by Elsa Joubert
We should have come together, said Poppie, and put our money together and told her family: We accept her. We take the girl and the baby.
No, mama did a wrong thing to chase away the girl.
Two weeks later Mosie phoned Poppie. The nylon came last night and took away mama and Baby.
Poppie was frightened, she felt her body go lame.
Where did they take them?
Now, how must I know, I am not God, am I?
Mosie’s nerves had broken. I walked last night, all last night, from one police station to the other, but I did not find them. I can’t think of mama in the cells. She has never been arrested.
Mama does not know where Jakkie is? she asked.
I don’t know what mama knows, Mosie answered, but I heard here in the location Jakkie wanted to dump the girl with mama ‘cause why he wanted to go to East London.
When she heard Mosie say East London she knew what was coming. She felt everything in her die. East London meant he was going to Bonsile.
Why must my children come into this thing? She was shouting over the phone. Why can’t he leave my children out of this? They have done nothing. They know nothing of all this.
Why are they watching me? Mosie answered, why are the nylons this way and that in front of me all day long, and nights they wake you any time. Rhoda can’t take it any more, we are not criminals, did I marry criminals? she says.
Because of this Poppie wasn’t surprised when she opened the front door of her madam’s house to see the two C.I.D. men standing there, one black man, one white. She recognised their way immediately, she knew the way they stood, the way their hands never talked, the way they looked at you, the way the black and the white were always together. They want to know where Jakkie is, she thought. But how must I know? They can do nothing to me if I don’t know.
But she wasn’t expecting their question. I have had a lot of shocks in my life, Poppie said later, but this was a shock just as big as the others. The spit became dry in my mouth, I couldn’t even talk, and when I had to take the pencil to write, my hand shook so much that I couldn’t even make letters.
We want to know the address of your children in Herschel, the C.I.D. said.
She thought they wanted Bonsile’s address, she didn’t think of Herschel.
For what do you want to know the addresses? Poppie asked after a while.
Your mother .and your sister are sitting in the gaol and you are making as if you don’t know why we want the addresses, the white man said.
What has this to do with my children? Poppie asked. What have they done wrong?
They have done nothing, but we are looking for the one that is with them. And it isn’t for nothing that we are looking for them, he is wanted for attempted murder and sabotage.
You can look if you want, Poppie said, because she had now regained her strength, you won’t find him there.
And how do you know that? the C.I.D. man asked.
What will he be doing in Herschel? Poppie said. She was thinking of Bonsile in Mdantsane, and this address they had not asked for.
Rachel has done nothing wrong, Mrs Swanepoel said. She had come to the stoep, because she heard the talking and the dog barking when the C.I.D. came up the path to the house.
It isn’t Rachel, the C.I.D. answered, but it is her brother who is the criminal.
What can I do about that, he is my brother, I can’t cut him out of my life, Poppie said.
Mrs Swanepoel looked at Poppie in surprise. She had not heard her speak like this before.
The C.I.D. man turned round, facing Poppie, because he was leaving. He also heard the impudence in her voice.
And do you know about all the things he is doing? he asked her. Do you think it is right what he is doing now?
Poppie looked him in the eye. All children are not the same, maybe the mister has a brother who is not good as the mister is.
Let’s go, the white C.I.D. said to the black one. We must phone to Herschel.
My children are safe, Poppie said to herself while she was working, while she did the dishes, and peeled the vegetables. They have done nothing, they are innocent. The C.I.D. have nothing on them.
But a day later Madolpen’s mother touched at Poppie’s room on her way home from work. The C.I.D. took Madol pen two days ago, she told her, and they released him this morning. They knocked him about and hit him so much I think his spleen is torn. He can’t walk upright, and I must take him to the doctor tonight.
Madolpen who had been to the bush with Bonsile. Who had done nothing. Hit until he couldn’t walk upright, hit until his spleen was torn. And there are some ribs broken, his mother said. They pushed him around and he fell against the side of a table, this is the way he was injured.
Poppie thought about the children who had been caught. If they come out again, they are not the same, the parents say. They have become hard. Nothing is the same again after they have been caught, they cannot forget what has been done to them.
Madolpen had done nothing. But he could have known where Jakkie had slept, Poppie thought. There might have been the reason to arrest him, to make him talk.
Bonsile knew nothing, Nomvula and Thandi knew nothing.
After finishing her work in the kitchen that night, she went to the bus stop and took a bus, then the train, then another bus to Mosie’s house.
Are mama and Baby back? she asked Mosie.
There was something different on Mosie’s face. He didn’t sound relieved when he told her: Mama is back, Baby is also back.
Were they hurt in the cells? she asked, because there was an expression on his face she didn’t know. Did they hurt mama in the cells? she repeated.
If they have hurt mama...
They didn’t hurt mama, Mosie answered, but his voice was strange, as if he was sorry for her, not for mama. And Rhoda was pitying her, because she brought tea and made her sit at the table.
They let mama go shortly after they left your place, Poppie, Mosie told her. As mama has told it to me, it looks as if they phoned Herschel and said: Go and look for that boy that we are having such a lot of trouble with, arrest him at the address of these people.
Did they catch him? Poppie asked. .
It seems that he went first to Mdantsane, to Bonsile. They caught the man with the lorry and he talked. He told them Jakkie had asked Bonsile: Take me to Herschel so that I can cross the border into Basutoland. Like our sisi told us that old auntie of yours travelled on foot over the mountains and across the border.
The old witchdoctor woman for whom we did the slaughtering, whose kraal is in Basutoland, went through Poppie’s mind.
And did they find Jakkie?
Let it be that he has been arrested, that this matter can come to an end, she now prayed. So that we can have some peace, so that my children need not be brought into all this.
No, Mosie continued, he had already crossed the border when the police arrived at this place. But they arrested Bonsile like, when he came back.
So they told mama in the cell: We caught him, you can leave. And while they were waiting in the police station before they could walk out, they heard like the man say over the telephone: It’s the wrong one; you caught the sister’s child, the other one has slipped through. But we hold this one now so he can talk.
And we also caught the sister; so she can talk too.
Bonsile, Nomvula, Thandi, Fezi, my little sheep, my lambs, my poor little lost sheep, whom I had to leave without a mama; has it finally caught up with you? What have I done wrong, where have I sinned? I who thought: You’re free of it all, you have side-stepped the trouble; let the other mamas’ children collect the troubles, let them burn the houses here in the city and throw stones and let them be shot and beaten up, you are free of it all. For you I have suffered hard times that you could live in peace and go to school, away from all this.
And now it has caught up with you. Now the time of troubles has come down upon us all, as Jakkie said to me: Let the roof of
the gaol cover the whole of the location, let the whole of the location become a gaol, because, why, we are born to die.
Let them put you all in the cells: Bonsile, my child, Bonsile with the strong hands as soft as his father’s as he strokes the young beard of the ripening mealies; Nomvula with the soft, full body, with a song in her throat as she sings in the school choirs praising the Lord; and Thandi who softly sings at the fire, softly singing while she follows the footpaths over the rolling green hills.
Fezi... Fezi... Poppie took fright. Fezi, she asked, Mosie, is Fezi in Herschel?
No, sisi, they did not talk about Fezi. Now why would he have left Mdantsane to go along? Hau!
Maybe he went along. Poppie’s voice was so low, fear had nearly taken away the sound.
We’ll send a telegram tomorrow, we’ll find out what has happened, Rhoda said.
Rhoda poured some medicine into a glass and gave it to Poppie.
She had never seen her sister-in-law like this. It was as if her face had melted, as if the cheeks and the corners of her mouth could not stop trembling and would lose their form. But there are not tears. A little spittle runs from the corner of her mouth.
Come, sisi, Rhoda said. She took Poppie by the shoulder, shook her gently. Come, sisi, you must have courage. Drink what I have poured in the glass.
Poppie swallowed. As she swallowed she felt her body reviving. She felt as if it belonged to her again. She slowly straightened up in the chair. Kindjie who was standing next to her uncle Mosie, together with Mosie’s child, went to her mother.
Come, child, Poppie told Kindjie, come and sit here; and she put her arms around her.
How are things with our mama and with Baby? Poppie asked Mosie.
Rhoda tried to make light of it. Baby says they weren’t hurt, but the police swore at them; they took a chair and were like making to throw the chair at them; but they did not hit them. You black bitch, they swore at Baby, and lots of other swear-words that I can’t repeat. That was before they heard that Jakkie had already crossed the border. Then they let mama and Baby go.
They will also let your children go, Mosie told Poppie. As soon as they see that the children know nothing about all of this.
The children will have to look after themselves, Poppie answered. Her voice sounded like her own voice again. But the hardness of heart that had come into her, she knew, would be there for always. I have found my way through everything, she thought, but through this I can find no way. Because this has been taken out of my hands, it has been given over into the hands of the children. It is now my children who will carry on.
Peace will not come, she told Mosie. Even those that wish for peace will be dragged into the troubles. We will have to grow used to that. About that we can’t do nothing.
But God is my witness, Poppie said, I never sought out this trouble.
For a moment it was as if a weakness had come over her again. Her mouth started quivering, a small cry rose in her throat.
From the beginning it was not I who sought the trouble. Lord, Lord, where, at what place, did I turn from your path?
She wiped her eyes, still dry, with her handkerchief, as if she wanted to wipe away the unclearness.
If the Lord wants you to go, you will go; if the Lord wants you to stay, you will stay, goes through her mind.
If the Lord wanted Jakkie to go, it had to be so, she thought.
And if my children had to be drawn into this thing, then that is what they were born to. And who can take from their path that to which they were born?
GLOSSARY
abakwetha
initiation rites; boys undergoing the rites
Afrikaans
Independent South African language derived from Dutch
ag
Afrikaans interjection, roughly equivalent to ‘oh’
agterryer
attendant on horseback, after-rider
amafufunyana
hysterical condition
amagqira
witchdoctor people
A.N.C.
African National Congress (banned)
bakkie
open delivery van; small boat; small bowl
bakwetha
boy who has been initiated
bioscope
cinema
boer-meal
unsifted meal
buti
brother
C.N.D.C.
Ciskei National Development Corporation
doek
see kopdoek
dompass
identity document compulsory to blacks, in which is entered their address and employment; an abbreviation of Strydompass
erf
small plot of land
ewhe
yes
gogo
grandmother
grootma
lit. great mother, term for an aunt who is your mother’s elder sister
grootpa
lit. great father, husband of your mother’s elder sister
hauk
exclamation, roughly equivalent to ‘wow’
igqira
witchdoctor who treats people for physical and especially psychological ailments, usually he is a herbalist as well
igqwira
witchdoctor who uses his power for evil purposes, such as to cast spells
ilali
village in the trust land
indima
traditional patterns traced by hand smearing in dung floors
inqodi
sour porridge made of mealie meal
Kaffirland
rural tribal areas
kierie
walking stick, also used as weapon
kleinma
lit. small mother; an aunt who is your mother’s sister
kleinpa
lit. small father; husband of your mother’s younger sister
klonkie
little coloured boy
kopdoek
head scarf: in the cities a square of material is folded triangularly, wrapped twice round the head, tied at the back of head with the point tucked into the knot; in the tribal lands, or more traditionally, the length of material is one metre or more, wrapped from the back of the head, folded in front and tucked in to form a bulkier, taller head dress
kwedini
uncircumcised boy
lobola
bride price
magou
thin sour porridge
mailer
man who carries drink illicitly to shebeens
makhulu
grandmother
makoti
young wife, the state of being one
ma-kwedin
pl. uncircumcised boys
mealie meal
maize flour
meisie
girl
mfundisi
minister in the church
molo
greeting: good morning
monkey-nuts
ground nuts
mqomboti
beer made from sorghum
mqomboti bran
sorghum bran
mtombo
bran
muti
witchdoctor’s medicine
ndiyaphila
it goes well with me
ndiyathanda
I care for you very much
ngothando
with love
nikosikazi
married woman
nkokola
ground maize
nylon
location slang for police van, from the nylon mesh protecting it
oompie
diminutive of Afrikaans oom: uncle
ouma
grandmother
pondok(kie)
shanty
red baby
Xhosa expression for a baby under a month old
rondawel
round hut, usually with mud walls and thatched roof
sambok
horse whip
>
samp
crushed maize
sisi
sister
skellums
father
tata
father
tatomkhulu
grandfather
thwasa
talking to the ancestors; psychic
ukuthwasa
state of being psychic
um-kwetha
boy undergoing initiation
umphokoqo
crumbly porridge
X.D.C.
Xhosa Development Corporation
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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the publisher or copyright holder.
© Original Afrikaans published as Die Swerfjare van Poppie Nongena,
Elsa Joubert, 1978
© English translation copyright, Elsa Joubert, 1980
Originally published in 1978 under the title Die swerfjare van Poppie Nongena by Tafelberg Publishers
First English edition published in 1980 in hard cover by Hodder & Stoughton Limited
With Jonathan Ball Publishers (Pty) Ltd
Paperback edition published in 2002 by
JONATHAN BALL PUBLISHERS
a division of Media24 Limited
PO Box 33977
Jeppestown
2043
and
TAFELBERG PUBLISHERS
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