CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS OF SELECTED TEXTS
5.3 Synopsis of the drama, Ngiwafunge amaBomvu (Molefe, 1991)
5.3.1 Gender Inequalities
5.3.1.1 Gender inequalities at Mgidi’s royal household
The king marries the Majola twins without their consent. One of the twins accepts the arrangement while the other finds the ruling as an infringement on her rights.
Thulisile challenges the traditional practice of arranged marriages when addressing her maid, Khonzeni. She says to her:
Khonzeni ake ungitshele, wena ungavuma nje ukuthi wehlukaniswe nesoka lakho? Ungavuma uma inkosi ithi gana umfana wayo manje, ushiye uMzinto wakho? (p2)
(Khonzeni, tell me, would you agree to be separated from your lover?
Would you agree if the king were to force you to marry his son now and would you leave your boyfriend, Mzinto?).
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Even the twin’s maids find the king’s actions unacceptable. This is shown in one of the conversations they have where Khonzeni tells Nokufika that:
Inkosi Nokufika inezinye izinyathelo ezingahambisani nenqubo eyejwayelekile. Okokuqala nje, aweshelwanga lawa makhosikazi avele alandwa ngoba ngawomfokazana. Kade ezokweshelwa ukuba kade ezalwa ebukhosini (p43-44).
(Nokufika, the king, is doing things that are against tradition. Firstly, the king did not court these women. They were simply fetched from their home because they are daughters of a commoner. If they were from royalty, the king was going to follow a different route).
Young women are expected to preserve themselves for their future husbands while the same cannot be said of men. When the chief has a discussion with Msanka about his knowledge of the Majola twins, Msanka puts emphasis on their chaste state. This is, amongst other things, what makes them eligible for the king. In Msanka’s own words:
Ndabezitha, amakhosi akwaMajola kawanasici. Ngokwazi kwami abengakangeni ebuqhikizeni. Inkosi ikhethe amaklumela azothi ngamahlanga abe esengaphansi kwesandla sikaMbomvu (p5).
(Ndabezitha, the Majola twins are chaste. As far as I know, they have not even met boys. I think the chief has made the right choice, for by the time they get ready for such acts, they will already be under your care).
According to Zulu tradition, the chief has absolute power over his people and land.
This includes choosing wives. Once the king had chosen a woman to become his queen there was no stopping him. However, the fact that girls were required to save their virginity for that special man did not count where a king was concerned. In most African societies, a woman’s virginity is one of the most important criteria that are considered when a man wants a wife. According to Chukwuma (2012:103), this kind of situation “depicts inequality of gender morality in the society”. The author goes on to say that the woman remains the man’s property whose immaculate morality must be intact, but never the man’s (ibid.). Gender inequalities expressed in the story is relevant in the present day context where in the the annual Umhlanga Reed Ceremonies only virgin maidens may participate (Buthelezi, 2013). There is even a
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myth that the reed will break upon presentation to the king if the girl is no longer a virgin (ibid.). It is at this ceremony that the Zulu king, normally, picks a maiden that he will make his future wife; in addition to the already existing ones.
In this drama under discussion the king is aware that one the twins is unhappy and uncomfortable with the arranged marriage and yet he does not find it necessary to establish the reason for her desolation. Talking with his induna, the king says:
Pho Msanka yini ebangela ukuthi eyodwa yezindlovukazi zami ihlahle amehlo sengathi inyamazane ivalelwe esibayeni sezimbuzi? (p6)
(Tell me Msanka, what is the cause of one of my queens to open her eyes wide like a buck that finds itself stuck in a kraal meant for goats?).
When Thulisile rebuffs sharing the king’s bed, the chief does not enter into a discussion with her to resolve the issue but rather he chooses to involve an outsider to solve his marital problems for him. Thus, Mzwezwe is tasked with administering a love potion to Thulisile so that she can fall in love with the king. On another occasion, the king invites his induna and Majola, the father of the twins to discuss issues of royal lineage. To this end the three men deliberate on which one of the queens will produce an heir. The king says:
Manje ngithanda ukwazi lapha kini ukuthi uma indlovukazi ithola indlalifa ezobusa iyasuka nenye ithola okufanayo, sizothini ngalokho? (p7)
Now I would like to find out from you what will happen if both of my queens give birth to baby boys, which one of them will be my successor and what will we do about that situation?)
This conversation attests to Zondi’s (2008b.) view that that polygamy contributed to a structure that saw wives as the property of the husband and his lineage. The statement further confirms the argument by some feminists that in patriarchal societies women were seen as objects for production of the man’s family.In many cultures, including that of the Zulu people, issues pertaining to giving birth are the domain of women. The following statement by Kalu supports this view:
In traditional African practice, keeping men away from birthing space as well as the birthing process largely had to do with the fact that in some instances men lacked knowledge of what to do and in other instances, the process in its traditional setting necessarily is the domain of women-whose
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participation is both normalised and structured (Kalu, in Chukwuma, 2012:70).
In this story when Thulisile’s labour becomes difficult, the author brings men into that conversation. The complications experienced by the queen become men’s concern.
Nowhere in the text are women heard conversing about it. Rather it is the king and his induna that are seen at the forefront of this scene. It would perhaps have been befitting for the author to give women some voice as it is obvious that the king was acting on the reports given to him by midwives. However, it is clear that women are silenced even in the spaces where, by virtue of being female, their voices should be presented even if not heard. The announcement the king makes upon the arrival of his son is certainly informed by the message received from the midwives:
…undlunkulu utholele isizwe isandla sakusasa (p63).
(…the queen has produced an heir for the nation).
The silencing of women is so evident in this text when their role as nation builders could have been accentuated. The fact that the king utters the words cited above attests to the status that women should be accorded.
The joy expressed by the king towards the sex of the child highlights what Machaba (2011: 164) pointed out in a study among the Tsonga where the birth of a male child is announced in heroic terms such as wa matlha (you have begotten a spear) in contrast to wa xirhundz (you have begotten a grain basket) if it is the female child.
This attitude explains gender inequality inherent in patriarchal societies, one such being the Zulu society. Men pride themselves on this hegemony as aptly expressed by the king in conversation with his men:
Selokhu adabuka amaBomvu kasizange iSilo sibhekane nabafazi enkundleni! Umfazi liqulwa engekho, afike sekulungiswe iwisa aphihlizwe a..! (p81).
(From the beginning of the amaBomvu clan, it has never happened that women become part of the discussions. A woman’s case is discussed and a decision is taken in her absence, she only comes when a knobkerrie is ready to kill her!)
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5.3.1.2 Gender inequalities in Majola’s household
Majola is the father of the twin-girls, Thulisile and Thulile. When the story begins the king has chosen his daughters for wives. It is true that according to the Zulu culture, at that time, the king’s word was final. The least that the girls’ family could have done was to tell their children of the king’s plans and to ask how they felt about it. That would have presented Thulisile with an opportunity to inform them of her future plans with Zaba. Even though there is no guarantee that her desire would have been entertained- it would, at least, have saved them an embarrassment of their ignorance about what was going on with their children; instead of learning this for the first time after the girls had been married off to the king. Like objects, the girls were simply transferred from one man’s authority to another.
As if they were commodities, when the king was unhappy with one of the twins, he invited their father to give an in-depth description of the girls’ individual personalities and attitudes using a ‘return to sender’ approach. Majola, himself, uses an unpleasant language when describing his daughters to the king. He uses the prefix “- ku-“ (it) to refer to them:
Lokhu okunye kunamehlwana acijile, kunamatata, kunenhliziywana eshesha ifike esiphethweni, kanti lokhu okunye kubheke phansi (p8).
(One has sharp eyes, is impulsive and is short-tempered, whereas the other one is humble).
The approach used above is sanctioned when used for very young children. It would generally be people other than parents who will refer to their children in that manner.
In the above context, these girls are at a marriageable age and are married to the king. It is strange that a father should talk about his own children using language normally employed when referring to an item or object. Zondi and Canonici (2005) maintain that the concepts can be described as a reference to or a description of something concrete by means of which the author wishes to express something else that is linked to it. They go on to say that what is being alluded to, while using well- known and often striking imagery, creates a clear impression of what is being said;
and these can be things which are concrete, perceived by the senses, or even abstract.
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Chilala concurs that, “sometimes the author uses adjectives or prefixes that are intentionally and carefully selected in order to project the intended image of the
‘object’ being discussed” (2013:99). Thus, in the context of this story, the girls are viewed as objects. In the entire drama, all that is known about the mother of the twins is that she is MaSiphahleni. The author renders her passive and silent to the point of almost being non- existent.
5.3.1.3. Gender inequalities in Msanka’s household
On discovering that Zaba was the father of the male child to whom Thulisile had given birth, the king summoned his father, Msanka. He then sent a messenger to fetch Zaba. Instead of heeding the king’s call Zaba tied the messenger onto a pole in his home. He was annoyed at the messenger for delivering the king’s message as the king had deprived him of his lover. When she discovered her son’s cruelty, Zaba’s mother gently persuaded him to release the man:
Kahle mfana wami, mkhumule. Kanti uthunywe yinkosi? Uzothini uyihlo eyinduna yenkosi? (p35)
(Calm down my boy, untie him. Isn’t’ he the king’s messenger? What will your father say since he is the king’s right hand man?)
Despite the fact that his mother asks him kindly to release the king’s messenger, Zaba does not listen to her. He only begins explaining why he has acted in that way after the arrival of his father. The author seems to support the notion that a woman’s voice does not matter, no matter how right she may be. This raises a question about the role of a woman as the procreator and nurturer. Amongst the five pillars of female power that Chinweizu (1990) upholds, the womb or mother- power is the greatest. Praising it Chinweizu says:
O womb, your power is great! You are the biological foundation, the taproot of female power. As the goal net into which a man must shoot if he is to procreate, you are the part of a woman for which he will pay almost any price. And because you are priceless to him, you hold untold power over him, like a fabulous gold seam which rules a prospector’s life (Chinweizu, 1990:19).
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