Maru

In Maru (1971), author Bessie Head, also known for When Rain Clouds Gather (1968) and A Question of Power (1973), confronts deeply held prejudice toward the Masarwa people of Botswana. Considered sub-human by most citizens of Botswana, the Masarwa people pursue an untenable and desperate existence within Botswana society. Living off the land, the Masarwa wander from place to place in the bush, scavenging food and water in a subsistence lifestyle. The name “Masarwa” itself is an insult, being roughly equivalent to the n-word in English (6).

Margaret’s Masarwa mother dies in childbirth; her body and her newborn are left on the side of the road. Margaret Cadmore, a Scottish missionary, takes in the baby and names her after herself. Young Margaret is raised within the mission environment where she receives fair treatment, kindness, and in particular, an education. An excellent scholar, she eventually attains a teaching degree. The novel’s events begin when Margaret receives her first teaching assignment in the small village Dilepe.

Margaret, who could have passed as a “colored,” bearing a half-white, half-African ethnicity, instead bravely announces to anyone who asks that she is a Masarwa, who are considered inhuman by most people in Botswana. However, being a teacher, she occupies a position of respect within Botswana society. Through the juxtaposition of Margaret’s ethnicity with her position, Head explores the interactions between race, gender, and class. Margaret’s struggle to overcome racism is the novel’s central theme.

The other significant characters in the novel—Dikeledi, a fellow teacher at Margaret’s school and the future paramount chief’s sister; Maru, the future paramount chief; and Moleka, Dikeledi’s love interest, Maru’s best friend, and a lower-level chief—all face the reality of Margaret’s humanity, integrity, and intelligence. Each refuses to treat Margaret as sub-human because of her ethnicity, despite the fact that both Moleka and Maru have many Masarwa slaves who work at their homes and their cattle ranches. A substantial portion of every rich person’s wealth comes from the enslavement of the Masarwa people, as cattle ranchers, farmers, or servants.

Through their friendships and love for Margaret—both Moleka and Maru vie for Margaret’s hand in marriage—these three highly placed figures influence the rest of the village and defy the ancient beliefs concerning the inherent inferiority of the Masarwa. Margaret’s patent humble dignity, honesty, and bravery in revealing her true heritage and the way in which she conducts herself, represent the crumbling of the racial prejudice within Botswana society.

This novel draws heavily upon the author’s own life and the prejudice she experienced growing up in South Africa. Head, like her character Margaret, became a teacher. Head fled South Africa after experiencing legal problems there, landing in Botswana as a refugee.

The novel operates as a modern-day fairytale, with Margaret appearing as the Cinderella figure while Maru and Moleka act as lovelorn Prince Charmings. This metaphor becomes all the more resonant as Maru is destined to be the paramount chief, or king, among his people, and Moleka is already the king of a different kingdom. Highlighting the differences between Margaret and her suitors, Margaret is described as living as a wild dog with tin cans tied to her tail (11). Furthermore, she faces constant prejudice, isolation, and exclusion:

It never stopped the tin cans rattling, but it kept the victim of the tin cans sane. No one by shouting, screaming or spitting could un-Bushman her. There was only one thing left, to find out how bushmen were going to stay alive on the earth, because no one wanted them to, except perhaps as the slaves and down-trodden dogs of the Batswana. That half she would be left alone to solve. (11)

An underlying theme in the novel concerns Margaret’s quest for acceptance and a place within her society. Discouragingly, she never finds it. In Dilepe, she becomes the pawn of two powerful chiefs, each seeking to use her for his own ends while professing to love her. It is only in her own home, first in the abandoned library in Dilepe and later in her marital home with Maru, that she finds acceptance and love. She finds herself ignored and neglected rather than finding a path to acceptance in the larger society of Dilepe. Though Margaret is never accepted, she is not killed either, a possibility that Dikeledi mentions early in the novel (47). Cinderella marries Prince Charming, but life is not “happily ever after.”