Dinner at Eight by Ezekiel Mphahlele
"Dinner at Eight" is a narrative by Ezekiel Mphahlele that explores complex themes of race, power dynamics, and morality within the context of apartheid-era South Africa. The story centers around Miss Pringle, a self-righteous white woman who engages in welfare work, ostensibly to help marginalized black communities. However, her motivations are deeply flawed, as she seeks to fulfill her own sense of superiority and control rather than genuinely assist those in need.
The plot thickens with the character of Mzondi, a black inmate with a disability who is wary of Miss Pringle's intentions. He perceives her invitations to dinner as manipulative, fearing that she intends to expose his secret involvement in illegal activities. Tensions escalate as Mzondi accepts her invitation, leading to a tragic climax fueled by mistrust and desperation.
The story not only reflects the social realities of racial interactions in South Africa but also critiques the superficial liberalism that can mask deeper prejudices. Ultimately, "Dinner at Eight" serves as a poignant commentary on the consequences of social inequality and the complexities of human relationships in a divided society.
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Dinner at Eight by Ezekiel Mphahlele
First published: 1961
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: The late 1950's
Locale: Johannesburg, South Africa
Principal Characters:
Miss Pringle , a single white woman, the director of the Sheltered Employment DepotMzondi , a black man who works for her at the depot
The Story
The daughter of an upright pastor, Miss Pringle is a self-righteous white South African woman who enjoys having black people hover over her admiringly. Her superficial liberalism has driven her into welfare work, in which she enjoys forcibly befriending helpless and needy Coloureds and Africans. The work fills a void in her otherwise dull life. She heads the Sheltered Employment Depot, a private workshop that trains "incurable cripples" in new trades. Preferring to work with blacks rather than whites because the latter are too independent, Miss Pringle prides herself in her knowledge and understanding of Africans.
Miss Pringle hides her fondness for Mzondi, a black inmate with a disability, under the guise of trying to help him with a problem that she alone perceives. She repeatedly invites him to dinner at her apartment, but he views her attention suspiciously and loathes her lack of decorum. One Monday morning, he is about to turn down her dinner invitation for the fifth time when the routine arrival of a police officer checking on a burglary report at the Depot changes the course of the day. When Mzondi sees the constable and Miss Pringle chatting and glancing in his direction, he assumes that she knows his secret and that this time her invitation is designed to get him drunk in her apartment so that he will confess his secret—that he has made two hundred pounds from bootlegging—so that she can turn him in to the police.
Determined to do Miss Pringle in before she does him in, Mzondi finally accepts her invitation. At her apartment building in Johannesburg's white-only Hillbrow neighborhood, she sneaks him up to her fourth-floor flat through a basement elevator designated for "Natives, goods, and hawkers." Although Miss Pringle knows that the police watch her for possible violations of the national Immorality Act because she entertains nonwhite guests, she is unaware that the building's watchman has telephoned the police. She performs her routine check of her apartment window to ensure that the police are not watching. Interpreting this gesture as a signal to the police, Mzondi decides to carry out his plan. After asking her to massage his aching and useless knee, he clubs her on the back of her head with his crutch, crushing her skull. As Mzondi leaves the building, he gives five pounds to the watchman—who only minutes earlier accepted a five-shilling bribe from a white police officer—promising him more money if he never reveals what he has seen that night.
Physically and mentally exhausted, Mzondi enjoys only a brief escape. Early the next morning, his body is found by a tree, his arms embracing its trunk.