LYDIA UMKASETEMBA

The collection of Zulu Izinganekwane (Oral Narratives [published in 1868]) is distinguished largely because it contains narratives performed by a great Zulu artist, Lydia umkaSetemba (also called Uskebe Ngubane in the volume. Her performances of the stories of uCombecantsini and uNtombi yaphansi (names of women) are among the finest southern African narratives so far collected. She performed five other narratives for the Callaway collection, and it is her "Umxakaza-wakogingqwayo" (the name of the central character) that is the finest work of art in this volume; it is a lengthy narrative that falls into three parts, a splendid example of the application of parallel forms to organize imagery.

-Harold Scheub, "Zulu Oral Tradition and Literature", in Literatures In African Languages (eds. B. W. Andrzejewski, S. Pilaszewicz, W. Tyloch, Warszawa, 1985).