Zebra Crossing

Title: Zebra Crossing
Author: Meg Vandermerwe
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Random House Struik
Imprint: Umuzi
Cape Town, South Africa 2013
ISBN 9781415203927 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0392-7
Hardcover, dustjacket, 15 x 22 cm, 144 pages

Description:

Peeled potato. That is what many in Zimbabwe call abinos. Also 'monkey' and 'sope'. There are other names too depending where you go. In Malawi, they call them 'biri'. They whisper that they are linked to witchcraft. In Tanzania, they are 'animal' or 'ghost' or 'white medicine'. Their witch doctors will pay handsomely for their limbs. In the DRC, they call them 'ndundu' - living dead. If a fisherman goes missing, they call on them to find the body, Whereas to South Africans they are 'inkawu' meaning ape, 'spierwit' or 'wit Boer'. Young Chipo has been called many names, but to her mother, Zimbabwe ’s most loyal Manchester United supporter, she had always just been Chipo, meaning gift. On the eve of the World Cup, Chipo and her brother flee to Cape Town hoping for a better life and to share in the excitement of the greatest sporting event ever to take place in Africa. But the Mother City ’s infamous Long Street is a dangerous place for an illegal immigrant and albino. Soon Chipo is caught up in a get-rich-quick scheme organised by her brother and the terrifying Dr Ongani. Exploiting gamblers’ superstitions about albinism, they plan to make money and get out before rumours of looming xenophobic attacks become reality. However, their scheming has devastating consequences.