Johnny Masilela
MY WARRIOR SON by Mary Anne Fitzgerald (Penguin)
This is the story of the relationship between Mary Anne Fitzgerald – who grew up in the United States and South Africa – and Peter Kepaeka, a Masai lad, allegedly an orphan, whom she adopted. She was working as a foreign correspondent in Kenya at the time. Despite some good moments, the relationship does not go well for either of them. Fitzgerald is deported from Kenya for criticising the regime, and Peter is not happy in England. The expectations of each of them seem inappropriate and doomed to disappointment.
The story is a sad one, but Fitzgerald often writes beautifully about Africa: “[My] memory snaps open to send me tumbling through time. The odours of the boma sing in my nostrils: goat urine, udders swollen with milk, great pats of cowdung, and wood smoke from the cooking fires.”
The relationship with Peter exposed Fitzgerald to Masai culture and beliefs, though one is not convinced by all her statements on the subject. For instance, she gives a detailed account of the goings-on at a circumcision ceremony which she can’t, as a white woman, have witnessed.
Fitzgerald calls herself an African but seems nonplussed by many aspects of African culture.