The Village Saint by Bessie Head
Info and Resources created by Oliver Heal, Jackson Tu'inukuafe, and Harry MilneAbout the authorBessie Head was born in Pietermaritzburg South Africa on the 6th of July 1937. She was the child of a wealthy white woman and a black servant at a time when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa which meant her mother was claimed to be mentally ill in order to allow her to give birth to Bessie in a quiet location without the neighbours knowing.
However the exact circumstances of her birth are disputed. Her mother later killed herself and Bessie was raised by foster parents and then a mission orphanage. She worked as a teacher and a journalist and then joined the Pan Africanist Congress. IIn 1964 she fled South Africa and moved with her son to Botswana. In 1986 she died of hepatitis at the age of 46, just as she was beginning to achieve acclaim for her writing. |
In a nutshell:The Village Saint by Bessie Head is about an African village leader Rra Mompati, his wife Mma Mompati and their son Mompati. Mma Mompati is perceived to be the village saint she attends funerals of the rich and poor and visits hospitals to pray for the sick. Then without warning Rra Mompati left his wife and job for another woman, the whole village was shocked he could leave such a great woman. Mma Mompati went to the divorce court and received a large settlement and Rra Mompati proceeded to leave the village to live on his cattle post. Mompati like his mother attended funerals and visited hospitals to pray for the sick and like his mother was well loved by the village. Mompati then took a job as manager of local store and then fell in love with Mary Pule and married her all went well until a month after the marriage when Mma Mompati showed her true self taking a large sum of Mompati’s earnings for that month. This was due to hatred of Mary Pule who she perceived to be weak and when Mompati doesn’t give his mother money and the end of the following mothers she blames Mary and won’t allow her to have water from their tap meaning she must walk all the way to the village for water and when people ask why she doesn’t just get water from her home she tells the story of what happened and destroys Mma Mompati’s reputation. Mompati then moves house with Mary away from his mother.
PRIORITY: MEDIUM
POSSIBLE ESSAY PAIRINGS WITH:
PRIORITY: MEDIUM
POSSIBLE ESSAY PAIRINGS WITH:
- Yellow Wallpaper (change, isolation, unbreakable cycle, conflict);
- Lim's Journey (childhood, innocence lost, change, isolation, gender, age/youth);
- Five Twenty (age/youth, oppression, colours and objects as symbols - esp flowers, isolation, change)
- An Englishman's Home (change, settings as symbols, outsiders)
Rough thematic areas: isolation, transition/change, growing up, loss of innocence, powerlessness, age and youth, death, male identity.
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