A JOURNEY INTO THE ADULT LEARNERS' LIFE WORLDS
5.5 Portrait: Maria
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"I want to become a business woman,"
Maria was born in 1952 in a mountainous rural village called Phillipolis in the Free State.
She attended a Roman Catholic school, MaMketsie Ntho Leetwer, in Maseru, Lesotho.
The schools she attended were all English medium schools. The English language was given a 'higher' status in school where learners were compelled to speak the language at all times. The school used tough measures to promote the use of English by requesting that it be spoken during breaks.
In Standard Two she made her journey from the Free State to Maseru to live with an uncle because he had no children. In 1970 she returned to Free State after the death of her uncle. Her parents spoke Northern Sesotho and Sepedi. When she moved schools she was rejected from Tweespruit because she could not speak Afrikaans. At the new school she
was forced to learn new languages that were not her home language. At home she spoke Northern Sesotho, but at school she had to learn Southern Sesotho.
Soon after she returned from the Free State she was forced to leave school because of financial difficulties. This was against her wishes because she desired to continue with her studies. The exposure to languages has given Maria the advantage of being multilingual. She is able to communicate in five languages: Venda, IsiZulu, Xhosa, Sesotho and English. She was literate in Sesotho and acquired basic literacy skills in English. Despite the diverse language skills that Maria acquired she felt the need to attend literacy classes to:
... improve my English. I did not want my mind to get rusty. I didn 't really hope to achieve much from adult literacy rather than English that was taught but I have learned so many skills like sewing and typing, which I did not expect from literacy. I also made good friends at AABEC we became like family.
At nineteen she completed a home-care nursing certificate at the Good Samaritan College. In 1974 she worked at a motel near Hendrik Verwoerd Dam for one year, initially as washer then as a waitress. In 1975 she fell pregnant but was unable to marry because of the patriarchal influence of her father. Her father forbade her from marrying the man of her dreams because of African cultural reasons.
The rural area did not provide economic opportunities. The need to seek employment to provide for her family made her turn to the city, the land of egoli (golden opportunities).
In 1976 she began her employment as a domestic worker.
In 1981 she joined the South African Domestic Workers Union (SADU). On the 29 of November 1986 Maria went for the launch of SADU to Cape Town as chairperson of the central Durban region. She held this portfolio for two years.
Maria is a devout Christian and belonged to the Sacred Heart of Jesus church. She was an executive Member of the Reservoir Hills African National Congress Women's League.
In 1993 she enjoyed being a sales representative for Count Giovanni French Perfumes while she was still employed as a domestic worker. Maria has three children, a son who
completed matriculation and is currently employed, a daughter in Grade 11 and a late arrival Rafik, who was born in 2000.
Maria attended the literacy programme since its inception and remained in it for seven years. She has been the class representative for many years. She has written the Level 2 and 3 Independent Board Examinations and passed with merit. She obtained excellent attendance and good progress awards. Maria participated in the pantomime 'Cinders' and the dance 'Asimbonanga'. Asimbonga is a song by Johnny Clegg, which describes the feelings of the Black oppressed people who were exiled and imprisoned and gained their freedom after democracy was given when Nelson Mandela was released. The learners did an Afro-fusion dance to the song. She was interviewed on television on how she felt about the Afro-fusion dance. Maria engaged in the sporting activities organized at AABEC and was involved in most class skits, discussion and plays.
In 1999, Maria fell pregnant but was at pains to inform me about her pregnancy. From her cultural perspective she felt that that by falling pregnant she was letting the teacher down. Therefore she did not inform me of her pregnancy until it became obvious that she was pregnant. It was during the class discussion that these cultural norms were made known to me. In December 1999 Maria quit adult literacy classes and returned to Phalarbowa. This was a difficult decision made after careful deliberation to begin a new life.
As an individual who always dreamed of setting up her own business she finally managed to engage in small business by selling clothes. When the sales dropped she used her entrepreneurial skills to venture into a new line by selling chicken heads and feet.
Presently (2003), her chicken head and feet business is competing well in the market place because it is something that the community consumes frequently. With the help of her daughter she does sales of little goodies at the soccer stadium during matches.
Maria identifies her positive self-image with a well-dressed Black business executive for her cover in the autobiography. The caption below her picture read "I want to become a
business woman,". This reveals that she also identifies with the marginalized and believes that as a Black disadvantaged woman she would be able to fulfill her dreams.
Text One Maria
WOMAN OF THE 90S
Woman of the 90s
CHILDHOOD
My name is Mary. I come from the Free State a place called Phalarbowa.
It is a very small town with sloppy land and a lot of mountains. Phalarbowa is so cold in winter that I cannot go outside with out wearing a jersey or a blanket. When winter comes people feel really miserable.
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Tftere are tew in my family, five girls and five boys because my dad had two wives. I belong to the younger one and I am the youngest. You can imagine how spoilt I was. I used to get the best and my sister used to carry me on their backs. Oh ' it is was fun.'
/ used to have a friend called Tshidi with whom I played with. We used to play house games and with rag dolls. In our small houses we would take sand and mix with water and say that was porridge. We would also take sifted malt, put water and say that was beer. We would drink it and pretend we were drunk. When we were about seven to eight years old we then cooked real food.
One day we took tinned fish containers to cook our food. Being so small we did not know these tins were poisonous because they had sort of a yellowish layer. Guess what happened. The same night we ate that food both of us never slept. We vomited the whole night and our parents wondered what we had eaten. Only when we told them that we used those tinned fish containers they then realized the cause of the vomiting. From that day they gave us small saucepans to cook with.
MY SCHOOL YEARS
/ started schooling in 1960 in Henneman near whites. It was exciting to be at school for the first time because my mother bought me a new black tunic, a white shirt and black school shoes.
On the fist day all dressed in black and white my mum took me for registration. It took us so long because there was so many of us. From eight o 'clock to three o' clock in the afternoon. I attended school there until I moved to Lesotho in 1962.
In Lesotho schooling was also very nice but my problem was the way Sesotho language was written. I used to write Northern Sotho where as there they write Southern Sotho. So it was very difficult for me but then I got used to it.
I had to walk a long distance to go to school. The classes began at 8am and finished 3:00 in the afternoon. I had to leave home at 6:00 in the morning in order to get to school on time. One day I arrived late and Mr Modomo hit me so badly that I could not do anything because my hands were swollen. I was so angry because I walked so far and he didn 't
have any feeling for me. My parents couldn't do anything because they felt that if they say something he may give me a hard time. Thank god I passed and went to another class.
It was in 1967 when I stated a new class with sister Emmanuella. She was wonderful because she did not hit us like Mr Modumo. If we did something wrong she would only scold us.
I used to share my desk with two friends namely Anna - Marie and Marianna. I used to be called Maria in my school days. I changed it because my big brothers daughters name was also Maria. So both of us had similar names and surnames. That's why I changed it to Mary. Things were all right in sister Emmanuella's class but the worse thing is that I would do my own things and not pay attention to the teacher, as a result I failed that year. I was so disappointed because my two friends passed, but the following year I
worked so hard that I succeeded and obtained a second-class pass. That was my final year at the secondary school (1969)