DISCOVERING THE MIND
A riveting drama, you will find the themes in this book interweaving your thoughts on the realities of present day African countries. You will also cackle at the humour of the daily lives of the characters, despite their otherwise difficult situations. Grab your copy, and enjoy the intricacies therein but until then, see my review:
Oh, no Wak. I know you probably mean well. In fact, I know you mean well. But, no. Let me do my penance, if need be. If the forces that be are rounding up all SRB spies, so be it. Let them. I’m not scared of the law. I’ll serve my term and keep my dignity. Pg. 134
The first book that I read written by J. Ruganda was “The Burdens”, and whether from the dramatic presentation of this work by my high school teacher or the sheer love of words, I simply loved this drama. Published in 2001 by Oxford University Press, Shreds of Tenderness is set in a greedy society, which is characteristic of political dictatorship, greed for power, betrayal that is edged in family and political relations, individualism and use of excessive power to harness into submission the disloyal errants. It is also about survival in times of political tyranny. It also sheds light to the survival and plight of refugees, the lack of belonging “while on the run” and the lack of acceptance, “when they come back home”
Set in the present and in home of a fallen affluent minister (Odie and Wak’s late father), the flash backs and “play-within-a play” helps the reader see through the atrocities committed by the fallen tyrannical regime. Odie plays the “King of Termites” who lives in a glass jar, excerpt:
Your Highness…
Your Highness. Having a royal nap, your Highness, are you? A royal nap inspite of the shooting and the shelling and the killing outside? (A bit impatient). YOUR HIGHNESS. Are you deaf, Your Mighty Highness? Or is it that you have no ear for the onslaughts of man by man? No ear for human cries of woe? I’m amazed! No Shred of tenderness left in you? The liberation war is upon our backs and you take time off to have a royal nap. Cosy, very cosy indeed. Cosy and careless, I might add. Pg. 2
Notes: This depicts the obliviousness of those in power, and their indifference to people’s suffering caused by the war of liberation.
Since Wak returned from exile, Odie is never the same. His abnormial behavior is edged in a deep hatred for Wak, whom he views as a bloody deserter. A bloody unforgivable traitor, to be exact. Pg. 8 & 9. But Odie’s hatred is also laced with fear. Possibly fear that Wak’s presence will unearth sudden truths regarding his exile and his supposed death. It could also stretch to the motives behind Odie’s informing on his brother Wak, the issue of inheritance. Even Stella seems to notice the strange behavior:
You have been behaving strangely since he returned three weeks ago. Haven’t you? (pg.11).
To his defense against sister’s accusation, Odie points out that Stella must be a crack pot to think that Wak should scare him. Why, he has survived 10 years of dire violence, where every second was a nightmare and life unpredictable hence got not time for a sausage-and-bacon returnee who did not have as much guts as a cowardly chimpanzee when the bullets started ricocheting. (pg.12)
Odie would like the reader to believe that his hatred for Wak is justified, that he shouldn’t have cowed and ran away at the height of political unrest. The sister, Stella feels something more sinister is at play. Something unsettling. Some kind of guilt that Odie seems to harbour within. She doesn’t seem to see the how to the realization of the horrors of genocide 10 years on (pg. 9). Odie must be hiding something from her. Some projected inner guilt, calling for a purging.
While the people who stayed on suffered unmentionable atrocities, even the people who fled as refugees suffered a great deal.
“..You stayed and lived through the quagmire, as best as you could. I can imagine that and I appreciate it intensely. But fleeing from your own country…that’s another matter, man. A different kettle of fish, as they say. There is nothing as abominable as being a refugee, let me tell you. Shouted at. Your dignity is lowered. Hell, man. It is a blight….self-exile is another matter of course………….From the sweeper to the highest official they subtly remind you that you don’t belong. You are an alien. Pg. 80
At first you live under false illusions……But then, all of a sudden, you get the first rude shock from both local and foreign press. Headlines alone are enough to tell you their thinking processes: ‘MARXIST TYRANT BOOTED OUT BY A POPULAR ILLITERATE SERGEANT MAJOR’…’COUP IS A VICTORY FOR DEMOCRACY…’WE RECOGNIZE STATES NOT INDIVIDUALS’ ……I had believed the regime would be in a shambles in a matter of months. I was wrong and naïve, to be frank. The regime had minerals that the West and the East wanted and were willing to cast a blind eye on one buffoon of a nigger trashing other niggers…………..We never realized that our endowments would be our undoing! Pg. 82 & 83
Whilst the country of setting would pass for Kenya (mention of Odeon Cinema-pg. 76), it could also pass for any other East African country but more particularly so, a country anywhere in Africa. The leaders using their political powers to influence extra-judicial killings, sharing of power etc…Rings a bell? I laughed out loud when there is a tug between Wak and his brother Odie (step-brothers) about sharing of power after they could not agree to the Primer rules, and this made me flash back to 2008 Kenya “power sharing” deal. It’s interesting this book was written in 2001, almost fore-shadowing the events of 2008, and any other political duels where power sharing ratios have become part of the solution to political stalemates.
Odie: I didn’t realize that our self-appointed Returning Officer was going to be biased and bribable. Besides my call for an independent observer team to monitor the elections was deliberately ignored.
Wak: And yet you objected because you were sure of winning, right? But now you have lost, it’s another matter. Is defeat such an unacceptable burden? Christ! We can’t all be winners, you know. Pg. 60 & 61
As the primer game goes on, and with Wak’s 2/3rd majority win, giving him the clear mandate to change laws, rules and regulations as fit, the disagreements dwell on matters principle and the mundane too. Wak is considered common place thinker, as Odie thinks something more authentic to fit in what the publishers want is more appropriate. You would think authentic would also do with telling a truth. But not so, in the hard times, pleasing the judges would mean the prize of $5000 is such a welcome token, in the tough times they live in. Whilst one accuses the other of a country betrayal, there is also a sense of conformity, even if it means re-writing their story to fit the judge’s profile, for survival sake. “Competition for the New Alphabet Book for the Revolutionary Third World” Not Africa, Third World. So A-as a primer would not work for Africa but for Autocracy—argues Odie. “ A may be for your mother Africa, but remember in ten or twenty years’ time there will be children who will learn with bitterness that your Africa, and Brazil and Cuba, ‘Mr. Chair’, are not their motherlands but graveyards for their parents and relatives. We are busy rewriting our histories with the blood of millions of political martyrs, and our children will have the misfortune of learning that with spouts of tears and self-hatred. (pg. 62)
….And the drama ensues, with Stella suggesting B–for the Bible,earlier on she had suggested A-for Amen to which Odie refutes, and implores her to be imaginative for a change. Well, B-Bible doesn’t work either, not at least as far as Odie’s maxims theorizes.
Look at it this way, Stella. I’m not saying that BIBLE is a wrong entry. No. (Patronisingly) In fact, it’s very good; it would win the soft sentiments of our Christian mothers and fathers and all that. But who knows? One of these fine mornings, when cocks are crowing and the likes of Wak are snoring off their whisky fumes, some influential maniac might decide to proclaim this our ‘Pearl of Africa” and Islāmic state. What then?….What will happen then? We do not want to endanger our Christian brothers and sisters, do we? That aside, the Bible has bullied us into subjugation for over a century. ….. No, Stella, we need a new primer altogether, with entries from the Koran or some other holy books-if you are religiously inclined that is. pg.67-8
The drama also focuses on a domestic setting; shedding light to acts of three siblings, Wak, Odie and Stella. In Part one, the reader is led to believe that Odie is a patriot, who stayed behind amidst political turmoil, while Wak his brother is depicted as a betrayer of his country and family. The reader is set to believe that Wak, who ran away to political exile after emptying the family’s coffers and leaving behind an ailing mother in hospital deserves no place in the reconstruction of the country. Stella feels strongly for Wak, something Odie detests and is quick to warn her “And you little sister, be careful; this kith-and-kin-nonsense doesn’t wash with me”
Odie’s hypocrisy is deep hidden in the resentment for his brother and the unraveling of his return. He seems too preoccupied by his guilt. He had plotted his brother’s downfall–and after 10 years in exile, ran an advert to the belief that his brother was dead. This was to make him an accepted heir of his father’s property, to which Wak was the rightful heir.
Conversely Wak passes as a callous fellow, who would rather Wak be punished for “abdicating his patriotic duties”, it turns out that Wak is willing to extend a reconciliatory gesture to his brother Odie. Stella is really afraid of Wak’s supposed callousness, but he corrects her that Odie is brother…no tears need be shed. There is a re-conciliatory embrace…perhaps depicting a healing to/reconciliation of the nation too. Turns out the cold-hearted, bitter Odie is the callous one. He didn’t mind their grandma’s death, terming it Good Riddance,..”she always ate her biscuits alone.” “Never shed a tear nor even apologized when their father died”. Pg.76
To Odie’s utter incredulousness, he is forgiven, even after he insists that he wants to do his penance…, something that takes Wak and Stella in shock. Are you out of your mind? Pg. 134
On the contrary, I have discovered my mind.
WRITEthinking 