads to the lift leaving the security guard shaking his head in confusion.
Mhlengi is greeted by Nontobeko's radiant happy face.
"Hello, my love," says Nontobeko opening her arms and coming in for a kiss. She is taken aback when she sees Mhlengi reciprocating her loving gesture with neither a hug back, kiss nor reply. Instead he makes his way past her slowly until he is near the sofa where he stares at Nontobeko's pictures hanging on the wall above it.
"What's the matter, Mhlengi?" asks Nontobeko. She follows Mhlengi, confusion filling her face and her steps. The radiance in her face suddenly gone, her chest heaves up and down with worry. She has never seen Mhlengi like this.
"It's a long story, Nontobeko, I don't know where to begin," says Mhlengi. He lets out a long sigh before slowly lowering himself onto the sofa. His hands clasp the back of his head before just as suddenly resting on his cheeks. He looks dejected and worried, his fidgeting would be clear even to a child that this is a man carrying the world on his shoulders.
