Questions, hope, and determination in Nomzamo Dube’s Milk, Bile and Honey

When the war ends, Nomzamo Dube’s protagonist becomes a fugitive and begins a war of destiny. A simultaneous war that involves running away from the freedom he fought for on one hand, and facing his unresolved past on the other. He is still that man born out of wedlock, now on a quest to know his father. But there is another thing, he makes a girl pregnant and denies responsibility.

A lot happens in a country learning how to be free. Equally, a lot happens to a boy turned into a man by war, for he now must learn to be a father by himself. These are the circumstances that shape the protagonist’s character in Nomzamo Dube’s debut novel, Milk, Bile and Honey.

The issues explored are gripping, but how the story begins is even more compelling, “How could a mother carry a child for 9 months and not in the process think about a list of names to pick from?” Anyone who has ever attempted to write a book will confess writing is no child’s play and what is even more difficult is how to begin the story.

I have read three books whose beginning, like Milk, Bile and Honey is absorbing. Tsitsi Dangarembwa begins her award-winning novel Nervous Conditions in a seemingly insensitive yet captivating way “I was not sorry when my brother died.” Petina Gapa’s Book of Memory begins in a rather simplistic yet sophisticated manner, “The story that you have asked me to tell you does not begin with the pitiful ugliness of Lloyd’s death.” Those who have read Dambudzo Marechera will not forget the, “I got my things and left” line that begins his novella, House of Hunger. Milk Bile and Honey begins with an effortless question, one that seeks answers.

Written in first person narration and spiced with humor, Nomzamo Dube makes you fall in love, empathize and more importantly adopt the protagonist’s inquisitive personality which is evident at the beginning of the story. Reading the book, you cannot help but ask, “how can a man who knows the pain of growing without a father deny impregnating the girl he loves?” or “How can a man fight for freedom, then choose to run away from it?” But as highlighted earlier, a lot happens to a man learning to be a father in a country learning how to be free. One of these many things is captured in Joshua Nkomo’s book, The Story of My Life when he says “a nation can win freedom without its people becoming free.”
The protagonist is a relatable character. He is a patriotic citizen repealed by his own country. He leaves for South Africa, leaving behind a beautiful girl pregnant with his child. Life in the diaspora is not easy as an undocumented immigrant. The circumstances he finds himself in are the same circumstances many Zimbabweans, young and old, find themselves in now.
Milk, Bile and Honey is not just about Nomzamo Dube’s protagonist, it is about many Zimbabweans and everyone who identifies with the protagonist.

The book is a multi-themed story. It touches, in the larger scheme of things, issues of tribalism and failed nation building. It also summons a revisiting and questioning of history in terms of the Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. In a more particular sense, it explores family politics in a patriarchal society, love and marriage, religion and its relief effect. But above all, the story is about individual determination and hope.

Milk, Bile and Honey is a story of solemnity garnished with humor.

Follow this link to get a copy of the novel: https://www.amazon.com/Milk-Bile-Honey-Nomzamo-Dube-ebook/dp/B08FF2RMBR

Meet the Reviewer

Nkosiyazi Kan Kanjiri is a writer and guest columnist who writes for various South African newspapers that include the Daily Dispatch, the Daily News, Pretoria News, The Daily Star and the Cape Argus. He comments on politics and social issues. He is a University of Fort Hare Social Work graduate and lives in South Africa.