What a tremendous work this is. Ostensibly a story
explaining the actions of a group of slaves in South Africa in the early 19th
century, this tale of oppression, blindness, hypocrisy, injustice, love and
prejudice is a startling and moving key to the lives of all those involved in
the drama.
Each character has his or her own voice, expressing
emotion and action in terms that bring that person to life on the page. The
book is divided into 4 parts without chapters but with each section presented
through the words of one of the many individuals who make up the cast. Everyone
from the lowliest slave to the most self-congratulatory owner is allowed their
say. There is no bias here. The actions of each character are described through
the eyes of many as well as through the words of the individual involved in
those actions. This technique, whilst making for a lengthy work, ensures that a
fully rounded picture of the reality is received by the reader.
I’ve never read a work of fiction in which the
people are so real, so varied, so open to examination. We’re exposed to
honourable men, devious people, complicated women, thieves, scoundrels, heroes,
wicked hypocrites, murderers, bullies, mothers, wantons; in fact, the entire panoply
of human life. We experience evil, intense goodness, anger, love, hate, lust,
usage, deep and unacknowledged hypocrisy, prejudice, ignorance, sacrifice, and
every other emotion that can be imagined.
The 516 pages of the edition I read are packed with
incident, emotion, information; all presented in styles to suit the specific
narrators, without ever making the reader feel that even the lowliest,
uneducated speaker does other than express the truth as he or she is convinced
is the reality. Nothing so simple as the ‘unreliable narrator’ here. Everyone
has a secret, some flaws, a view that’s not always in line with actual events.
But this concentration on reality has the effect of making all but the most despicable
of the characters more accessible, easier to empathise with, rather than
alienating the reader.
Much is made of the position of the Bible and
Christian values as promoted by the Boer farmers to their pagan slaves. Regular
readers will know that I’m a passionate agnostic (if that doesn’t seem too
close to an oxymoron for you) and I’m aware that this must colour my reading of
this aspect of the story. But it’s difficult to see how the author could have
had anything in mind other than the debunking of the utter hypocrisy of these
supposedly devout people. He has them spouting texts that encourage
fellow-feeling whilst they beat their unfortunate slaves almost to death. The
masters take the women as and when they wish and then express disgust and
surprise at the relationships developing between slaves.
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| Scars of a whipped slave (April 2, 1863, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. Original caption: "Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer. The very words of poor Peter, taken as he sat for his picture." (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The position of women in this society is wound
through the story as a comment on inequality, paralleling that of the slaves.
But the situation of the masters, farmers, traders, is described in terms that
make it easier to understand how and why they should be capable of blindness
and inhumanity in a savage land badly governed by distant authority. There are
echoes here of the early days of the USA, when pioneers used the Bible, very
selectively of course, to justify their cruelty and self-imposed superiority
over their women and slaves. That such attitudes persist in such quantity today
simply illustrates the self-perpetuating nature of the type of brain-washing
that closed communities impose on their offspring. The South African situation
of this book is such an accurate reflection of that persisting in the USA that
the astute reader is forced to conclude that it was deliberate on the part of
the author.
I’d like to see this piece of powerful, truthful and
instructive fiction made widely available in all lands where prejudice,
ignorance and religious extremism hold sway over the population. Any reading of
this story must demand a re-examination of the views held by bigots, evangelical
missionaries and those who continue to believe that colour is a rightful basis
for prejudice.
I could go on at length but I’d much rather you read
the book and came to your own conclusions. I found myself absorbed and involved
in the story throughout, never feeling apart from events but always an integral
part of what the author conveys with some of the finest writing I’ve come
across. I think it’s redundant to say I recommend this. But, sometimes, a
statement of the bleeding obvious is a necessary emphasis.
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