Cry, The Beloved Country Part 7

The black people go to Alexandra or Sophiatown or Orlando, and try to hire rooms or to buy a share of a house.

Have you a room that you could let?

No, I have no room.

Have you a room that you could let?

It is let already.

Have you a room that you could let?

Yes, I have a room that I could let, but I do not want to let it. I have only two rooms, and there are six of us already, and the boys and girls are growing up. But school books cost money, and my husband is ailing, and when he is well it is only thirty-five s.h.i.+llings a week. And six s.h.i.+llings of that is for the rent, and three s.h.i.+llings for travelling, and a s.h.i.+lling that we may all be buried decently, and a s.h.i.+lling for the books, and three s.h.i.+llings is for clothes and that is little enough, and a s.h.i.+lling for my husband's beer, and a s.h.i.+lling for his tobacco, and these I do not grudge for he is a decent man and does not gamble or spend his money on other women, and a s.h.i.+lling for the Church, and a s.h.i.+lling for sickness. And that leaves seventeen s.h.i.+llings for food for six, and we are always hungry. Yes I have a room but I do not want to let it. How much would you pay?

I could pay three s.h.i.+llings a week for the room.

And I would not take it.

Three s.h.i.+llings and sixpence.

Three s.h.i.+llings and sixpence. You can't fill your stomach on privacy. You need privacy when your children are growing up, but you can't fill your stomach on it. Yes, I shall take three s.h.i.+llings and sixpence.

The house is not broken, but it is overflowing. Ten people in two rooms, and only one door for the entrance, and people to walk over you when you go to sleep. But there is a little more food for the children, and maybe once a month a trip to the pictures.

I do not like this woman, nor the way she looks at my husband. I do not like this boy, nor the way he looks at my daughter. I do not like this man, I do not like the way he looks at me, I do not like the way he looks at my daughter.

I am sorry, but you must go now.

We have no place to go to.

I am sorry, but the house is too full. It cannot hold so many.

We have put our name down for a house. Can you not wait till we get a house?

There are people in Orlando who have been waiting five years for a house.

I have a friend who waited only one month for a house.

I have heard of such. They say you can pay a bribe.

We have no money for a bribe.

I am sorry, but the house is full.

Yes, this house is full, and that house is full. For everyone is coming to Johannesburg. From the Transkei and the Free State, from Zululand and Sekukuniland. Zulus and Swazis, Shangaans and Bavenda, Bapedi and Basuto, Xosas and Tembus, Pondos and Fingos, they are all coming to Johannesburg.

I do not like this woman. I do not like this boy. I do not like this man. I am sorry, but you must go now.

Another week, that is all I ask.

You may have one more week.

Have you a room to let?

No, I have no room to let.

Have you a room to let?

It is let already.

Have you a room to let?

Yes, I have a room to let, but I do not want to let it. For I have seen husbands taken away by women, and wives taken away by men. I have seen daughters corrupted by boys, and sons corrupted by girls. But my husband gets only thirty-four s.h.i.+llings a week - What shall we do, those who have no houses?

You can wait five years for a house, and be no nearer getting it than at the beginning.

They say there are ten thousand of us in Orlando alone, living in other people's houses.

Do you hear what Dubula says? That we must put up our own houses here in Orlando?

And where do we put up the houses?

On the open ground by the railway line, Dubula says.

And of what do we build the houses?

Anything you can find. Sacks and planks and gra.s.s from the veld and poles from the plantations.

And when it rains?

Siyafa. Then we die.

No, when it rains, they will have to build us houses.

It is foolishness. What shall we do in the winter?

Six years waiting for a house. And full as the houses are, they grow yet fuller, for the people still come to Johannesburg. There has been a great war raging in Europe and North Africa, and no houses are being built.

Have you a house for me yet?

There is no house yet.

Are you sure my name is on the list?

Yes, your name is on the list.

What number am I on the list?

I cannot say, but you must be about number six thousand on the list.

Number six thousand on the list. That means I shall never get a house, and I cannot stay where I am much longer. We have quarrelled about the stove, we have quarrelled about the children, and I do not like the way the man looks at me. There is the open ground by the railway line, but what of the rain and the winter? They say we must go there, all go together, fourteen days from today. They say we must get together the planks and the sacks and the tins and the poles, and all move together. They say we must all pay a s.h.i.+lling a week to the Committee, and they will move all our rubbish and put up lavatories for us, so that there is no sickness. But what of the rain and the winter?

Have you a house for me yet?

There is no house yet.

But I have been two years on the list.

You are only a child on the list.

Is it true that if you pay money - ?

But the man does not hear me, he is already busy with another. But a second man comes to me from what place I do not see, and what he says bewilders me.

I am sorry they have no house, Mrs. Seme. By the way, my wife would like to discuss with you the work of the Committee. Tonight at seven o'clock, she said. You know our house, No. 17852, near the Dutch Reformed Church. Look, I shall write down the number for you. Good morning, Mrs. Seme.

But when I make to answer him, he is already gone.

Ho, but this man bewilders me. Who is his wife, I do not know her. And what is this committee, I know of no committee.

Ho, but you are a simple woman. He wants to discuss with you the money you are willing to pay for a house.

Well, I shall go there then. I hope he does not ask too much, one cannot pay too much on thirty-seven s.h.i.+llings a week. But a house we must have. I am afraid of the place where we are. There is too much coming and going, when all decent people are asleep. Too many young men coming and going, that seem never to sleep, and never to work. Too much clothing, good clothing, white people's clothing. There will be trouble one day, and my husband and I have never been in trouble. A house we must have.

Five pounds is too much. I have not the money.

Five pounds is not too much for a house, Mrs. Seme.

What, just to put my name higher on the list?

But it is dangerous. The European manager has said that he will deal severely with any who tamper with the list.

Well I am sorry. But I cannot pay the money.

But before I can go, his wife comes into the room with another woman.

There must be a mistake, my husband. I do not know this woman. She is not on the Committee.

Ho, I am sorry, my wife. I am sorry, Mrs. Seme. I thought you were on the committee. Go well, Mrs. Seme.

But I do not say stay well. I do not care if they stay well or ill. And nothing goes well with me. I am tired and lonely. Oh my husband, why did we leave the land of our people? There is not much there, but it is better than here. There is not much food there, but it is shared by all together. If all are poor, it is not so bad to be poor. And it is pleasant by the river, and while you wash your clothes the water runs over the stones, and the wind cools you. Two weeks from today, that is the day of the moving. Come my husband, let us get the planks and the tins and the sacks and the poles. I do not like the place where we are.

There are planks at the Baragwanath Hospital, left there by the builders. Let us go tonight and carry them away. There is corrugated iron at the Reformatory, they use it to cover the bricks. Let us go tonight and carry it away. There are sacks at the Nancefield Station, lying neatly packed in bundles. Let us go tonight and carry them away. There are trees at the Crown Mines. Let us go tonight and cut a few poles quietly.

This night they are busy in Orlando. At one house after another the lights are burning. I shall carry the iron, and you my wife the child, and you my son two poles, and you small one, bring as many sacks as you are able, down to the land by the railway lines. Many people are moving there, you can hear the sound of digging and hammering already. It is good that the night is warm, and there is no rain. Thank you, Mr. Dubula, we are satisfied with this piece of ground. Thank you, Mr. Dubula, here is our s.h.i.+lling for the Committee.

Shanty Town is up overnight. What a surprise for the people when they wake in the morning. Smoke comes up through the sacks, and one or two have a chimney already. There was a nice chimney-pipe lying there at the Kliptown Police Station, but I was not such a fool as to take it.

Shanty Town is up overnight. And the newspapers are full of us. Great big words and pictures. See, that is my husband, standing by the house. Alas, I was too late for the picture. Squatters, they call us. We are the squatters. This great village of sack and plank and iron, with no rent to pay, only a s.h.i.+lling to the Committee.

Shanty Town is up overnight. The child coughs badly, and her brow is as hot as fire. I was afraid to move her, but it was the night for the moving. The cold wind comes through the sacks. What shall we do in the rain, in the winter? Quietly my child, your mother is by you. Quietly my child, do not cough any more, your mother is by you.

The child coughs badly, her brow is hotter than fire. Quietly my child, your mother is by you. Outside there is laughter and jesting, digging and hammering, and calling in languages that I do not know. Quietly my child, there is a lovely valley where you were born. The water sings over the stones, and the wind cools you. The cattle come down to the river, they stand there under the trees. Quietly my child, oh G.o.d make her quiet. G.o.d have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. White man, have mercy upon us.

Mr. Dubula, where is the doctor?

We shall get the doctor in the morning. You need not fear, the Committee will pay for him.

But the child is like to die. Look at the blood.

It is not long till morning.

It is long when the child is dying, when the heart is afraid. Can we not get him now, Mr. Dubula?

I shall try, mother. I shall go now and try.

I am grateful, Mr. Dubula.

Outside there is singing, singing round a fire. It isNkosi sikelel' iAfrika that they sing, G.o.d Save Africa. G.o.d save this piece of Africa that is my own, delivered in travail from my body, fed from my breast, loved by my heart, because that is the nature of women. Oh lie quietly, little one. Doctor, can you not come?

I have sent for the doctor, mother. The Committee has sent a car for the doctor. A black doctor, one of our own.

I am grateful, Mr. Dubula.

Shall I ask them to be quiet, mother?

It does not matter, she does not know.

Perhaps a white doctor would have been better, but any doctor if only he come. Does it matter if they are quiet, these sounds of an alien land? I am afraid, my husband. She burns my hand like fire.

We do not need the doctor any more. No white doctor, no black doctor, can help her any more. Oh child of my womb and fruit of my desire, it was pleasure to hold the small cheeks in the hands, it was pleasure to feel the tiny clutching of the fingers, it was pleasure to feel the little mouth tugging at the breast. Such is the nature of woman. Such is the lot of women, to carry, to bear, to watch, and to lose.

The white men come to Shanty Town. They take photographs of us, and moving photographs for the pictures. They come and wonder what they can do, there are so many of us. What will the poor devils do in the rain? What will the poor devils do in the winter? Men come, and machines come, and they start building rough houses for us. That Dubula is a clever man, this is what he said they would do. And no sooner do they begin to build for us, than there come in the night other black people, from Pimville and Alexandra and Sophiatown, and they too put up their houses of sack and gra.s.s and iron and poles. And the white men come again, but this time it is anger, not pity. The police come and drive the people away. And some that they drive away are from Orlando itself. They go back to the houses that they left, but of some the rooms are already taken, and some will not have them any more.

You need not be ashamed that you live in Shanty Town. It is in the papers, and that is my husband standing by the house. A man here has a paper from Durban, and my husband is there too, standing by the house. You can give your address as Shanty Town, Shanty Town alone, everyone knows where it is, and give the number that the committee has given you.

What shall we do in the rain? in the winter? Already some of them are saying, look at those houses over the hill. They are not finished, but the roofs are on. One night we shall move there and be safe from the rain and the winter.

10.

WHILE k.u.mALO WAS waiting for Msimangu to take him to Shanty Town, he spent the time with Gertrude and her child. But it was rather to the child, the small serious boy, that he turned for his enjoyment; for he had been a young man in his twenties when his sister was born, and there had never been great intimacy between them. After all he was a parson, sober and rather dull no doubt, and his hair was turning white, and she was a young woman still. Nor could he expect her to talk with him about the deep things that were here in Johannesburg; for it was amongst these very things that saddened and perplexed him, that she had found her life and occupation.

Here were heavy things indeed, too heavy for a woman who had not gone beyond the fifth standard of her country school. She was respectful to him, as it behooved her to be to an elder brother and a parson, and they exchanged conventional conversation; but never again did they speak of the things that had made her fall on the floor with crying and weeping.