By Anote Ajeluorou
How do families react to scandals? Why do families fear
scandals? Importantly, how do families avoid scandals from breaking among their
ranks? Indeed, what armour should families wield against the possibility of
scandals breaking? The fear of a scandal tainting the Fouries family seems the
beginning of wisdom, and particularly for the mother, Magda, who, fueled by her
religious obsession, drives her family to the brink. Her one obsession is ‘what
will people say?’ Ironically, things, bad things, happen right under her nose.
This is the story of
the Fouries family in a Cape Town, South African, housing estate for coloured,
poor community, Hanover Park where gang wars and drug problems are rife. Rehana
Rossouw’s What Will People Say? (Jacana
Media Pty Ltd, Cape Town; 2015) is one of the three shortlisted novels for the
Etisalat Prize for (African) Literature 2015 that will be awarded sometime in
next month. Rossouw delicately maps the lives of the Fouries – the father,
Neville, the mother, Magda, the elder daughter, Suzette, the second, Nickky and
the only son, Anthony. Neville was raised in an orphanage and saw firsthand how
the priests molested the boys and he vows to raise a proper family. Magda lost
her parents early and had to cater for herself and her only sister, Violet.
Both parents bear the ugly imprint of childhood; they fear their past and
determine to steer their children away from its ugliness.
But herein lies
their error. Neville is liberal enough and would give the children some space
provided they study hard to realize the dreams the parents had lined up for
them. But the mother, Magda, is a different proposition. Unlike her husband who
abhors church because of what he saw of the white priests that handled his
orphanage, Magda is sold completely to her religion and rules her home with the
sternness of a puritan. She overrules her husband in almost every aspect.
As the children grow
older, they begin to find ways to circumvent their parents’ rules and steer
different courses for themselves that soon bring them in collision with their
parents and then lands the entire family deeply into the scandal the mother
desperately wants to avoid. First is the big sister for whom school is a
struggle; she wants to drop out and find work. Her mother’s condemnation of half
naked girls modeling in the factory where she works provides further incentive
although she knows she’d be in real trouble if she should voice her ambition to
her parents. Suzette wants to be a model, but she knows her mother would raise
hell.
Anthony, just 13,
has attracted the attention of a gang in the neighbourhood, Junky Funky Kids
(JFK) led by Ougat and his minions. His sheben (beer parlour) is the meeting
point; he deals drugs of all types. When Anthony finally shows up at Ougat’s
sheben, the 13-year old, bored with school, does not know he has walked into
the lion’s den much against his father’s warning. He takes the gang leader as
the older brother he does not have. Anthony becomes Ougat’s drug carrier,
delivering drugs strapped in his school bag to avoid suspicion. When it’s time
for him to be inducted properly into the gang, Anthony finds it’s not the sort
of life he wants to live. But it’s too late.
Nicky is the star in the family, but who is
burdened by the secrets of her two siblings – Suzette and Anthony. Suzette
drops out of school, but Nicky does not tell her parents; although Anthony does
not return home directly from school Nicky does not tell her parents. And when
the hurricane of Suzette and Anthony’s actions hits the family, Nicky is blamed
for keeping a sealed lip. When Suzette’s school report comes and her parents
find out she didn’t take the exams, hell breaks loose. Her mother throws her
out for modeling under-wears for strangers to stare at her naked body. She sees
her daughter as a whore. Suzette is unrepentant and leaves home. She has hit a
white boyfriend and things happen fast for her. Her dream of being a supermodel
isn’t long off.
Although Anthony
does not want to belong to any gang, Ougat and his JFK gang aren’t the sort of guys
to mess with. Anthony has no say in the matter; he has earned his place in
Ougat’s schemes. At the initiation, JFK is branded on his arm; Nicky’s friend is
dragged in for him and the gang to rape to complete his initiation. After the
dastardly act, 13-year old Anthony can’t seem to live with the enormity of the abomination
he has been made to commit. He loses his power of speech until Ougat supervises
his murder for failing to live up as a JFK member.
His murder breaks
the family into pieces, and Hanover park as well. Even Suzette comes back home
to grieve with her family. Neville and Magda feel acute sense of failure as
parents; they get at each other for the tragedy, and take it out on poor Nicky.
At Anthony’s funeral, things fall apart, as Pastor Williams condemns gangs in the
neighbourhood and Anthony’s parents for their failure to provide proper
guidance for their children. Indeed, the very scandal that Magda fears is blown
open in church to the entire world. She has nowhere to hide her head; she
sleepwalks through it all.
At the end, things
turn a fine bend for Magda’s two daughters, Nicky and Suzette, even as Magda
divorces her husband…
What Will People Say? is an intense piece of writing and Rossouw
invests an incredibly believable nuance in the narrative. Magnolia Courts and
its gang- and drug-infested neighbourhood comes alive in this magnificent story
that sheds light in Apartheid South Africa shortly before Nelson Mandela is
elected as first democratic president. Gang wars, drugs, the country’s
struggling poor and the liberation ferment and freedom fighters’ clashes with
the police and the law pepper the atmosphere of Rossouw’s narrative. Her story
gives a rare insider glimpse into the life of South Africa in the throes of
political change. The Fouries family also provides a stark backdrop on which
Rossouw paints an incredible tale of a country in ferment.
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