When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head

First published: 1968

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of plot: 1964

Locale: Golema Mmidi, Botswana

Principal characters

• Makhaya, a South African refugee
• Paulina Sebeso, a single mother
• Gilbert, an agricultural specialist from England
• Mma Millipede, the aging village matriarch
• Dinorego, her longtime friend
• Paramount Chief Sekoto, the tribal chief over Golema Mmidi
• Chief Matenge, his brother

The Story:

Makhaya has fled South Africa because of his involvement in a bomb plot. He crosses the border into Botswana, and after being befriended by Dinorego, he decides to stay in the village of Golema Mmidi. Dinorego immediately introduces him to Gilbert, a British agricultural specialist who has also made the village of Golema Mmidi his home. Dinorego calls Gilbert his son, and explains to Makhaya that Gilbert is a giving person, always wanting to help people become more prosperous. He tells him that Gilbert can even eat the local food—sour milk porridge and goat meat—which has turned European stomachs in the past.

Gilbert has been working diligently on a cattle cooperative in Botswana for three years, and everyone has been looking forward to reaping its benefits except Chief Matenge. Matenge, who is a spoiled and authoritarian troublemaker, has been dispatched by his brother Sekoto to Golema Mmidi to keep Gilbert from becoming a nuisance. Matenge and Gilbert have been at loggerheads for many months over the cooperative, and every advance that Gilbert makes in the project results in two steps back because of Matenge’s intrusions.

Dinorego refers Makhaya to Gilbert, believing the newcomer can assist the Englishman in his agricultural undertakings. Gilbert invites Makhaya to share a meal with him at his house, and he is amazed when Makhaya explains the simple tribal name that he was given. Gilbert decides that Makhaya is not interested in tribalism and decides to take him on as a worker on his farm. He teaches Makhaya how to drive a tractor and gives him lessons in agriculture; Makhaya then utilizes his knowledge of the Tswana language to pass on the European’s agricultural information to the women of the village.

Golema Mmidi has suffered a drought, and without cultivation the land and streams were taken over by dry grass. Gilbert sees that fencing the area would prevent the livestock from freely grazing and would prevent desertification, but Matenge tells people that Gilbert wants to enslave them by putting up fences on their land. Gilbert wins the elders over by showing them the progress made by fencing his own land. Soon, everyone is interested in the changes that Gilbert initiates, but their interest only serves to infuriate Matenge. When Matenge finds out that Gilbert has hired a refugee on his farm, he approaches his brother Sekoto, who informs him that he will have to speak to the police.

Despite being burdened with the anger he carries as a result of living as a second-class citizen in apartheid-era South Africa, Makhaya succeeds in winning over everyone he meets, including the police constable, George Appleby-Smith. George agrees to support Makhaya after questioning him. The constable believes that Makhaya’s quiet and respectful deameanor underscores his past, which at times makes him indignant over situations that he cannot control. Makhaya also meets Mma Millipede, who takes an instant liking to him based on his vulnerable state. Without realizing it, Makhaya has also made an admirer of Paulina Sebeso, who is attracted to Makhaya’s good looks. Unaware of her interest, however, Makhaya unintentionally spurns Paulina’s advances. When Gilbert undertakes a large-scale millet plantation project, he puts Makhaya in charge of instructing the women of the village. It is only after the millet project begins that Makhaya starts to realize Paulina’s feelings.

Paulina is a single mother to two children. Her eight-year-old son works at the cattle post for most of the year, in return for which Paulina receives payments that help her and her daughter subsist. When a famine strikes the cattle post, many cattle die, and the men who have been at the post return to their villages. Paulina asks Rankoane, one of the ranchers, why he did not send her son home. He responds that he expected her son to have arrived two weeks ago, as he had sent him home with a severe cough. Distraught, Paulina decides to go into the bush to find him. Makhaya accompanies her, and they find the bones of her son huddled in an empty mud hut. After returning to Golema Mmidi, Paulina holds a funeral service for her son that the whole village attends. A week passes, and Paulina receives a visit from one of Matenge’s servants, who tells her that she has offended the chief and must report to the court.

Paulina’s offense to the chief is her failure to report her son’s death. A crowd of Paulina’s friends has gathered at her house, expecting to report for work to begin planting millet. The women accompany Paulina to Chief Matenge’s house, and on the way they draw a large crowd of other villagers, including Dinorego, Makhaya, and Gilbert. The crowd waits, unsure of what to expect, until George Appleby-Smith arrives. Makhaya tires of waiting and breaks down the door; he finds the body of Matenge waiting, hanging from a rope. George determines that Matenge was fearful of the crowd and decided to take his own life; he phones Sekoto to explain that his brother has killed himself.

Makhaya is haunted by the vision of vultures surrounding the body of Paulina’s son. He struggles to come to terms with the idea of a world where children can face such a wretched end. He finds comfort in his ability to create a new beginning with Paulina, to whom he proposes marriage; she happily agrees.

Bibliography

Abrahams, Cecil, ed. The Tragic Life: Bessie Head and Literature in Southern Africa. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1990. The essays in this collection discuss the themes commonly found within Head’s work, as well as the author’s imagery, narrative strategies, feminist discourses, and representations of madness.

Brown, Coreen. The Creative Vision of Bessie Head. Flushing, N.Y.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003. Discusses Head’s life and the ways in which her novels reflect the personal struggles she faced in her lifetime. Provides a good critical interpretation of each text and addresses the importance of each one within Head’s oeuvre.

Eilersen, Gillian Stead. Bessie Head: Thunder Behind Her Ears—Her Life and Writing. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1995. A basic biography; provides useful background to the author’s work by recounting her life and exile.

Head, Bessie. A Woman Alone. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1990. Collection of Head’s essays, in which she writes about her troubled beginnings as a “colored” woman growing up in South Africa and about her migration to Botswana. She also discusses the process of writing and how her life experiences have informed her fiction.

Ibrahim, Huma, ed. Emerging Perspectives on Bessie Head. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2006. This collection of commentary from scholars around the globe constitutes a detailed and comprehensive critical work on Head. Evaluates Head’s contribution to the canon of African literature, as well as the range and scope of her fiction and nonfiction.

Johnson, Joyce. Bessie Head: The Road of Peace of Mind—A Critical Appreciation. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008. Focuses on Head’s creative process; seeks to detect and analyze the author’s use of oral traditions in her written work.

Sample, Maxine, ed. Critical Essays on Bessie Head. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press, 2003. A collection of scholarly essays that focus on themes commonly found in Head’s work. Maureen Fielding’s essay focusing on agriculture and healing and Maxine Sample’s commentary on space and perspective are both equally imperative to anyone interested in When Rain Clouds Gather.