MAGONA’S DEVASTATING UPLIFTING STORY OF SA WOMEN
WHEN the Village Sleeps spans three generations of women in one family and the central role of ancestral belief and ancient custom – or a lack of it – in their lives.
It first focuses on Busi, a promising young student who benefits from an education at a good school due to the hard work and friendship of her grandmother with her former white employer.
It reveals the devastating motivation behind Busi’s teenage pregnancy – orchestrated to produce a financial reward in the form of a child support grant from the state.
The shocking story at the centre of Magona’s latest novel is as heartbreaking as it is cruel – and yet the character of Busi’s daughter Mandlakazi (or Mandla) overturns the notion that her birth is a tragedy. She becomes the heroine who unites her family.
Magona is a pioneering writer who, with this new novel, continues to feature challenging contemporary issues in her work, with incisive commentaries on power, masculinity and the role of women.
The old and the new
Mandla’s great-grandmother, Khulu, who takes baby Mandla to the rural Eastern Cape to recuperate, is central to the story and it is her unending devotion that seems to bring about such a significant change in the “broken bundle” she brings home to Sidwadweni.
Referencing the poetry and teachings of celebrated isiXhosa-language author and historian SEK Mqhayi, the narration frequently shifts into poetry to enable the voice of Mandla to articulate her nascent consciousness which seems fused with her ancestors.
No wonder Mandla is so transformed by the years she spends under Khulu’s care. She returns to Kwanele township in Cape Town with a divine gift that enables her to access the ancestral realm and predict the future.
Central to the novel is abenzakalise (those who have harmed) and the consequences of their actions. On a personal level this relates to Busi’s strained relationship with her mother Phyllis and her estranged father, and then, as a teenager, the alcohol and the street drug tik she imbibes in order to deform her baby and receive the state’s disability allowance.
However, all of these characters are shown to be capable of redemption and change, as long as they adhere to Khulu’s wisdom – which is by no means a fixed regurgitation of “tradition” but a practical, living faith. So the resilience and strength of all the female characters shines through, as it does in Magona’s celebrated 2008 novel Beauty’s Gift.
A devastating critique
On a wider allegorical level the novel reads as a critique of South Africa itself, the impact of colonialism and the ruling ANC, who have harmed the people through corruption and a failure to tackle inequality, stunting the growth of a healthy, prosperous nation.
Explicit critique of the government and particularly government handouts which do nothing to alleviate poverty, but just entrench feelings of helplessness, is evident throughout the novel.
Magona makes incisive judgements, through her characters – especially the elder Khulu and young Mandla – and offers possible solutions, which include honouring the Earth and returning to self-sufficiency. This idealism can feel naive at times but there’s something very seductive and straightforward about the self-care, and self-respect that comes from citizens helping themselves and transforming their communities from within.
Towards the end, the book tips into a kind of disabled girls’ manifesto or set of instructions for how to set up community-based support for disabled and marginalised young people. However, Magona expertly shifts the narrative at that point back to a dialogue with the ancestors and manages to transform the didactic elements of the tale into wisdom that reaches up to the present day and the threat of Covid-19.
Recent commentary on the difficulties of enforcing social distancing in communities which rely on food parcels during the pandemic, forcing locals to gather together to collect much needed help, is painful to read. The mistakes are so preventable and obvious and yet are made time and again.
Atree is an adjunct professor, Richmond American International University.