The Girl Who Killed A Nation

The Girl who Killed a Nation is a fast-paced tale that is deeply reflective, readable
and down to earth, and will draw in lovers of travel, history, and personal
memoir. It is a true African story that will
change readers' perceptions.

How
did a teenage girl cause the death of 40,000 of her own people in 1856 - and why
do some compare her to an African Joan of Arc or Greta Thunberg? Was she a
black liberation leader, a malicious liar or the disruptor of a conservative
patriarchal society?



Join
Treive Nicholas on a moving physical and spiritual journey from the Wild Coast
of South Africa to a highly symbolic grave in Cambridgeshire, England as he
searches for the infamous teenage prophetess Nongqawuse - leader of the popular
mass movement known as the Great Cattle Killing (1856-57).



Fate
is his constant companion, gently leading him to the rivers, woods and pastures
where mercurial spirits, kings, prophets, witch doctors and colonial leaders
played out this visceral African story in the cauldron of nine wars, settler
invasion and cruel natural disasters. The ripples of this almost unbelievable
tragedy are still felt today.



On
the grassy hills of the Eastern Cape, Treive concludes the South African leg of
his pilgrimage, holding an open-air court at the grave of the revered amaXhosa
ruler, King Hintsa. The verdict on his death? Bloody regicide, at the hands of
Sir Harry Smith, the Hero of Aliwal and darling of Victorian society.



After
recovering from four tropical diseases, and much to Treive's great surprise, the
journey does not end there. Instead, it all comes uncomfortably closer to home.
Much closer.