Christian Rhodes ’17 – Njabule Ndebele is a very interesting author because he is distinctly different than most of the other authors that we have read this semester. Ndebele himself came from a very educated household, his father was a teacher and his mother was a nurse. We can read Test as somewhat autobiographical because the young boy’s parents were a teacher and a nurse. Ndebele was also a Zulu, so despite the fact that he came from an educated household, he still was in touch with his Zulu roots. Ndebele himself followed in his father footsteps of academia. He has a BA in English and philosophy, masters in English literature, and a doctorate in philosophy. He has worked at or with 13 different Universities and Colleges and has 11 different honorary doctorates from Universities around the world. To this day he remains a significant figure in the South African higher education system. In Ndebele’s story of Uncle we see the story of a boy and his uncle. His uncle was not a visible figure in the boy’s life for many years. The uncle then made a reappearance and became a very important figure in the boy’s life. I read the story as a coming of age story for the boy because he sees his first female body and explores sexuality. His uncle also teaches him about race, ethnicity, identity, and many more things that father figures would. Ndebele’s style of writing is more passive than political. He stated that he did not write his pieces as political, but from a reader point of view, I think that it can be read as such. The intentional approach of not political makes me read more into what is not being said, rather than what is explicitly written. The fact that there is a lack of strong prevalent white oppressors is interesting because it is almost as if Ndebele is making a point about the struggle of growing up and living through apartheid in a unique way.
Zach Greene ’16 – In Njabulo Ndebele’s Fools and Other Stories, there are great metaphors used in the story “Uncle” to describe the changes in civilization over time. The Uncle in the story is visiting his nephew for a short time. In his desire to be a good Uncle, he decides to impart a bit of wisdom to his nephew. He describes the destructive force of volcanoes and how they are able to make large-scale change. The Uncle then goes on to explain how the history of people is made up by brief, but significant change. This metaphor leads the nephew to have an interesting and highly symbolic dream. Within the nephew’s dream, a sky full of planes appears over his township while everyone stands still in the streets. This first section of his dream appears to be symbolizing how the world seems to be flying by South Africa while there is great inequality. The outside world has no care about what is going on there and thus, South Africa does not change and the people are not moving. However, there is the point where the volcano erupts, or the great significant change in society happens. In the second portion of the dream, the nephew and the members of the township begin running around the township with no regard for where they are going. This could perhaps be a nod to the displacement of non-combatants during civil war and political instability.
