Those whose ears reflect the light of the sun

An excerpt from a recent South African novel uses one of my favourite phrases for non-indigenous person: '...that part of kwaXhosa that had been conquered and settled by the children of Queen Victoria -- they whose ears reflected the light of the sun -- continued to eat.' Zakes Mda Heart of Redness New York: Farrar, Strauss & Young, 2000, p. 74