| stupid paper, don't read |
[Feb. 17th, 2009|09:28 am] |
In the story "Fools" from his collection of short stories, Fools and Other Stories, Njabulo Ndebele explores a number of themes in the South African context including race, class, and education. One of these important topics is that of gender roles and identity. In all of Ndebele's stories we see male protagonists and supporting female characters interacting with each other and their society in prescribed ways. This gives us a sense of male and female roles in South African literature, and more broadly, gives us some insight into how interpersonal politics are played out in South African society at large. These gender roles also serve as an allegory for the oppression prevalent in South Africa before the mid-1990s. In "Fools", Ndebele investigates the construction of these gender identities and how they are subsequently performed, challenged, and violated as a representation of the race/class oppression of apartheid in South Africa.
One of the first characters we are introduced to, Zamani, is tremendously complex and interesting, in large part due to the way he has constructed his gender and sexual identity. If masculinity is traditionally associated with action, with power, with influence, then in Zamani we see a man cut off from these qualities due to his community's changed conception of him as a man. The prevailing quality that has come to characterize Zamani as we find him in the beginning and through much of the story is that of impotence. Because of a violent crime Zamani commits against a girl in the town, namely the rape of Mimi, Zamani is effectively emasculated. The girl's family, Zamani's wife, and his community at large no longer respect him or grant him the personal agency he needs to feel actualized as a man. Similarly, the white South Africans have taken away the personal agency of black South Africans, relegating them to subservient roles in society.
Even as early as the first pages of the story, we find Zamani taking on the inactive role of perceiving and appraising Zani, who comes to symbolize the youthful, brash masculinity that Zamani once possessed. We get a glimpse into Zamani's thoughts, knowing that he wants to challenge this boy's lack of respect, but he eventually realizes that "[Zumani] can only look at him" (169). Zamani cannot compete with Zani despite being much older, because he bears the shame and stigma internally and societally inflicted upon him due to the rape. As such, despite his intelligence, Zamani is initially verbally bested by Zani. Despite being a husband, Zamani is categorically rejected by his wife. Despite having the credentials to perform his job, he does not "earn" it back after he is fired; the school gives him back his job as teacher in a quiet, indirect way. Zamani's ability to act and perform strongly in society has been removed because a respect for him as a man has been removed.
Consequently, as Zani enters the scene, we see a bright, somewhat brash young man who serves as another representation of masculinity within this narrative and also as a foil to Zamani's character. In Zani, we have a picture of masculinity intrinsically tied to education, social reform, and deliberate action; he in many ways represents the place that Zamani came from before going awry. However, in Zani we see what happens when a man attempts to buck the system more from a place of pride than from genuine concern for the oppressed people. We see Zani get embarrassingly drunk, beat up and stabbed, and eventually driven off by the Boer throughout the story. I think this is largely due to the fact that he is trying to perform the role of a grown man though lacking experience and being incompetent in executing theory in practice. His attempts at usurping authority and respect with Zamani show us that adolescent wrestling that characterizes all of Ndebele's short stories in this collection and give us insight into how young boys attempt to construct manhood.
Of equal importance, though in a somewhat more limited representation, are the roles of women in "Fools". We see in the women in the story (most importantly Mimi and Nosipho) many details about South African life and the way gender roles are performed. Nosipho serves as an interesting foil to her husband Zamani. She puts up with his adultery and impotence; she doesn't divorce him. But, while maintaining their home and being financially supportive, she withholds the emotional support and the intimacy that Zamani craves. In his half-hearted attempts to engage her, we find that she "just walk[s] away" (174). He thus seeks attention and affirmation, both sexual and romantic, in a series of extramarital affairs. This speaks to an abuse of the South African woman by man and by her society at large. This expectation that women are to stomach abuse and continue to serve dutifully can only result in embitterment and disillusionment.
In a more overt way, the abuse that Zamani inflicts upon in Mimi is, in some ways, patently ignored but its effects ripple throughout the characters and their entire town. Zamani's raping of Mimi serves as a disturbing glance into his psyche. He cannot, in the society he lives in, achieve the goals and position he desires, so he subverts the will of a young woman to try to instate a sense of power. He yells in his mind the refrain, "I'm a respectable man!" (195), but this skewed sense of societal position does not help. He dominates Mimi because that is one of the few ways South African society will allow him to express himself as powerful. Though important as individuals, these characters serve as representations of what oppression looked like in South Africa at that time and presents us with the limited options men and women had to cope with this oppression. Nosipho chooses to stand coldly against the shameful acts of her husband, never granting forgiveness. Mimi is ravaged and hurt by a man she trusts and is forced to bear the weight of this act along with bearing the resulting child with no help from Zamani, the father. We see the oppression of apartheid and the insufficient ways that men and women are forced to cope with its dreadful side effects.
How, then, can a man come to feel empowered and useful in this society? How can a woman escape subjugation and feel valued and respected? What can afford absolution? The model that Ndebele presents is an interesting one. At the end of the story, the large, white Boer man appears and basically presents an entirely new and different level to the hierarchical power struggles we have seen thus far. He blends race and class in with the discussion of gender and oppression. He is a clear symbol of the oppressor, the white society in South Africa. Interestingly, Ndebele uses the most impotent character, the one most twisted by and disillusioned with his surroundings to combat this threat. Zamani represents the South African man who feels he cannot rise above the conditions surrounding him. He is the one who further inflicts harm and hurt upon those surrounding him, especially the women. So it is he who will be most redeemed upon striking a blow to the oppressor.
In a powerful way Ndebele shows us that an acceptance of pain and a steadfast facing of the oppressor without succumbing to his attacks is the way to counteract injustice. Zamani's sense of agency is restored as the Boer heaps insults and blows upon him. Even as Zumani is attacked by the white man, he withholds, "the kind of victory he wanted" (275). By facing his aggressor, Zamani does what Zani with his fanaticism, the school's principal with his capitulation to the education system, and many others could not do; he opposes robber of his dignity and finds his manhood reinstated. We get the sense that he can then have right relations restored with his wife and perhaps his surrounding community. He, the South African man, is like Lazarus resurrected.
In "Fools", Ndebele presents us with a subtle indemnification of apartheid oppression in South Africa through the examination of gender identities. His story and characters speak to us of the necessity for personal agency and refusal of societal injustice. We see that through the bearing of pain and the non-violent rejection of oppression, correct ways of men and women relating, and macrocosmically, black and white South Africans relating rightly can be engendered in a wounded society. His characters and story give us hope for the reconciliation of any community where wrong is being committed, where men and women are oppressed but yearn for a restoration of justice. "Fools" is just such a narrative. |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
icecreamplease's journal