TEBOGO AND THE PANTOPHAGIST
…whites still on the fringes
By Peter Moroe
Tebogo and the pantophagist is the seventh book featuring the adventures of Tebogo Mokoena, the Free State based sleuth created by Omoseye Bolaji. And this new addition is also quite readable.
Bolaji has been criticised for hardly including any white characters in his works of fiction. The trend largely continues here, although there is a peripheral account of Tebogo, Mr. Shasha, and the intriguing lady, Debbie, visiting a white couple in this latest work:
“The entrance to the house which was in the 'suburbs' consisted of high iron gates which soon opened after we arrived. Two dogs gambolled around us as we got out of the car, but with the white lady hostess (their owner) there, they were scarcely in a malevolent mood. The lady, called Tracy, led us to the sitting room.
It was rather untidy with some four cats having a field day there. There was a fine library and a very big TV. A laptop was on the table to the left. Tracy smiled and joked a lot, and was soon joined by her husband, Ryan, a handsome strapping white gentleman. They were a very handsome couple and obviously felt free with Shasha. Drinks were served with refreshments.
Debbie seemed uncharacteristically silent most of the time, but perhaps not in a hostile manner…
Ryan said to me after a while: ‘Let me show you our garden’. We went outside to a lovely garden and Ryan I soon noticed was VERY proud of the garden. He went into extensive details involving technical “jargon” of gardens, seeds, colours, weeds and the like. His face shone with great pleasure as he talked and I was surprised having a fairly good garden was such an expensive business. My ignorance in this wise did not seem to discourage him as he went on and on, smoking something that looked like ‘the weed’ in the process…”
It is not only the narrator’s stark ignorance of the intricacies of gardening that is obvious here. “Ryan was VERY proud of his garden” is an inadequate summary of the thrilling paraphernalia and undulating possibilities of gardening. Like many black people at grassroots level, a garden is something almost remote, or even a nuisance to Tebogo, though he does not exactly say so. But for Ryan it is an extension of his very being.
Then there is Debbie’s attitude after they leave the couple:
“After we left the house Shasha said in the darkness. ‘Very nice couple. The type of people who make the idea of a rainbow nation realisable…’
Debbie said curtly: “Did you see the way those cats were so free with Tracy, running all over her, playing with her, jumping all over her. It irritated me. You can see she loves those cats with all her heart. They made her all dirty. Did you see her fingernails?”
I did not like this, and nor did Shasha, I’m sure. “Come on! Many whites love cats. There’s no crime in that,” Shasha said. “It’s nothing. She can do anything for her cats. She normally plays with them even more than you saw today,”
'Let’s change the topic, it’s making me feel sick,' Debbie said…"
Debbie’s attitude here reflects how many black women who grew up in the townships would feel in a situation like this, with the condescending approach to animals. But note that both Tebogo, and Shasha (who is besotted with Debbie) condemn her attitude; this type of approach is typical of Bolaji’s fiction which tends to be conciliatory and broad-minded.
