English 319 -- Postcolonial Literature
Dr. Hastings

Bessie Head
1937-1986

HEAD'S LIFE
         Head was born in an asylum in South Africa in 1937, the daughter of a wealthy South African woman of Scottish descent and a black stable boy. (Her mother was sent to the asylum because of this interracial affair.)  At her death, her mother left money for Bessie's education; she was first cared for by a foster family and then in a mission school.  She married unhappily and subsequently divorced, and exiled herself to Botswana, where she set many of her stories.  Her personal history contributes to her sense of being an "outsider," not really belonging to any tribe or ethnic group.  Her stories deal primarily with the fate of women in African society; she writes both from a "postcolonial" and a feminist perspective.

"Black women have a certain history of oppression within African culture. . . women's problems are rooted in custom and tradition.  What is certainly very dominant here is that the male had a superior position to the female. . ." (Head, qtd. in Lionnet}

"Head explores how an individual's inner sense of integrity and beliefs are often at odds with the society's rules which impose a conformity on the community and stifle individual self-fulfilment."  (Chetin, 119)

"The Collector of Treasures"
         Dikeledi's compromise (life in prison for murder) "hardly suggests a solution to the problems plaguing an `independent society'" (Chetin 135).  Note too that her marital problems predate independence but are exacerbated by her husband's enhanced position post-independence - the woman's lot is not improved.  Men are shown to be victims of history and tradition, but (as the character of Paul suggests) they can transcend it.  Women, in contrast, "weave" a life of greater beauty about them.
         Lionnet suggests that the female community constructed by Dikeledi gives her the courage to plan her husband's murder, even as it jeopardizes her own life and freedom.  Also, as in "Life," money is the cause of social disturbance - i.e., the 20 rands she is short for her son's education.
         Note that Dikeledi's crime is not unique - husband murder is "becoming the fashion" and there are four others in prison for the same crowd.  The women in prison establish their own community through small acts of kindness, such as Kebonye's warning that the tea is sugarless, and through conversation, through which it emerges that they have killed their husbands through the same method.  In Kebonye's case, the motive is surely mistreatment over his sexual demands; though educated, the husband was a sleep-around and a hypocrite.
         Note the thematic emphasis on Dikeledi's hands, which do the work of creating beautiful designs but also did the work of killing her husband.
         Kebonye says this is a terrible world, but Dikeledi "had always found gold amidst the ash" and collects the treasures of love she finds in this world.
        Men are like the village dogs chasing a bitch in heat; in the old (pre-colonial) days, men's animal side would be held in check by tradition and taboo; these old laws worked for the benefit of society as a whole, with little account for the individual - thus the patriarchal society that pertained. This patriarchy pre-existed colonization; hence Paul's statement "The British only ruled us for eighty years" - the postcolonial problems may reflect underlying patterns of the old culture.  During the colonial period, the traditional family life was broken by the necessity of travel to find work in South Africa, so you got husbands living apart from their wives.  With independence, the men moved into administrative jobs and earned more money, but had no external checks on their impulses.  This is Garesego Mokopi.
         The alternative type of man goes "on and on with his own quiet rhythm, like a river," like Paul Thebolo (whose name indicates he has been Christianized).  There is love between Dikeledi and Paul, but Garesego understands love only as lust/sex - so he genuinely believes Paul must be sleeping with Dikeledi.  His desire for her is no stronger than before (note his behavior when he visits her hut), but he must assert his superiority like two bucks fighting over a doe.
 

Sources: Sara Chetin, "Myth, Exile, and the Female Condition: Bessie Head's The Collector of Treasures,"  J Commonwealth Lit 24 (1989) 114-37; Francoise Lionnet, "Geographies of Pain: Captive Bodies and Violent Acts in the Fictions of Gayl Jones, Bessie Head, and Myriam Warner-Vieyra,"  Conference paper, University of Minnesota, 1992.

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