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Elizabeth Nyoni
Father to Golide Gumele/Livingstone Stanley Tikiti and Minenhle Tikiti, Bafana Ndlelaphi is a travel-loving young man in an unnamed, colonized African country implied to be Southern Rhodesia (pre-independence Zimbabwe). The white colonial farmer on whose farm Bafana grows up teaches him to read and write; after reading about famous explorers in the farmer’s library, Bafana changes his name to Baines Tikiti—“Baines” after John Thomas Baines (1820-1874), a British man who explored parts of Africa and Australia, and Tikiti after the word “ticket.” He becomes an assistant to a traveling salesman, meets and marries a woman named Prudence, and moves to South Africa without her after impregnating her. Eventually Baines sends Prudence money so that she and his son Livingstone (named after Scottish explorer David Livingstone) can join him in South Africa. During their visit, Baines impregnates Prudence again and shares his love of airplanes with Livingstone—but sends them back to Southern Rhodesia because he can’t accept Livingstone’s albinism. Afterward, Baines keeps sending money to Prudence, but she keeps sending it back, a reaction that distresses Baines so much he eventually walks into the Indian Ocean and allows it to sweep him away.
Baines Tikiti/Bafana Ndlelaphi Quotes in The Theory of Flight
The The Theory of Flight quotes below are all either spoken by Baines Tikiti/Bafana Ndlelaphi or refer to Baines Tikiti/Bafana Ndlelaphi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 1, Part 1: Genealogy
Quotes
He felt that the name that he had been born with, Bafana Ndlelaphi—which literally meant, ‘boys, which is the way’—was not fit for an explorer such as himself and so he changed it to Baines Tikiti. Tikiti—a ticket, something one purchased in order to go on a journey. Something that gave one purpose.
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Book 1, Part 2: History
Quotes
The man told Bhekithemba how he had come up with his theory of flight on September 3, 1978, as he watched elephants swim across the Zambezi River. What had made the first elephant cross was that it could see the other bank of the river—the elephant would not have swum into the ocean, of this the man was certain. What made the other elephants follow was the successful passage of the first. The man wanted people to know that they were capable of flight, and at first he had erroneously thought that they would realize this if he taught them how to build airplanes. After watching the elephants, he understood that what was needed was merely his own belief in flight. If people saw him build a giant pair of silver wings, then they too would believe that they could fly.
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Baines Tikiti/Bafana Ndlelaphi Quotes in The Theory of Flight
The The Theory of Flight quotes below are all either spoken by Baines Tikiti/Bafana Ndlelaphi or refer to Baines Tikiti/Bafana Ndlelaphi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1, Part 1: Genealogy
Quotes
He felt that the name that he had been born with, Bafana Ndlelaphi—which literally meant, ‘boys, which is the way’—was not fit for an explorer such as himself and so he changed it to Baines Tikiti. Tikiti—a ticket, something one purchased in order to go on a journey. Something that gave one purpose.
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Book 1, Part 2: History
Quotes
The man told Bhekithemba how he had come up with his theory of flight on September 3, 1978, as he watched elephants swim across the Zambezi River. What had made the first elephant cross was that it could see the other bank of the river—the elephant would not have swum into the ocean, of this the man was certain. What made the other elephants follow was the successful passage of the first. The man wanted people to know that they were capable of flight, and at first he had erroneously thought that they would realize this if he taught them how to build airplanes. After watching the elephants, he understood that what was needed was merely his own belief in flight. If people saw him build a giant pair of silver wings, then they too would believe that they could fly.
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