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Rehana
Rossouw’s What Will People Say was
shortlisted for the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature. It is a story of
contradictions: pitting excitement vis-à-vis violence as unleashed through the
Apartheid regime and especially in the agitation for independence in South
Africa. But with the attainment of independence there is a glimmer of hope
lurking in the shadows of the trail of trauma as unleashed through colour
segregation.
The
novel vividly portrays the trauma meted out on the blacks and the coloureds. The
effects of segregation are particularly unnerving when the reader observes the
lives of certain communities and how discrimination has messed up their day to
day activities. The story explores the various ways through which trauma is
manifested especially in the lives of Cape Town inhabitants – in the infamous
Cape Flats. It lays bare white peoples privileges and in the process shows how
the wounds of segregation fester and eventually burst open in the form of
repressed anger, violence, dehumanisation and alienation among others.
Without
an opportunity to express their troubles, coupled with the impotent knowledge
of their inability to singlehandedly confront the white oppressor, both the
blacks and coloureds turn against each other with a vengeance that is
self-destructive. The cruelty and savagery in their actions is a demonstration
of what years of oppression have nurtured and nourished – a spirit of
self-loathing and an inbuilt anathema for humanity.
Indeed,
the novel’s themes are hinged on this triple axis of oppression, alienation and
retribution. The insanity of the prevailing atmosphere is aptly captured in the
family of the Fouries. Magda Fourie, the wife and mother, escapes into church
and its dogma of waiting for a better after-life. In fact, the title of the
novel is conceived from her pretence when she lives a life of lies and denies
the family from being true to their feelings because she is afraid about “what
will people say”. One can argue that the title is based on the coloured’s stereotype
of being obsessed with societal expectations at the expense of individual
freedom. Thus, Magda pretends that all is well with her family even when she
knows that things have taken a turn for the worst. In her fear, we read the
human folly of vanity, pride and an obsession with material things which
eventually blinds us to the more immediate human need for acceptance, love,
understanding, and appreciation.
When
the Fourie family begins to disintegrate, slowly but surely, the reader is
acutely aware that the inevitable will happen – there shall be death in the
family and this is not a romantic novel after all! Anthony, the only son in the
family, is coerced into a gang through a traumatising initiation rite in which
he is forced to partake of the gang raping of his sister’s best friend Shirley.
Although the father musters courage to take him for therapy sessions when the
trauma makes him mute, it is a bit too late to salvage him. He is eventually
murdered in cold blood by fellow gang members when he reneges on the gang
expectations bestowed upon him.
Nicky
Fourie, the middle child, the bright one and the hope of the family is
disturbed by the immense responsibility and expectations that the rest of the
family have on her. Her father believes that she can become a lawyer and her
mother has an overwhelming trust that Nicky is the moral superintendent of the
family. However, when things go wrong, everyone is forced to confront their
worst fears. Nicky finally ends up being a social worker, the parents split and
she has to stay with the mother since her boyfriend Kevin departs for Jorburg
to attend to bigger nationalistic problems. Indeed, it is in Nicky, Suzette,
her mother and other female characters that the strong gender agenda is
embedded.
The
father, Neville, who has always believed himself to be a hen-pecked man,
constantly nagged by the wife to become more active in church finds solace in
the arms of their neighbour, Moira – the very woman who has been perceived to
epitomise immorality since she has five children from five different fathers.
The eldest daughter Suzette, drops from school pre-maturely but somehow through
her individual fortitude discovers success in the world of beauty and
modelling. On the flipside, her success is marred by the revelation that part
of the success comes from white privilege connections!
It
is in Ougat and his gang of teenagers – drug addicted zombies, that we
visualise the palpable anger, frustration and overall disillusionment in the
text. Indeed, the very rape of Shirley is symbolic of a society that is
demented. We also discover that even the whites suffer from addiction when
Suzette’ white boyfriend Neville has to be taken into rehab. It appears that
discrimination is a double-edged sword since when the blacks and coloureds
suffer from it, the whites also suffer from insecurity and other related forms
of violence as unleashed in retaliation by those discriminated against. This is
a society on the verge of self-destruction!
The
novel asks a fundamental question: do black parents care more about their
reputation as opposed to the well-being of their children? It is clear from this
text that when people lose the very essence of their humanity then it is right
to conclude that “people got a democratic right to fuck up their lives” since
as Kevin says the people have “got used to their oppression, they don’t know
any other way” (307). However, there is a glimmer of hope when the individuals
become conscious of the need to change the status quo. They begin to look for
possibilities, strife to obtain their rights and also agitate for a better
society. It is possible to rebuild the society but a concerted effort towards
healing is a must. It is possible not to worry about what people will say but
the reader has to engage the text in order to agree or disagree with this!
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