It is also a profound and clever look at
relationships between the races, both historically and in a contemporary
setting. Neither side is spared Nyathi’s sharp gaze. (Margaret von Klemperer,
courtesy of The Witness)
The backdrop to Sue Nyathi’s fourth novel An Angel’s Demise is the time of turmoil in Zimbabwe as it moved from being Rhodesia and segregated, through the years of war, the politics of the Lancaster House settlement, Mugabe’s chaotic rule and the land redistribution.
It is a sobering and instructive recapitulation of a time of war and its horrors, and becomes the canvas on which the lives of two intertwined families, one black and one white, are played out over three decades.
In 1977 on the farm Belle Acres, owned and run by Paul Williams and his wife Melanie, a baby is born to Simphiwe and Douglas. Her birth is difficult, but both she and her mother survive, and she will become the Angel of the title.
However, Simphiwe and Douglas decide to leave the country to join the liberation struggle, leaving the infant in the care of Simphiwe’s mother and grandmother. But after a tragedy, Paul and Melanie take over the care of Angel, adopting her and bringing her up with their own children. Inevitably, this is a fraught situation as Angel struggles to find her own identity. Who is she really?
She is not the only character whose life is explored by Nyathi. We see Douglas and Simphiwe’s experiences, and the scarring their decision brings in its wake. We learn about Angel’s grandmother and great-grandmother and how closely their story is connected with that of the Williamses who we also follow as they adjust to a very different life from the one they experienced at the beginning of the novel. And we are told of the deeply-troubled history of Zimbabwe in its many aspects.
The novel takes the form of a two-family saga and is also a love story. It opens with a prologue in which Angel is in the dock in court, though we are not sure why.
All will eventually become clear, but it is a convoluted, sometimes spiritual and often gripping path. There are moments when I wondered if Nyathi’s characters reactions to certain circumstances were entirely believable, but Angel’s story is powerful, and sobering. It is also a profound and clever look at relationships between the races, both historically and in a contemporary setting. Neither side is spared Nyathi’s sharp gaze.
As Angel grows up and develops, she learns to come to terms with her own difficult past, and that of her home country. But it is not an easy journey, and even at the end you are left wondering what will become of Angel and the man she loves. - Margaret von Klemperer
Sue Nyathi’s An Angel’s Demise is published by Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-77010-808-0
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