Maru by Bessie Head

First published: 1971

Type of work: Social criticism

Time of work: Mid-twentieth century

Locale: Botswana

Principal Characters:

• Maru, an African tribal leader soon to be installed as paramount chief in the village of Dilepe
• Moleka, the second most powerful man in Dilepe
• Margaret Cadmore, a white missionary to Africa
• Margaret Cadmore, a woman of the Bushman tribe reared by and named for Mrs. Cadmore and now a teacher in Dilepe
• Dikeledi, Maru’s sister who teaches with the younger Margaret and is in love with Moleka

The Novel

Maru, one of the Totems or chiefs in his African village of Dilepe and soon to be the village’s paramount chief, is the title character of Bessie Head’s novel, but it is Margaret Cadmore, a member of the Bushman tribe and thus an untouchable in his society, who changes Maru’s personal history and that of her tribe as well when she comes to teach school in Dilepe.

Because she is a Bushman or a Masarwa, Margaret is as looked down upon as the village’s stray dog, with tin cans tied to its tail as a form of torment by the cruel boys of the village. Margaret’s mother dies on the day that Margaret is born, and her corpse lies untouched by the roadside until Margaret Cadmore, a white missionary, issues orders that it be buried and takes the motherless baby into her home, giving it her name and an education. The young Margaret is rejected and even spit upon by her prejudiced classmates, and in her loneliness she turns to the world of her books, thus becoming an excellent student. She realizes early that survival is difficult for a Bushman, and thus she prepares her mind and soul to help her fight the battles that are inevitable because of the color of her skin. Her outstanding academic record wins for her a teaching job in Dilepe, where, her tribal background unknown, she could easily pass as a “coloured,” a person of mixed white and African blood and thus at least marginally acceptable to the African society. Yet she chooses instead to state openly that she is a Masarwa. Her willingness to declare openly her heritage wins for her the love and respect of Dikeledi, with whom she teaches, and she also becomes the object of the love of the two most powerful men in the village: Maru, Dikeledi’s brother, and Moleka, his best friend. Maru is blessed with rare insight into the human heart; thus, he accurately predicts, even before Margaret’s arrival, that a woman will eventually end the friendship between him and Moleka that neither thought could ever end.

Both Maru and Moleka are well-known for their amorous exploits, but Margaret’s arrival quickly turns the whole of Moleka’s attention in her direction. Moleka loves Margaret from the moment he sees her. He feels something in his chest go “bang,” but it is she who clutches her heart. There is an instant communication between them that needs no words. Moleka knows immediately that a part of his life has ended and that he has chosen a different path. When gossip runs rampant because a Masarwa has been hired to teach the village children, Moleka proves his absence of prejudice by asking his own Masarwa servants to sit down at table with him for a meal. He is ready to defy the whole village to have Margaret, but he finds himself in conflict with the only man powerful enough to keep him from having her: Maru. In spite of his best friend’s apparent love for Margaret, Maru plots to make her his own wife, even though doing so means giving up his chieftaincy.

In the face of what he deems to be Maru’s superior power, the practical Moleka turns to the second best woman in the village, Dikeledi. Yearning always for Margaret, he marries Dikeledi when she becomes pregnant. The villages believe that Maru and Moleka have quarreled because of Moleka’s affair with Dikeledi. After all, to find a Masarwa desirable would be inconceivable. On the night of Moleka’s wedding, however, Maru approaches the stunned Margaret, who has always returned Moleka’s love, and takes her away as his bride, sacrificing his right to the chieftaincy, but following his dream of breaking away from the mainstream of life to pursue a less trodden path.

The Characters

Maru and Moleka are presented as kings of two opposing kingdoms, not earthly kingdoms, but inner, spiritual kingdoms. Maru believes that the gods have granted him a special insight into the ways of the world and its people, but he quietly fears Moleka, whose kingdom to him is unfathomable:

  The king who had insight into everything feared the king whose door was still closed. There was no knowing what was behind the closed door of Moleka’s kingdom. Maru had no key to it, but he knew of its existence because if he touched Moleka’s heart with some word or gesture a cloud would lift and he would see a rainbow of dazzling light.

The friendship between the two men ends the second that Maru realizes that the balance of power has shifted in favor of Moleka, because of Moleka’s love for Margaret. Margaret completes Moleka’s previously incomplete kingdom and gives him more power than Maru has: “’He is greater than I in power,’ he thought, at first stunned, taken aback by the sight.” He thinks further, “Moleka had to wait until his door was opened by another hand. Moleka is only half a statement of his kingdom. Someone else makes up the whole. It is the person he now loves.” What makes Moleka a king is his over-abundance of energy. Maru’s gift, on the other hand, is creative imagination. When Margaret’s creative imagination is combined with Moleka’s energy, the two are more powerful than Maru with his creative imagination alone. Maru’s success in winning Margaret depends on his keeping Moleka from realizing Moleka’s own power and how Margaret contributes to that power.

The creative side of Margaret’s nature blossoms suddenly when Dikeledi, acting for Maru, provides her with all the tools of the artist’s trade: oils, water colors, charcoal, paper, and brushes. In a frenzied burst of creative energy, out pour the pictures that have gone unpainted all of Margaret’s life. She paints for Dikeledi, but Dikeledi only passes the works along to Maru, who waits for a sign that it is time to approach Margaret. That sign comes in the form of three paintings that capture on canvas a dream that has been Maru’s for years: a path lined with daisies that leads away from the busy thoroughfares of life, the house at the end of the path that Maru has already prepared for Margaret, and a couple embracing. When Maru goes to Margaret, who lies stunned nearly to the point of death by the news of Moleka’s marriage, he entices her with his belief in the oneness of their spirits: “We used to dream the same dreams. That was how I knew you would love me in the end.”

Critical Context

Head’s novels When Rain Clouds Gather (1969) and A Question of Power (1973) share with Maru a setting in Botswana, where Head herself was a primary-school teacher. All three novels deal with the efforts of the individual to find a place for himself or herself in the cultural milieu. Makhaya, the protagonist in When Rain Clouds Gather, and Elizabeth, in A Question of Power, are both in Botswana seeking refuge from South African apartheid. They, like Margaret, are alienated by the color of their skin. For all three, any sense of belonging, and indeed survival itself, depends on meshing their lives with the lives of those about them. The three novels together form a cohesive statement by Head about the past and future of Africa.

Head’s works also include a compilation of oral African folktales, The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (1977), and A Bewitched Crossroad: An African Saga (1984).

Bibliography

Brown, Lloyd Wellesley. Women Writers in Black Africa, 1981.

Library Journal. Review. XCVI (December 1, 1971), p. 4030.

The New York Times Book Review. Review. LXV (September 26, 1971), p.47.

Publishers Weekly. Review. CC (July 12, 1977), p. 67.

Ravenscroft, Arthur. “The Novels of Bessie Head,” in Aspects of South African Literature, 1976. Edited by Christopher Heywood.

The Times Literary Supplement. Review. February 5, 1971, p. 145.