It is
a brutal and tragic story, redeemed by Poland’s sympathetic and skilled
telling. (Review by Margaret von Klemperer, courtesy of The Witness)
A new novel from Marguerite Poland, one of
South Africa’s most accomplished and consistent writers, is cause for
celebration. Poland’s meticulous research gives this novel, set mainly in the
Eastern Cape in the second half of the 19th Century, gravitas and importance.
Her central character is Stephen Malusi
Mzamane, who, as a child, is taken in by Anglican missionaries following the
cattle killing in the area and the resulting famine. But though he is saved
from physical starvation, he is thrown into an emotional minefield. He and his
older brother are bright, capable children and are dispatched to the Native
College in Grahamstown, from where the most promising students will be sent to
be trained at the Missionary College in Canterbury, England. The elder Mzamane
blots his copybook, and so it is Stephen who gets the coveted prize.
He is trained to be a black Englishman,
playing chess and at increasing ease in drawing rooms, even though he is seen
as an exotic, someone to be subtly patronised. But when he returns to the
Eastern Cape, he is met by the full might of colonial prejudice, both within
and beyond the church. He is sent off to a remote, impoverished mission where
the true extent of his dislocation from both his colonial masters and his own
amaNgqika people is brutally exposed. A deeply moral and thoughtful man, he is
forced into a position where something will have to give.
Poland has said that the inspiration for
her protagonist came from a real Anglican deacon, whose moving life story is
mirrored in Stephen’s. The very few white people who could even see how his
identity had been shattered, bringing with it insurmountable problems, were
either too naive or not in a position to help him as he struggled, in the words
of the novel, with “the expectations which were given him and then denied”. It
is a brutal and tragic story, redeemed by Poland’s sympathetic and skilled
telling. And by exposing much of the
agony and blindness of the colonial enterprise without the ranting and
name-calling that so often accompanies it, A
Sin of Omission has a gut-wrenching power. - Margaret von Klemperer
(Right: Marguerite
Poland)
QUESTION
AND ANSWER SESSION
Marguerite
Poland’s research into her own family history in the Eastern Cape brought to
light the tragic story which was the inspiration for her new novel, A Sin of Omission. She spoke to
Margaret von Klemperer.
MvK: A Sin of Omission is based on the
life of the Reverend Stephen Mtutuko Mnyakama. Having uncovered his story when
you were doing research, were you never tempted to write his biography rather
than a novel?
MP:
I would have liked to write a biography but there were too many gaps in the
record. For example, although there were a number of letters from Revd Mnyakama
to his employer, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG),
their replies to him were not preserved so it was a one-way record of the
correspondence. I did not have the resources to go to England to search other
archives although I was very fortunate to have someone in Oxford who could
access the specific USPG records for me. I am not a biographer or an historian
by training and although I remained as scrupulous as I could to the details of
events to which I had access, the themes I chose to explore and the incidents I
describe were taken from various sources through which I hoped to convey an
authentic view of the attitudes and events of the time through a fictitious
story, constructed from carefully researched facts.
MvK: It is a tragic story, and an
uncomfortable one. What do you see as the importance of bringing it to light
now?
MP:
Besides being a part of our history which has only recently been explored by a
number of eminent historians, I think it important to question in depth the
reasons why our society developed the way it has and the events that shaped our
attitudes, influenced our own ‘sins of omission’, which are so easy to commit –
and overlook – especially in an unequal society. Those sins – both of
commission and omission – were committed long, long before apartheid
legislation. An eminent South African woman working in conflict resolution
wrote “When we bring things out of the shadows into the light, they are healed.
Storytelling plays a major role in this everywhere.” (Susan Collin Marks)
MvK: What drew you to writing about the
role of religion in the colonial era?
MP:
My great-great grandfather and my great-grandfather were Anglican missionaries
in the Eastern Cape. My 1993 novel, Shades,
was based loosely on my great-grandmother’s recollections of her life on a
mission station which started my interest in the history of the region and the
role of missionaries in its development. I studied African languages and Social
Anthropology and everything I have ever written has drawn on the landscape, the
indigenous languages and cosmologies. In 2003 I was commissioned to write a
history of St Andrew’s College with which my family has had connection since
its founding in 1855. In doing the research for this project I was exposed to a
very much wider history than simply the story of a school. That research
covered much additional reading into the history and politics of South Africa
as well as the role of the Church in the development of education. It was
fascinating research, tied very closely to my own family history, my respect
for and interest in the language and culture of the Xhosa people of the Eastern
Cape and the effects of political change, particularly in the 19th and early
20th centuries. In searching for my own ‘ancestral shades’ I came across the
‘shades’ of others whose lives they had shared.
MvK: The sin in the title is on the
part of the Anglican church and the omission is their inability to see what
they were doing, creating people who could not fit in either to their own
society or the colonial one. So it also becomes a compelling story about
identity, how we create it, and how important it is for our ability to cope
with life. Did you see this as an important thing to explore in a society of
many disparate cultures?
MP:
When I discovered the record of the life of Stephen Mnyakama it became clear
that the early history of mission education – despite its well-intentioned and
valuable influence - was often conducted in a way that was hugely insensitive
to the identities of those in the care of the Church and those in thrall within
colonial society in general. Names are deeply important and, in African
society, hold a weight and significance for the bearer which is respected and
honoured in a very particular way. Despite its critics I think the current
importance attached to renaming cities, towns and every significant site
underscores the significance of naming in our society.
MvK: You are writing about someone who
comes from a world other than your own, and who is also a male character. These
are things that writers are often criticised for at the moment. Have you had
any negative feedback? And what would your response be?
MP:
Fortunately I have not yet had any negative feedback although I have
anticipated it. I am very aware of and sensitive to the responsibility in
taking on a story outside of my time, my gender, my colour and my experience.
This is something novelists have to face – choices about the appropriation of
someone else’s life. However, if one did not tackle a story such as the one I
have written about ‘Stephen Mzamane’ the real history might be lost. And if the
telling of the story arouses debate and discussion, so much the better. I did
the best I could to relay the events and attitudes recorded in primary sources
which were the most authentic voices I could gather. Hopefully those that read
the book will appreciate that I have tried to recreate the past and the people
about whom I have chosen to write with respect and empathy.
MvK: One of the things I found most
moving is the subtlety of your criticism of the Anglican/colonial project. So
much that we hear now is angry, often to the point of being entirely vicious,
and it is much more powerful to have a rounded approach. Was this a deliberate
response to what is often disturbingly unpleasant discourse?
MP:
The occurrences are often shocking but, as a writer – especially of historical
fiction - one has to assess events within the context of their time. With
hindsight the attitudes, prejudices and perceptions of people are easy to
condemn. In reading the hundreds of letters to which I had access, the personalities
of the various writers emerged over and over again. These were real people, not
stereotypes. There were men and women who had immense courage, vital vocation
and vision and there were also those whose lack of empathy, whose arrogance and
insensitivity was startling. No institution can simply be judged without taking
into account the individuality of its constituents. To be outraged now is
inevitable – but to truly understand and attempt to create something authentic,
one has to discover all the seams and faults in the bedrock, examine their
complexity, their ambiguity and build rather than blame or destroy.
A Sin
of Omission is published in paperback by Penguin
Books. ISBN 9781485904199. Recommended Retail Price R290.
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