Umtata

The unknown group of armed robbers burst into the police station near Umtata, and opened fire early on Wednesday morning.

Even as that possibility became remote, she never resigned herself to the fact that Johannesburg would be our home, or let go of the idea that we might move back to Umtata.

She encouraged Daliwonga’s efforts to persuade me to come back to Umtata.

We lived in a less grand style in Qunu, but it was in that village near Umtata that I spent the happiest years of my boyhood and whence I trace my earliest memories.

One day, during the holiday, Paul and I went to Umtata, the capital of the Transkei, which then consisted of a few paved streets and some government buildings.