Short Stories during

1
Short Stories during

• South Africas Apartheid Period (1)
• Njabulo Ndebele

2
Black Writers in the Wake of 1976 Soweto Uprising

Njabulo S. Ndebele Pay more attention to
individual psychology and the influences of
tradition. Educated in Cambridge U. Two
stories. Mbulelo Mzamane street writers, for
whom fictional energy is sparked by contact and
conflict of the most abrasive kind. e.g. The Day
of the Riot (Coetzee) (See a quote for
reference)
3
Coetzee on the two kinds of writers

• Their street writersEnglish is lavish,
  careless, without nuance in Mzamane's case it
  bears the marks of a second language. Their
  stories are probably more in tune with the mood
  of the townships today--angry, impatient,
  violent--than are the stories in Fools (by
  Ndebele), with their focus on inner states, on
  innocence and guilt, on self-discovery, on social
  tensions as experienced within the individual
  psyche.

4
White Writers

• J. M. Coetzee e.g. Foe allegory, historical
  revision or metafiction. --Nobel Prize, 2003
• Nadine Gordimer realistic stories of racial
  conflicts and relations. Nobel prize 1991
  Booker Prize

5
Colored (Mixed Blood)

• Bessie Head child of an "illicit" union between
  a Scottish woman and a black man
• Question of Power Exploration of the mind and
  life in a mental hospital.

Bessie Head
6
Njabulo Ndebele

• Ndebele's writings -- constitutes a return to
  more traditional concerns with narrative
  complexity and literary quality." 
• Fools The township life seen through the eyes of
  a young and sensitive protagonist.  With Father
  as a teacher, mother a nurse (e.g. The
  Prophetess The Violin )

7
Ndebele on Children

• "South African literature has generally handled
  the images of childhood as social criticism
• an infant abandoned by its mother.
• Friends going against each other.
• the entrance of the young in national politics?
  education affected (I.e. Soweto uprising)
• Reconstruction should begin with the recovery of
  childhood and innocence. (source
  http//www.uni-ulm.de/rturrell/antho4html/Ndebele
  .html )

8
The Two Stories

• Setting
• Prophetess -- in Charterston
• Music of the Violin --the Johannesburg township
  of Soweto
• South African theme the influence of Bantu
  Education Act childrens anger
• Relevance What education means.
• Prophetess superstition and healing power
• Music of the Violin parental expectation, the
  influence of Western culture

9
Prophetess

• On what is the boys attention focused when he
  visits the prophetess? Are they signs of her
  spirituality?
• dog darkness, vine, his own sensations, memory,
  doek (African headscarf, 11) camphor (12) her
  coughing
• 2. The people on the bus How do they relate to
  each other? And to the prophetess? How are they
  different from each other?

the other women the big woman with washing on her lap
the man with a balaclava (Woollen hat ??????? ) the young man at the back the young man with immaculate dress
10
Prophetess

• 3. Compared with the peoples discussion, how
  does the boy relate to the prophetess? What
  breaks the spell the prophetess has on him? What
  does the ending mean?
• Re A story of initiation. The boy gains
  self-confidence.
• The other issues Sangoma Christianity home
  vs. danger on the street.

11
The Township People on the BusContradictory
Views

• The big womans question have you seen it?
• Believers (chorus) The prophetess trap works
• But they havent seen it.
• Worse, some of them (the man with balaclava and
  the young man at the back) mean to misunderstand
  the big woman or make sexist jokes out of it.
• The immaculately dressed man
• "We laugh at everything just stopping short of
  seriousness. It is any wonder that the white man
  is still sitting on us?
• No proof. It's all superstition. And so much
  about this prophetess also. Some of us are tired
  of her stories.
• The man with balaclava gives warning.

12
The Boy

• Fearful and sensitive
• afraid of both the dog and the prophetess (of
  her lightening and curse, that the dog knows he
  runs away)
• The vineslike a spell to keep him there.
• The doek the only thing visible in darkness.
• her coughing would something come out? ? she
  seems out of breath.
• signs of comfort and his reflection
• p. 8 the dogs passing by him
• p. 8 Was it an effort to save candles?
• P. 12 camphor (? like his mother) Lord, Lord,
  Lord (16)
• Pp. 12-13 The crocheted mats (signs of All
  Saints Church ???)

13
The Prophetess -- as Sangoma (a South African
Shaman)

• Mixture of religious signs
• Christian pp. 13-14 cross on her wall and green
  cape and chalices
• folk religion p. 14 a mask with canine teeth
  pointing upwards a tattoo on her forehead

14
The Prophetess Her Lessons

• P. 14 Speak clearly what you mean use words
  well
• P. 14 Be obedient to your mother learn and serve
  
• P. 14-15 Always listen to new things. Then try
  to create too. Just as I have learnt never to
  page through the dead leaves of hymn books.
• P. 15 the hymn about survival

15
The Prophetess Her Lessons (2)

• p. 16 (prayer ? candle extinguished? laughter ?
  the mask smiles and Jesuss yellow heart meaning?
  )
• P. 16 Water? feel the newness of flower
• P. 17 Her hands like mountains
• We are made of all that is in the world.
• ? combination of Christianity and African
  naturalism and invocation of the spirits.

16
The Boys Growth

• The contrast between Bizas liquid (19) and the
  water the boy has.
• Bumps into a bike.
• He gets another bottle and fills it with water ?
  heals the mother.

17

• Coetzee, J.M. Fools and other stories. The New
  Republic, Dec 22, 1986 v195 p36(3)