Who is Fumbatha?

Fumbatha is the novel’s second most important character. Like Phephelaphi, the reader learns about Fumbatha’s biography and story through small glimpses and snippets at a time. The reader knows, for example, that Fumbatha was born in 1896, in the same year that his father was hanged alongside 16 other men. The narrative then shifts to 1946, showing the reader Fumbatha as he is nearly at 50 years old.