Читать книгу African-Language Literatures - Innocentia Jabulisile Mhlambi - Страница 13

The narrative opens with Cele, John’s uncle, who comes from rural Eshowe, paying an unscheduled visit to John, who lives in Umlazi. John has a good position at work and he keeps to a tight schedule and is thus unable to let his uncle see him until he has made an appointment. An angry Cele eventually secures an appointment but John is not happy to hear what Cele has come to talk to him about. Cele has come to ask John, who we learn is an aspiring petit bourgeois, to take over the guardianship of his sister’s children (begotten out of wedlock), since she (the mother of the children) has now married a different man. John refuses to take on this customary responsibility, citing personal and financial reasons. But it emerges later that the real reason is that he is afraid of his wife, Popi, a nagging and domineering wife, who is a matron in one of the local hospitals. It also emerges that John’s family life is based on Eurocentric norms and values and therefore the addition of two children to their family budget is out of the question as it would mean he would no longer be able to afford the lifestyle he wants to pursue.

Cele decides to keep the children, Uzithelile and Hlanganisani. They grow up in rural Eshowe, helping him with daily chores and at the same time working as domestics with local white employers. By contrast John’s children, Euthanasia and Melody, are juvenile delinquents.

Drastic changes occur with Euthanasia, John’s son. After getting into trouble at school, he runs away from home to Eshowe to his grandfather’s place where, on arrival, he receives a royal welcome. A goat is slaughtered in his honour and bile is sprinkled over him. He is given a new name, Vikizitha, as the European name did not have much sense or value for the rural people. Eventually he goes back home as a reborn youth who espouses different values to those practiced at his home. Although this places him at loggerheads with his family, particularly with his mother, the family eventually accepts him. He gradually transfers these values to his sister, Melody, who is renamed Vukuzithathe by their rural cousins.

John’s lifestyle and marriage disintegrate and because he leads a solitary life in Umlazi he is unable to reconnect with his neighbours who would have given him support. After relocating to La Lucia John abandons his family and leads a hedonistic life of overindulgence in women and alcohol. In his absence his wife manages to get herself educated, acquiring a PhD degree. The children are invited by their rural cousins, who by this time have secured scholarships after matriculating, to come and study in America. The narrative ends with a dejected John eventually coming back home to rural Eshowe where his rural relatives re-unite him with his ailing wife.