Name: Maru
ISBN: 9780435909635

Bessie Head

"Margaret Cadmore, an orphaned Masarwa girl, goes to teach in the remote village of Dilepe in Botswana, where her own people are kept as slaves. Her presence polarizes a community which does not see Masarwa people as human, and condemns her to the lonely life of an outcast"--Publisher's description.

Maru

Marion

Before the white man became universal se for his mental outlook, it was there. The white man found only too many people who looked different. That was all that outraged the receivers of his discrimination, that he applied the technique of the wild jiggling dance and the rattling tin cans to anyone who was not a white man. And if the white man thought that Asians were a low, filthy nation, Asians could still smile with relief-at least, they were not Africans. And if the white man thought Africans were a low, filthy nation, Africans in Southern Africa could still smile— at least, they were not Bushmen. They all have their monsters.

You just have to look different from them, the way the facial features of a Sudra or Tamil do not resemble the facial features of a high caste Hindu, then seemingly anything can be said and done to you as your outer appearance reduces you to the status of a nonhuman being.

They all had, and their relatives had, the best education but the best was used as an adornment of their social status. Dike-ledi had no need of employment but unlike others who made wealth synonymous with idleness, wealth gave her the freedom to specialize in what interested her most. In fact, barely half a year ago she had returned from England with a diploma in early childhood education. It wasn't for her own sake either that she drew in a sharp, hissing breath.

Something they liked as Africans to pretend themselves incapable of was being exposed to oppression and prejudice. They always knew it was there but no oppressor believes in his op-pression. He always says he treats his slaves nicely. He never says that there ought not to be slaves. 

My second Bessie head book published in 1971, and last book of the year, took me a while to get through this though it’s only about 100 pages. The first half was very good, in the second half she introduces magical realism and lost me.

I like the theme being oppression via a caste system in a pre colonial society.

The ending really made me shake my head does bessie head really believe interracial relations were the key to a post racial society or did she just have her protagonist marry the antagonist who could see a post colonial society would see the oppressed society become the new ruling class so in forward thinking a form of seeking upward mobility. My interpretation is on the latter. It’s obvious in novel the society is changing; traditional leaders will be done with soon, Margaret is part of a new class the educated elite despite her lower caste status, in my opinion the marriage is a calculated move of upward mobility.

Though I didn’t particularly enjoy this one, I really love her work and i will be reading a zine of her work i got from a friend that worked at wolff architects who have done a lot of work on bessie head archives

My second Bessie head book published in 1971, and last book of the year, took me a while to get through this though it’s only about 100 pages. The first half was very good, in the second half she introduces magical realism and lost me.

I like the theme being oppression via a caste system in a pre colonial society.

The ending really made me shake my head does bessie head really believe interracial relations were the key to a post racial society or did she just have her protagonist marry the antagonist who could see a post colonial society would see the oppressed society become the new ruling class so in forward thinking a form of seeking upward mobility. My interpretation is on the latter. It’s obvious in novel the society is changing; traditional leaders will be done with soon, Margaret is part of a new class the educated elite despite her lower caste status, in my opinion the marriage is a calculated move of upward mobility.

Though I didn’t particularly enjoy this one, I really love her work and i will be reading a zine of her work i got from a friend that worked at wolff architects who have done a lot of work on bessie head archives

Maru

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