Gone too soon

The Hidden Star

By K. Sello Duiker

210pp; Cassava Republic

When an adult writes for children, it’s usually fantasy-fiction, a moral story, a fable or just a teachable lesson. However, Duiker’s ‘The Hidden Star’ is more than these, and it appeals to not only children but adults. Set in South Africa, the story takes us into the magical world of eleven-year old Nolitye, a dreadlocked girl who lives with her ‘supposed’ mother in Phola, which is no longer an ordinary place to live.

e find out that, like the town, many people and events in this novel are far from ordinary.

Fantasy fiction arises from the need to see reality with new eyes by questioning it. Nolitye is a keeper of not only stones (her name means keeper of stone, keeper of knowledge) but stories and history.

One day, she picks a stone that is not only different but re-orders and interprets her life. As the story unravels, we discover that the stone has a history behind it.

So begins an adventure into the world of the supernatural; the world of good and evil and the fight of superiority between both forces. It’s a story rooted in the past and has to do with generations unknown to the protagonist.

In Nolitye’s world, animals are personified and humans elevated as spirits; time freezes; a stone has the capacity to make anything happen, one only has to wish.

Equipped with this lucky stone, Nolitye leads her friends, shy Bheki and bespectacled Four Eyes, on a mission against the Spoilers (a notorious gang); into the world of Rex, the leader of a pack of talking township dogs; and challenge evil MaMtonga with her live brown-and-green snake necklace to a duel.

Duiker moves easily between modern realistic setting and African folklore with a touching story which portrays the vulnerability of children in an impoverished world. Consequently, the wall between the physical and supernatural worlds is broken down.

The novel has a slightly feminist undertone; most of the characters are women. Even a girl as little as Nolitye fights supernatural powers and the horrible Zim who is supposedly masculine.

Her friend is a weak boy that is always afraid; the leader of the gang is a girl that controls other boys that are members of her gang. This statement attests to that: ‘You mess with a woman, you mess with a stone’ (p11).

Each chapter has a title which it seems to focus on, even as the plot unfolds. There is a great emphasis on the significance of telling stories as a way of preserving the past and understanding the present. With the effective use of flashbacks, the characters tell stories even within the story, making the plot episodic in nature, though still simple enough to understand and enjoy.

Like most stories targeted at children, ‘The Hidden Star is punctuated by anecdotes and wise, reflective sayings: Feelings are like doors; they can open up new worlds, things that we do not ordinarily see, such as the mystery that surrounds us.

‘The Hidden Star’ is written with simple language, though Duiker takes the readers on a language lesson as he uses Swahili words without apology. This adds beauty to the story as African myth is simply woven into everyday modern life.

He succeeds in taking us out of the ordinariness of our world into the spirit world by elevating a little girl and making her a driving force for change and renaissance. Although flawed with a few grammatical errors, ‘The Hidden Star’ shows the reader that there is a connection between Africa’s modern and traditional wisdom.

Before his untimely death, K. Sello Duiker received the Commonwealth Prize for a first novel in the African region for Thirteen Cents; he took the Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English literature for ‘The Quiet Violence of Dreams’.

Published posthumously, ‘The Hidden Star’ is a testament to talent nipped in the bud; it also reveals that the beauty and wisdom that permeate his stories will live beyond him into future generations.

Olofinlua is a writer and editor based in Lagos.