now and then, and when he was
gone the house was in the hands of
women.
In addition to my mom there
was my aunt Sibongile; she and her
first husband, Dinky, had two kids,
my cousins Mlungisi and Bulelwa.
Sibongile was a powerhouse, a
strong woman in every sense, big-
chested, the mother hen. Dinky, as
his name implies, was dinky. He
was a small man. He was abusive,
but not really. It was more like he
tried to be abusive, but he wasn’t
very good at it. He was trying to live
up to this image of what he thought
a husband should be, dominant,