Dancing in the Dust
by Kagiso Lesego Molope
(Oxford University Press)
Tihelo, Sowetan schoolgirl narrator of this novel, gives us a real insider’s view of life in the townships in the 1980s — a time of school boycotts and dysfunctional “Bantu education”, troops and police patrols in the lekeishene, marches, toyi-toying, and frequent detentions of comrades. In an unpretentious and matter-of-fact way she introduces us to the people on her street, both adults and children, and through what happens to them during those years she illustrates political events. For example, her closest friend is sent to a private multiracial school while Tihelo remains in the township, causing a permanent rift. Her schoolgirl sister, Keitumetse, falls pregnant, and this is examined in detail both in what it means for her sister, who opts to go through with an illegal abortion, and for the father, comrade-hero of their street, who flees the country and seems untouched by this unwanted pregnancy, which could have meant the end of all aspirations for Keitumetse.
This is a book primarily about girls and women and those struggle times are seen from their points of view and in terms of their choices — a subtle assertion of their contributions and importance. It also charts the nuances of relationships between these women. A sub-plot revolves around the fact that Tihelo is lighter in colour than her family and the reasons for this provide an interesting twist to a story in which there are hardly any white characters and those seem not only very remote from life in the townships, but also pretty much the baddies. Understandably so.
When Tihelo is arrested and put into solitary confinement, the reader’s credulity is stretched somewhat, not by the event itself, which was highly possible, but by the extreme conditions she describes — were South African prisons really that bad? Or is she describing a complete breakdown as a result of this incarceration of a young girl? This is debatable, but for the post-1994 generation this novel will help to recreate those times that could so easily fade from memory.