DECLARATION

Name: Jazmin Engelbrecht

Student Number: 56887353
Module: ENG 1501 Foundations in English Literary Studies
Assignment Number: 553393
I declare that this assignment is my own original work. Where
secondary material has been used (either from a printed
source or from the internet). This has been carefully
acknowledged and referenced in accordance with
departmental requirements as explained in tutorial letter
ARHALLY/301. I understand what plagiarism is and having read
Tutorial Letter ARHALLY/302 I am aware of the departments
policy in this regard I have not allowed anyone else to copy my
work.
Signature: J.C Engelbrecht

Chosen Question Number D

When Rain Clouds Gather ( Bessie Head) Essay:
In the novel When rain clouds gather, Bessie Head uses
symbolism to express the transition from the harsh life of
tribalism, to the development of modern day co-operatives
and the effect it has on the community.
One of the main symbolic images in the text is the recurring
theme of When rain clouds gather. This incomplete and open
statement refers to the progression and change Golema Mmidi
is facing now that Makhaya and Gilbert have joined up with the
community. Rain clouds gathering at first suggests a negative
atmosphere to the novel, as clouds lead to the blockage of the
sun and so provide a cold and dark mood.
However, rain clouds make a transition from being negative to
positive through the book, as it is later discovered that rain
clouds gathering are desired and looked forward to, with the
Botswana people going so far as to call all good things and all
good people rain. Those rain clouds come to symbolize hope,
recovery, the rewards of faith, new growth. The reader is
asked to change his earlier preconception on rain clouds and
realize that rain provides water which is a necessity in the

Botswana desert. It is required to grow the crops, vegetation,

and quench the cattles thirst, who provide the only source of
income in the village.

Moreover, the rain clouds symbolize the villagers of Golema

Mmidi getting together once they realize through Makhaya and
Gilbert that by co-operating they can achieve much more then
they could individually. They join forces against Matenge
because they have more influence in bigger numbers. The
reader is told that the rain clouds always gathered in
September, except for now. This signifies the breaking of
tribalism and the tradition that has kept the villagers
underdeveloped and poor for so long.
For she wrote a story that is about people. Gilbert, though
British, settled in the village, lived the lives they were living,
and work to make an impact on their agricultural system from
within. However, before he could make any of his desired
changes, he worked to understand the people, their culture
and their tradition. Thus, she explicitly showed that
villainousness is colour blind. One is not evil because one is
white or black. One is evil because one has allowed himself to
be evil. This could also have been the case because of the
political status of Botswana as a protectorate and therefore
never witnessing the atrocities of the kind that drove Makhaya
to cross the border. Similarly, one would have thought that
Makhaya, having suffered denigration and abuse at the hands
of White folks in South Africa, would have behaved
retributively towards Gilbert or that the relationship would
have been an uneasy one. However, the cordiality of their
relationship, the ease with which they got on right from the
start is indicative of the fact that the political problems in
South Africa then was a colour problem only as far as the
policies affected or discriminated against them. It was not a
natural hatred between blacks and whites, so that had there
not ab initio been any racially divisive policies, there would
have been peaceful coexistence.
Bessie showed how backward the power chieftaincy offers, not
the institution itself, could be. Matenge, because he was the
chief of Golema Mmidi worked hard to thwart every
progressive effort that threatened his privileged position as the
sole beneficiary of progressive changes. For instance, he saw
no reason why anyone should have his roof covered with zinc
sheets apart from him. Or why the Gilbert's cooperative
society deposed him as the sole cattle dealer in the village,
thus ripping him of all the super-normal profits he used to
make. In every society for that matter there are the Matenges

and those of Gilbert's cohorts; the few oppressive haves and

the oppressed masses of have-nots, the former appropriating
resources away from the latter; the Solomons and the God.
One characteristic of the Solomons is that even when
educated, knowledge (or wisdom) is secondary to material
possessions. However, though the Gods are greater than the
former, they walk with no shoes, in rough cloth, wandering up
and down the dusty footpaths in the hot sun, with o bed on
which to rest their heads.

However, Bessie was not entirely against traditional life. She

talked positively on the social capital it affords and how easy it
is to get people to toe a line once you have convinced the
right people and showed them evidence. As an Africanist, of
sorts, she believed in togetherness but togetherness that lead
to progress. For instance, the cooperative mode of operation farming, cattle-rearing - was placed above the capitalist
approach of skyscrapers. This belief in an alternate
governance system is seen in Gilbert who, coming in from
such a capitalist country, did not express any such inclinations
but sought to improve on the communal mode of property
ownership which results in the Tragedy of the Commons and is
therefore unsustainable - financially and environmentally.
Bessie used the weather and climatic conditions to represent
the life of the people. The drought represents their
hopelessness and an opportunity to change. It kept them in a
poverty trap so that every now and then their savings - in the
form of cattle - is lost, taking them back to where they began.
The rain represents blessings that mitigates their hardships.
But only for awhile. However, Bessie showed that change and
progress is universal but could not be attained serendipitously
but only when people put their minds to it and work together
as a unit towards it. The unity of purpose is what ensures
progress. It also means the identification and confrontation of
the common enemy. Sometimes this calls for having faith,
believing that the rains would fall even when the rain clouds
have not gathered.
980
Words

Sources:

http://www.whenraincloudsgather.com/?page_id=10
http://mrtelfersenglishpage.wikispaces.com/file/view/whenrain-clouds-gather-wlait.pdf