No Turning Back
By: Beverly Naidoo
No Turning Back is a book about Sipho, a boy who lived with his pregnant mother and
stepfather in a small village in South Africa. Sipho took off to Hillbrow after his stepfather beat
him one too many times. When Sipho arrives, he has next to nothing: No money, no place to
sleep, no family to turn to. After wandering around for a few hours, he runs into Joseph and
Jabu.
Joseph and Jabu are two of the numerous malunde* boys. They invite Sipho to stay with
them and the rest of their friends. When Sipho, Joseph and Jabu get to Checkers, Sipho meets
the other malunde, including Vusi, Thabo, Matthew, and Lucas, the leader of the malunde gang.
Jabu shows Sipho how to make money by pushing carts at Checkers, and after he has made
some money, Vusi takes it and buys them lunch, keeping the change. Sipho talks to Jabu about
what Vusi did, and is warned to be careful, he has a knife.
That day, Sipho sees Matthew and Joseph buy iglue (glue). That night and the next,
Sipho sees them sniff it. Later, Jabu warns him not to sniff glue, because one of his friends had
died from it. Jabu offers to take Sipho to Rosebank to buy a coat to stay warm so that he
doesn’t sniff any more iglue.
When the malunde boys get back to their pozzie, they see that some of the hoboes have
stolen their sleeping place. They manage to get them to leave, and then fall asleep. They are
awoken when they are tied up and thrown into the back of a gumba-gumba (police van) and
driven away. The malunde are thrown into a lake after the long drive. Only a few of the
malunde can swim. When they get out, they discover that the lake bottom is covered in broken
glass, and their feet are cut and bleeding. They walk the whole way back to Hillbrow.
In the morning, Mr. Danny (the owner of a store called Danny’s Den) finds Sipho still
soaking wet and offers him a job. For pay, Sipho gets a place to sleep and food. Everyone but
Mr. Danny’s son David greets him warmly. Judy keeps trying to lighten David up, but he remains
surly. Weeks later, Sipho runs away from Mr. Danny’s house. He has had enough of David’s
attitude and accusing him of stealing. He goes back to Hillbrow to find the other malunde.
When he returns, he finds that Jabu is in a shelter for street children.
Sipho goes to visit Jabu in the shelter and ends up staying at the shelter too. He meets
Brother Zack and Sis Pauline. Sipho learns about a Peace gathering and singing in a few weeks
and agrees to go. He later learns that his mother’s village has been burned down. Sis Pauline
and Brother Zack promise to find her so she knows where her son is.
Sipho goes to the Pease Gathering, but refuses to sing. After the Peace Gathering, Sipho
takes a bus with Sis Pauline to the house where his mother and sister Thembi are staying. He
tells his mother what has happened since he left and promises to come back.
*malunde is Zulu slang for a person living on the street
I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone. It is a well-written book by an
author who has won various prizes for her work. Beverly Naidoo has also written Journey to
Jo’Burg, Chain of Fire and several other books. I would recommend reading any of those books.
I liked this book because it was based on her own experience when she was living in South
Africa, and it was one of the most openly racist countries in the world. She wrote about how
some people were living, not how we want to believe people were living.