Smouldering Charcoal, Chapter One: Summary and Analysis

Smouldering Charcoal by Tiyambe Zeleza

PART 1: UNTAMED PESTS

Chapter 1: (pp. 2 – 13). An introduction of Mchere, one of the main characters in the novel, and his family

Chapter Summary

Mchere, a bakery worker living in Njala Township, is woken up by an annoying rat. His whole body is in pain due to a hangover and the rat is just another source of discomfort. At one point, he thinks he is seeing an owl and shudders because an owl portends a bad omen. But, then, there is nothing to shudder about because his life is already a series of bad omens.

Nambe, Mchere’s pregnant wife, rebukes her husband for being so concerned with the rat. She is shortly due to give birth and Mchere has not taken her into his arms for a long time. The imminent birth of another child is a source of deep gloom to Mchere because it means “an extra mouth to feed, an additional body to clothe and shelter” (p. 2). He, however, finds solace in a religious conviction that it is God’s will that he should have another child.

Nambe inwardly reviles Mchere for wasting money on beer and prostitutes while his family is starving. Even Mchere himself thinks that the prostitute Lucy, whom we later learn is his girlfriend, is responsible for his coming home late. Before he leaves for the bakery, where he works, he puts on crumpled clothes. The rat reappears and Mchere wishes he found ways with which to “wring its fat neck” (p. 3). It is responsible for many evil things in the house.

A small scuffle which has become a ritualistic morning disagreement ensues when Nambe refuses to give Mchere water with which he can wash his face. He almost beats her but restrains himself after remembering that she is in the family way. She asks for money for food and informs him that the landlord came the previous night for rent. Instead of addressing her wife’s concerns, Mchere storms out of the room. His twin-daughters fight for an old blanket with a hole in the middle. We are also told that in the small house there are Grandmother, Mchere’s two sons, eight-year-old Ntolo and six-year-old Uta.

Mchere is walking in the rain towards his friend, Bota’s house. He finds that Bota has already left for the bakery where they both work. Mchere thinks Bota’s attitude has changed every since the former expressed his misgivings about the strike that the bakery workers agreed to stage.

While Mchere is away, the landlord visits his house again and Nambe lies to him that her husband did not spend his night at home. We learn that Mchere’s rent is K1.50 payable in a week. Ntolo reveals that he saw his father that same morning, rendering her a mother a liar. This infuriates the landlord who threatens to kick Mchere’s family out of the house right away, but he gives them up to that evening.

In retrospect, Nambe recalls that she had just been married to Mchere a few months when they were first evicted. Then, Mchere was a very caring husband who used to buy second-hand clothes, Ambi and a straight-haired wig for her. He even used to call her ‘darling’. She stopped using Ambi after her mother disapproved of the lotion, arguing it made Nambe look sickly like someone with chickenpox. Nambe’s mother further stated that Europeans and Africans are all the same despite their skin colours.

On a related nostalgia trip, the narrator informs us that Nambe’s marriage to Mchere was arranged and for her parents it meant one less mouth to feed and a possible source of income. Baba, as Nambe’s father was referred to, approved Mchere because he worked in the city and looked well-to-do. Nambe herself found a feeling of being equal with her parents and independence in being married.

Nambe is brought back from her flashbacks. She tries to catch Ntolo but fails, bemoaning the behaviour of her son who was “once so sweet and polite” (p. 7). On another dejected note, she recalls what happened a few weeks before when Uta came running to her to tell her that Ntolo was “doing foolish things” (p. 8). We are further told that when Ntolo and his mates played mothers and fathers “they often went beyond imitation of the games that adults play” (p. 8).

Ntolo fights with Pota, his greatest rival, over who should be the foreman of a ‘bridge project’. We learn that there is nothing the children in Njala can do apart from playing and fighting because many of them don’t attend school. For some, parents cannot afford school fees; for Ntolo and others, because their teacher at Njala Primary School was dismissed after his wife reported him to the Party when he refused to buy her a party uniform. No replacement has been made yet. The school further has a record of losing teachers due to low wages, poor teaching facilities and unruly children.

Ntolo, Uta, Mabvuto and Titani (the twins) go back home for lunch. After the food, Ntolo and Uta throw mud and their sisters who are washing plates. Nambe is fed up with the disruptions. Through Grandmother’s meditation, we learn that Mchere has become what his father always loathed – a drunkard. She is disillusioned by what would happen to Mchere’s family if he died because of beer. She glories in the good evening moments when she tells the children folktales. We are also told that she came to live with Mchere because her youngest daughter who had been looking after her in the village married and followed her husband to another town. She bemoans modernity: children are growing up “without knowing their grandparents and the land which nourished their ancestors” (p. 11). Nevertheless, she does not worry much about her closing days. She only worries about the world she will be leaving her children in: “A world of lepers, maimed in body and soul” (p. 11).

Nambe asks Ntolo to go to a grocery shop but he refuses, taking a bag on his way to pick fruits. On their way to the forest, they pass a group of men constructing a road. They also kill some birds. As they enter the forest proper, the boys are afraid of wild animals. Still, they do not return, cognisant of the fact that their sisters would brand them cowards if they returned without the fruits. They pick mangoes and guavas and when Pota mocks Ntolo, arguing that Ntolo’s bag is not as full as his, contrary to the expectations of Uta and the other boys, Ntolo does not fight Pota; rather, he climbs a tree where he intends to pick more mangoes so that he can outdo his rival. He is doing this against the universal agreement that they should all be going home. In the middle of his descent, Ntolo is stung by bees and crashes to the ground. As the boys ran, the guavas and mangoes get scattered everywhere.

Chapter Analysis  

The novel opens with Mchere being woken up by a rat. He is terribly annoyed. The rat becomes a very diverse symbolic entity in the chapter if one critically looks into its acts. First, it lays bare Mchere’s poverty. You do not easily find rats in rich households. On the other hand, the rat is seen as a symbol of oppression and exploitation. It makes holes in Mchere’s family’s clothes, depletes and soils food and keeps the family awake at night. These two aspects can be narrowed into the larger symbol where the rat is one of the numerous untamed pests that are oppressing and exploiting citizens. It symbolises the untamed pests that are lurking in every corner of the country. It is cunning and Mchere fails to kill it.

Its “cruelty, greed and insensitivity” (p. 3) are clearly resonant with the physical and moral acts of the regime and its agents. Mchere’s insistence to kill the rat is a symbolic pursuit to get rid of the oppressor and exploiter. His failure to kill the ‘untamed pest’ simply entails failure to deal with the regime.

At one point, Mchere thinks he is seeing an owl and consequently shudders because an owl portends a bad omen. Yet, as the narrator informs us, Mchere’s life is already a series of bad omens. This exposition connects us to the unrevealed events of the past. It implies that Mchere’s problems backdate to certain past moments which, of course, are not very clear.

In the same chapter, we are told that Mchere is suffering from a hangover. We are further told that he spends money on beer and prostitutes while is family is suffering. This shows that Mchere is an irresponsible man. His family is starving, yet, he does not seem to care. The landlord wants his money but when Nambe informs her husband, he does not give her a clear response. Nevertheless, if we are to give Mchere the benefit of the doubt, we can ably say all his irresponsible actions emanate from his disillusionment with the regime. He tries to find solace in auxiliary elements like beer. Still, his going out with a prostitute seems to starkly tell us that he has no regard for his life and the lives of his wife and children. We can still protest Mchere’s innocence: beer and Lucy (his prostitute girlfriend) temporarily drown his sorrows.

We are also told that Mchere has five children already. Yet, his wife is expecting another child soon. Mchere is worried about the next member of his family, but in all truth and honesty, he should not be. He is responsible for his wife’s pregnancy, or at least, they are both responsible. He should have been more careful. He salvages some comfort in a religious conviction that children are a gift from God. That should tell – or remind – us that it is often in human nature that when troubles overtake us, we [un]justifiably turn to God.

In the same chapter, Nambe’s reflection of the past reveals astonishing memories. Her husband used to be a loving man who used to do many things for her. Now, he has drastically changed. So far, we have not been told much regarding why he changed. Thus, it makes perfect sense to rebuke him. The change, which is also bemoaned by grandmother, is a source of discomfort in the family. Perhaps, it could be that Mchere has changed because of his disillusionment with the regime. But, is the change progressive? No!

Nambe has no clear shoulder to cry on. Her husband is a drunkard and the children are rude. Grandmother herself seems more concerned about her private life even though somehow, she shows concern for the progress of her daughter-in-law and the family as a whole. Essentially, Grandmother is also concerned about her own last days. She knows she has to die and her main fear is about the crooked and perverted world she will be leaving her children in.

When Mchere passes through Bota’s house, he finds that Bota has already left. Even though Mchere is easily given to the suspicion that Bota’s attitude might have changed due to Mchere’s misgivings towards the strike which the bakery workers are set to stage, it is ridiculous that Mchere expects Bota to keep waiting for him when the sun is already up.

In the same chapter, we are introduced to a character that equally occupies a larger part. Ntolo is Mchere’s eldest son. His acts are commensurate with a child growing up in a family that is less concerned about the moral progress of its children. He embarrasses his mother in front of the landlord and refuses to go to the grocery shop. He engages in things “Like what dogs do” (p. 8) and fights with Pota. There are other acts in the chapter that show that Ntolo is a morally degraded boy. It is logical to conclude that his behaviour is like that because his father is not a good example either. So, Ntolo is simply a chip off the old block.

At the end of the chapter, Ntolo is stung by bees and crashes to the ground from a mango tree. All this happens because he does not want to be outdone by Pota. In this regard, it can be seen that Ntolo is an ambitious boy since we also learn that he always wants to be the leader. However, his ambition is easily overshadowed by his other negative qualities. It turns out to be borne out of pride. His tragedy explores two main elements. There is a price in pride and one ought to be satisfied with what they have. Additionally, Ntolo’s mates with whom they pick the fruits become unnecessarily yoked to the fate of their proud friend. They also feel the aftermaths of the tragedy.

Another issue raised in the chapter concerns some children’s absence from school. We are told that a teacher at Njala Primary School was dismissed because his wife reported him to the Party when he refused to buy her a party uniform. In this case, the wife is simply another untamed pest. She successfully implicates her husband to the Party.

Other issues in Chapter One

·        Mchere is a tenant living in a shack that has cracks and leaks. The house has two rooms: a bedroom and a kitchen, separated by a curtain. So essentially, the house does not have a fixed room. The leaking is evident because it is the rainy season.

·        Mchere gazes icily at Nambe as if she is responsible for his failure to kill the rat. This vindicates the idea that human beings can have ways of displacing their frustrations.

·        Mchere longs to sleep with his wife after seeing her bare back. This may imply that his affection towards his wife is a fragile aspect that is more explored in her physical appearance.

·        Nambe muses that if Mchere came home sober, he would see how bony his family were becoming. Does this show that beer has some extra inconvenience to the extent that it prevents Mchere from seeing the real situation his family is in? In fact we are also told that Mchere is sitting on the bed almost naked when his twin daughters are sleeping only a couple of feet away.

·        Mchere’s face that was once handsome is now rugged. There, we can see a transition from one point to another. It is a pathetic transition, which is not only social or moral, but physical too.

·        Nambe enjoys moments when Mchere avoids a quarrel with her. These are moments when she is expectant. She finds some freedom in the burden and does not need to care much.

·        Nambe, Mchere, the baby and the twins sleep in the makeshift bedroom while Grandmother, and the two boys sleep in the kitchen.

·        Nambe challenges the landlord to enter the house and take the things out himself when he threatens to evict Mchere’s family. She is clearly fed up and, perhaps, thinks Mchere will be forced to do something if he came back from work and saw that his family had been evicted.

·        Mchere was first evicted from a house a few months into his marriage after he was wrongly accused of stealing so that he was dismissed.

·        Nambe’s marriage to Mchere was prearranged by her father and her uncle. This is a clear case of female-child objectification. In this society, fathers have power to choose who should marry their daughters. So, at the end of the day, the father becomes the winner even if his daughter has found herself in deep trouble.

·        Mchere won Nambe’s father’s heart because he worked in the city and looked rich, judging from his clothes and the gifts he gave Nambe’s family. Could it be that Mchere hid his true colours at first simply to win his prospect father-in-law’s heart?

·        Ntolo’s mischief is further augmented in the assertion that a week barely passes before he is caught stealing sweet potatoes from private gardens or beating others up. He was even once caught stealing scones in a grocery store.

·        The girls do the dishes while the boys must be sent on errands. The boys even go the forest to pick fruits and expect to show to the girls the fruits that they have picked. There is a division of labour here regarding what girls can do and what boys can do.