When Rain Clouds Gather

Gilbert is a massive, amiable, determined man of British descent; he has been a resident of Golema Mmidi for roughly three years at the time of the novel’s opening. Without his initiative—and without his willingness to endure the constant opposition of Chief Matenge—none of the village’s progress in ranching and agriculture would have come to pass. Yet there is an underside to Gilbert’s positive outlook on life. He has faith in Botswana, but he is disgusted with the patient and stagnant lifestyle in his native England—and is haunted by his own background as the son of an affluent, neurotic woman.

Moreover, Gilbert faces obstacles other than the hatred of Matenge and the burden of an unpleasant past: he must overcome the ingrained customs of the villagers in order to put some of his most ambitious plans into practice. Fortunately, for all his vigor and independence, he is capable of seeing the value of working with others, particularly Dinorego, Makhaya, and the women of Golema Mmidi. Gilbert is perhaps most patient and cautious in his personal life, which is at first defined by a long-running flirtation with Dinorego’s daughter Maria. Only when Gilbert perceives that Makhaya could become a rival for Maria’s affections does he decide to secure Maria as his wife.

Strong-willed in personality and striking in appearance, Paulina Sebeso is a woman known for her expressive eyes, statuesque legs, and brilliant-colored skirts. She is also a woman with a tragic past—a first marriage that ended in her husband’s implication in an embezzlement scheme and his suicide. In the hope of starting a new life, Paulina has resettled in Golema Mmidi with her two young children, a girl who is in school and a boy who herds the family cattle. She takes an almost immediate liking to Makhaya, assumes an important role in Gilbert’s tobacco-growing project, and finds a devoted friend in Mma-Millipede. Yet, Paulina’s life is soon unsettled by a new tragedy: the death of her son at his cattle post, along with the death of all the family’s cattle.

The losses that afflict Paulina’s family are not due to any major fault of character on Paulina’s part; instead, they are the products of oversights or confusions, or even of events that lie well beyond her control. Her situation may appear to suggest, at first, that individuals are helpless before the randomness and suffering of life, however, by moving beyond her past sufferings and beginning a new life with Makhaya, she ultimately lends a note of endurance and optimism to the events of When Rain Clouds Gather.

Maria is a small, spirited woman. Loyal to her father, Dinorego, and later to her husband, Gilbert, she plays only a minor role in the most important agricultural projects in Golema Mmidi. Yet she is important to the narrative because she becomes an affectionate, independent, and compatible wife for Gilbert, and she speaks the words from which Head’s novel takes its title.

An unassuming yet thoughtful old man, Dinorego is Maria’s father. He is not wealthy or politically powerful, but he offers Gilbert moral support and is instrumental in leading the other villagers to accept Gilbert’s vision of progress. Moreover, it is he who finds Makhaya and brings the younger man to Golema Mmidi, thus bringing Gilbert a much-needed ally. Dinorego’s influential role within the narrative helps to clarify the vision of social progress that is set forward in When Rain Clouds Gather: progress not the result of powerful people making sweeping changes, but of humble citizens, such as Dinorego and his companions, banding together and bringing out the best in one another.

Mma-Millipede, an old woman of Golema Mmidi, is exceptional for her devotion to Christianity and the Bible. She is also exceptional as a counselor to other characters: she gives Paulina Sebeso advice on how to handle her attraction to Makhaya, holds her own with the educated Makhaya in a discussion of religion, and is a long-time friend of Dinorego. In fact, during her youth Mma-Millipede was engaged to be married to Dinorego. The marriage was terminated when Mma-Millipede was married instead to Ramogodi, the womanizing son of a local chief. Her marriage was not happy, but the scandals that plagued Ramogodi’s household gave Mma-Millipede a valuable perspective on human nature—that same perspective she uses to help the younger people who seek her aid.

Matenge is the chief in charge of Golema Mmidi, given his post in the relatively minor and undeveloped town partially as a punishment for plotting to assassinate his older brother, Paramount Chief Sekoto; the two of them remain at odds. A man devoted to the old ways and traditional privileges, Matenge prominently displays his wealthy and authority. While he sees Gilbert’s attempts to raise the status of the village as a threat to his own power, he strikes an unusual alliance with another, very different representative of change: Joas Tsepe, a political agitator who attaches himself to Matenge’s household.

An unpleasant man and a representative of backwardness, Matenge is the most important antagonist in a novel of change and community endeavor such as When Rain Clouds Gather. However, he is not portrayed in a completely unsympathetic manner. At times, Head departs from her depictions of protagonists such as Makhaya and Gilbert to consider Matenge’s private thoughts, revealing the chief as a man of deep weakness, insecurity, and loneliness.

Chief Sekoto, Matenge’s older brother, is a fat and pleasant man who loves fast cars, beautiful women, and good food. He is also a canny negotiator and an effective leader, even though he represents a power structure that may disappear as Botswana becomes more modern. As a foil to his ineffectual and insecure brother, he is important to the structure of Head’s narrative; as a local authority whose attitude towards Gilbert’s plans falls somewhere between promotion and tolerance, he is also an important, though not always directly active, figure in the agricultural progress of Golema Mmidi.

Joas Tsepe is a vehement and gleefully malicious political agitator who finds an ally in Matenge. Despite the fact that he works and lives alongside a chief, he is aligned with a political party of uneducated men who oppose the old order in Botswana, favoring instead crudely articulated Pan-African principles. Tsepe served a jail sentence for unsavory activities during a recent election and has shadowy political patrons outside the country. Arguably, he is the only character in When Rain Clouds Gather who is portrayed in a completely negative manner.