African Stories

  They were then twenty-seven, and felt themselves well-equipped for a useful and enjoyable life. Their house was planned for a family. They would have been delighted if a baby had been born the old-fashioned nine months after marriage. As it was, a baby did not come; and when two years had passed, Jane took a journey into the city to see a doctor. She was not so much unhappy as indignant to find she needed an operation before she could have children. She did not associate illness with herself, and felt as if the whole thing were out of character. But she submitted to the operation, and to waiting a further two years before starting a family, with her usual practical good sense. But it subdued her a little. The uncertainty preyed on her, in spite of herself; and it was because of her rather wistful, disappointed frame of mind at this time that her work in the clinic became so important to her. Whereas, in the beginning she had dispensed medicines and good advice as a routine, every morning for a couple of hours after breakfast, she now threw herself into it, working hard keeping herself at full stretch, trying to attack causes rather than symptoms.

  The compound was the usual farm compound of unsanitary mud and grass huts; the diseases she had to deal with were caused by poverty and bad feeding.

  Having lived in the country all her life, she did not make the mistake of expecting too much; she had that shrewd, ironical patience that achieves more with backward people than any amount of angry idealism.

  First she chose an acre of good soil for vegetables, and saw to the planting and cultivating herself. One cannot overthrow the customs of centuries in a season, and she was patient with the natives who would not at first touch food they were not used to. She persuaded and lectured. She gave the women of the compound lessons in cleanliness and baby care. She drew up diet sheets and ordered sacks of citrus from the big estates; in fact, it was not long before it was Jane who organised the feeding of Willie’s two-hundred-strong labour force, and he was glad to have her help. Neighbours laughed at them; for it is even now customary to feed natives on maize meal only, with an occasional slaughtered ox for a feasting; but there was no doubt Willie’s natives were healthier than most and he got far more work out of them. On cold winter mornings Jane would stand dispensing cans of hot cocoa from a petrol drum with a slow fire burning under it to the natives before they went to the fields; and if a neighbour passed and laughed at her, she set her lips and said good-humouredly: “It’s good sound commonsense, that’s what it is. Besides—poor things, poor things!” Since the McClusters were respected in the district, they were humoured in what seemed a ridiculous eccentricity.

  But it was not easy, not easy at all. It was of no use to cure hookworm-infested feet that would become reinfected in a week, since none wore shoes; nothing could be done about bilharzia, when all the rivers were full of it; and the natives continued to live in the dark and smoky huts.

  But the children could be helped; Jane most particularly loved the little black piccanins. She knew that fewer children died in her compound than in any for miles around, and this was her pride. She would spend whole mornings explaining to the women about dirt and proper feeding; if a child became ill, she would sit up all night with it, and cried bitterly if it died. The name for her among the natives was The Goodhearted One. They trusted her. Though mostly they hated and feared the white man’s medicines,I they let Jane have her way, because they felt she was prompted by kindness; and day by day the crowds of natives waiting for medical attention became larger. This filled Jane with pride; and every morning she made her way to the big stone-floored, thatched building at the back of the house that smelled always of disinfectants and soap, accompanied by the houseboy who helped her, and spent there many hours helping the mothers and the children and the labourers who had hurt themselves at work.

  Little Tembi was brought to her for help at the time when she knew she could not hope to have a child of her own for at least two years. He had what the natives call “the hot weather sickness.” His mother had not brought him soon enough, and by the time Jane took him in her arms he was a tiny wizened skeleton, loosely covered with harsh greyish skin, the stomach painfully distended. “He will die,” moaned the mother from outside the clinic door, with that fatalistic note that always annoyed Jane. “Nonsense!” she said briskly—even more briskly because she was so afraid he would.

  She laid the child warmly in a lined basket, and the houseboy and she looked grimly into each other’s faces. Jane said sharply to the mother, who was whimpering helplessly from the floor where she squatted with her hands to her face: “Stop crying. That doesn’t do any good. Didn’t I cure your first child when he had the same trouble?” But that other little boy had not been nearly as sick as this one.

  When Jane had carried the basket into the kitchen, and set it beside the fire for warmth, she saw the same grim look on the cook-boy’s face as she had seen on the houseboy’s—and could feel on her own. “This child is not going to die,” she said to herself. “I won’t let it! I won’t let it.” It seemed to her that if she could pull little Tembi through, the life of the child she herself wanted so badly would be granted her.

  She sat beside the basket all day, willing the baby to live, with medicines on the table beside her, and the cookboy and the house-boy helping her where they could. At night the mother came from the compound with her blanket; and the two women kept vigil together. Because of the fixed, imploring eyes of the black woman Jane was even more spurred to win through; and the next day, and the next, and through the long nights, she fought for Tembi’s life even when she could see from the faces of the house natives that they thought she was beaten. Once, towards dawn of one night when the air was cold and still, the little body chilled to the touch, and there seemed no breath in it, Jane held it close to the warmth of her own breast murmuring fiercely over and over again: You will live, you will live—and when the sun rose the infant was breathing deeply and its feet were pulsing in her hand.

  When it became clear that he would not die, the whole house was pervaded with a feeling of happiness and victory. Willie came to see the child, and said affectionately to Jane: “Nice work, old girl. I never thought you’d do it.” The cookboy and the houseboy were warm and friendly towards Jane, and brought her gratitude presents of eggs and ground meal. As for the mother, she took her child in her arms with trembling joy and wept as she thanked Jane.

  Jane herself, though exhausted and weak, was too happy to rest or sleep: she was thinking of the child she would have. She was not a superstitious person, and the thing could not be described in such terms: she felt that she had thumbed her nose at death, that she had sent death slinking from her door in defeat, and now she would be strong to make life, fine strong children of her own; she could imagine them springing up beside her, lovely children conceived from her own strength and power against sneaking death.

  Little Tembi was brought by his mother up to the house every day for a month, partly to make sure he would not relapse, partly because Jane had grown to love him. When he was quite well, and no longer came to the clinic, Jane would ask the cookboy after him, and sometimes sent a message that he should be fetched to see her. The native woman would then come smiling to the back door with the little Tembi on her back and her older child at her skirts, and Jane would run down the steps, smiling with pleasure, waiting impatiently as the cloth was unwound from the mother’s back, revealing Tembi curled there, thumb in mouth, with great black solemn eyes, his other hand clutching the stuff of his mother’s dress for security. Jane would carry him indoors to show Willie. “Look,” she would say tenderly, “here’s my little Tembi. Isn’t he a sweet little piccanin?”

  He grew into a fat shy little boy, staggering uncertainly from his mother’s arms to Jane’s. Later, when he was strong on his legs, he would run to Jane and laugh as she caught him up. There was always fruit or sweets for him when he visited the house, always a hug from Jane and a good-humoured, amused smile from Willie.

  He was two years old when Jane said to his mother: “When
the rains come this year I shall also have a child.” And the two women, forgetting the difference in colour, were happy together because of the coming children: the black woman was expecting her third baby.

  Tembi was with his mother when she came to visit the cradle of the little white boy. Jane held out her hand to him and said: “Tembi, how are you?” Then she took her baby from the cradle and held it out, saying: “Come and see my baby, Tembi.” But Tembi backed away, as if afraid, and began to cry. “Silly Tembi,” said Jane affectionately; and sent the houseboy to fetch some fruit as a present. She did not make the gift herself, as she was holding her child.

  She was absorbed by this new interest, and very soon found herself pregnant again. She did not forget little Tembi, but thought of him rather as he had been, the little toddler whom she had loved wistfully when she was childless. Once she caught sight of Tembi’s mother walking along one of the farm roads, leading a child by the hand and said: “But where’s Tembi?” Then she saw the child was Tembi. She greeted him; but afterwards said to Willie: “Oh dear, it’s such a pity when they grow up, isn’t it?” “He could hardly be described as grown-up,” said Willie, smiling indulgently at her where she sat with her two infants on her lap. “You won’t be able to have them climbing all over you when we’ve a dozen,” he teased her—they had decided to wait another two years and then have some more; Willie came from a family of nine children. “Who said a dozen?” exclaimed Jane tartly, playing up to him. “Why not?” asked Willie. “We can afford it.” “How do you think I can do everything?” grumbled Jane pleasantly. For she was very busy. She had not let the work at the clinic lapse; it was still she who did the ordering and planning of the labourers’ food; and she looked after her children without help—she did not even have the customary native nanny. She could not really be blamed for losing touch with little Tembi.

  He was brought to her notice one evening when Willie was having the usual weekly discussion with the boss-boy over the farm work. He was short of labour again and the rains had been heavy and the lands were full of weeds. As fast as the gangs of natives worked through a field it seemed that the weeds were higher than ever. Willie suggested that it might be possible to take some of the older children from their mothers for a few weeks. He already employed a gang of piccanins, of between about nine and fifteen years old, who did lighter work; but he was not sure that all the available children were working. The boss-boy said he would see what he could find.

  As a result of this discussion Willie and Jane were called one day to the front door by a smiling cookboy to see little Tembi, now about six years old, standing proudly beside his father, who was also smiling. “Here is a man to work for you,” said Tembi’s father to Willie, pushing forward Tembi, who jibbed like a little calf, standing with his head lowered and his fingers in his mouth. He looked so tiny, standing all by himself, that Jane exclaimed compassionately: “But, Willie, he’s just a baby still!” Tembi was quite naked, save for a string of blue beads cutting into the flesh of his fat stomach. Tembi’s father explained that his older child, who was eight, had been herding the calves for a year now, and that there was no reason why Tembi should not help him.

  “But I don’t need two herdsboys for the calves,” protested Willie. And then, to Tembi: “And now, my big man, what money do you want?” At this Tembi dropped his head still lower, twisted his feet in the dust, and muttered: “Five shillings.” “Five shillings a month!” exclaimed Willie indignantly. “What next! Why, the ten-year-old piccanins get that much.” And then, feeling Jane’s hand on his arm, he said hurriedly: “Oh, all right, four and sixpence. He can help his big brother with the calves.” Jane, Willie, the cookboy and Tembi’s father stood laughing sympathetically as Tembi lifted his head, stuck out his stomach even further, and swaggered off down the path, beaming with pride. “Well,” sighed Jane, “I never would have thought it. Little Tembi! Why, it seems only the other day . . .”

  Tembi, promoted to a loincloth, joined his brother with the calves; and as the two children ran alongside the animals, everyone turned to look smiling after the tiny black child, strutting with delight, and importantly swishing the twig his father had cut him from the bush as if he were a full-grown driver with his team of beasts.

  The calves were supposed to stay all day near the kraal; when the cows had been driven away to the grazing, Tembi and his brother squatted under a tree and watched the calves, rising to run, shouting, if one attempted to stray. For a year Tembi was apprentice to the job; and then his brother joined the gang of older piccanins who worked with the hoe. Tembi was then seven years old, and responsible for twenty calves, some standing higher than he. Normally a much older child had the job; but Willie was chronically short of labour, as all the farmers were, and he needed every pair of hands he could find, for work in the fields.

  “Did you know your Tembi is a proper herdsboy now?” Willie said to Jane, laughing, one day. “What!” exclaimed Jane. “That baby! Why, it’s absurd.” She looked jealously at her own children, because of Tembi; she was the kind of woman who hates to think of her children growing up. But she now had three, and was very busy indeed. She forgot the little black boy.

  Then one day a castastrophe happened. It was very hot, and Tembi fell asleep under the trees. His father came up to the house, uneasily apologetic, to say that some of the calves had got into the mealie field and trampled down the plants. Willie was angry. It was that futile, simmering anger that cannot be assuaged, for it is caused by something that cannot be remedied: children had to herd the calves because adults were needed for more important work, and one could not be really angry with a child of Tembi’s age. Willie had Tembi fetched to the house, and gave him a stern lecture about the terrible thing he had done. Tembi was crying when he turned away; he stumbled off to the compound with his father’s hand resting on his shoulder, because the tears were streaming so fast he could not have directed his own steps. But in spite of the tears, and his contrition, it all happened again not very long afterwards. He fell asleep in the drowsily-warm shade, and when he woke, toward evening, all the calves had strayed into the fields and flattened acres of mealies. Unable to face punishment he ran away, crying, into the bush. He was found that night by his father who cuffed him lightly round the head for running away.

  And now it was a very serious matter indeed. Willie was angry. To have happened once—that was bad, but forgivable. But twice, and within a month! He did not at first summon Tembi, but had a consultation with his father. “We must do something he will not forget, as a lesson,” said Willie. Tembi’s father said the child had already been punished. “You have beaten him?” asked Willie. But he knew that Africans do not beat their children, or so seldom it was not likely that Tembi had really been punished. “You say you have beaten him?” he insisted; and saw, from the way the man turned away his eyes and said, “Yes, baas,” that it was not true. “Listen,” said Willie. “Those calves straying must have cost me about thirty pounds. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t get it back from Tembi, can I? And now I’m going to stop it happening again.” Tembi’s father did not reply. “You will fetch Tembi up here, to the house, and cut a switch from the bush, and I will give him a beating.” “Yes, baas,” said Tembi’s father, after a pause.

  When Jane heard of the punishment she said: “Shame! Beating my little Tembi . . .”

  When the hour came, she took away her children so that they would not have such an unpleasant thing in their memories. Tembi was brought up to the verandah, clutching his father’s hand and shivering with fear. Willie said he did not like the business of beating; he considered it necessary, however, and intended to go through with it. He took the long light switch from the cookboy, who had cut it from the bush, since Tembi’s father had come without it, and ran the sharply-whistling thing loosely through the air to frighten Tembi. Tembi shivered more than ever, and pressed his face against his father’s thighs. “Come here, Tembi.” Tembi did not move; so his father lifted him close to
Willie. “Bend down.” Tembi did not bend down, so his father bent him down, hiding the small face against his own legs. Then Willie glanced smilingly but uncomfortably at the cookboy, the houseboy and Tembi’s father, who were all regarding him with stern, unresponsive faces and swished the wand backwards and forwards over Tembi’s back; he wanted them to see he was only trying to frighten Tembi for the good of his upbringing. But they did not smile at all. Finally Willie said in an awful, solemn voice: “Now, Tembi!” And then, having made the occasion solemn and angry, he switched Tembi lightly, three times, across the buttocks, and threw the switch away into the bush. “Now you will never do it again, Tembi, will you?” he said. Tembi stood quite still, shuddering, in front of him, and would not meet his eyes. His father gently took his hand and led him away back home.

  “Is it over?” asked Jane, appearing from the house. “I didn’t hurt him,” said Willie crossly. He was annoyed, because he felt the black men were annoyed with him. “They want to have it both ways,” he said. “If the child is old enough to earn money, then he’s old enough to be responsible. Thirty pounds!”