You see, they say they are fighting for freedom, yet they are no different from the tribal chief and his followers. They commit atrocities as well. - Zakes Mda

The villagers will actually lose more than they will gain from the few jobs that will be created. Very little of the money that is made here will circulate in the village.

Yes, Bhonco carries the scars that were inflicted on his great-grandfather, Twin-Twin, by men who flogged him after he had been identified as a wizard by Prophet Mlanjeni, the Man of the River. Every first boy-child in subsequent generations of Twin-Twin’s tree is born with the scars.”

Yet there is nothing that rises, phoenix-like, out of the ashes. All the Whale Caller can do at the scene of the explosion is sit "silent and still as blubber rains on him. Until he is completely larded with it"