Seventy years ago a hippo called Huberta was the darling of news editors all over the world and two delightful books on her story have recently been published.
Huberta by Peter Younghusband is essentially a picture book with a fairly long text. It recounts how, orphaned by hunters in KwaZulu-Natal, Huberta began a journey that took her more than 1Â 000km southwards.
The author of this true and charming story accounts for her solitary migration into territory that had not seen hippo for 50 to 100 years, by saying that she had learned to face her left flank to the rising sun every morning. She wandered past Tongaat and Stanger, but went right through the heart of Durban, causing an uproar in West Street.
Once in the Transkei she came under the protection of a powerful sangoma who declared her to be a manifestation of ancestral spirits, so she was left in peace by Xhosa hunters.
Sadly, when she reached the Keiskamma River she was shot and killed by ignorant white farmers who were brought to justice and heavily fined. (The infamous Oswald Pirow did something right for once when he ordered an investigation into her death.)
Huberta’s journey and the attempts to catch her had been scoop news across the world, making editors leap into the air and snap their red braces on their fat bellies. Her death was widely mourned, and the final chapter is an exchange of letters between two little girls in Philadelphia in the United States and the editor of the Natal Mercury.
The illustrations in pen and watercolour are amusing and historically accurate, and the “lovely-ugly” Huberta is especially endearingly drawn.
The text is well written, full of factual detail, and quite realistic about the violence done to Huberta, as well as the violence done by Huberta’s father to the Zulu fishermen.
This book will be enjoyed by children from the age of three upwards as it offers many levels of entry, and should become a classic of South African children’s literature.
The Legend of Huberta by Meg Jordan tells a similar story, but is a very different book. Although both books carry a very strong conservation message, Jordan gives hers a spiritual dimension and has Huberta undertake her journey as a sort of sacred mission to fix the rivers of the south that have not had the benefit of good, solid hippo bodies clearing their waterways for decades, nor doing all the other good things that hippos do for the environment.
Some purists may object to having Huberta speak English and engage in philosophical discussions, but much scientific fact is also imparted in the often amusing dialogue.
Lyrically written, with many sketches and dreamy colour pictures, it should appeal to children between the ages of five (read aloud) and 14. Also a wonderful addition to South African children’s literature.