Waiting for the Rain (novel)

Last updated
Waiting for the Rain
Waiting For the Rain cover art.jpeg
Bantom Starfire 1989 edition
AuthorSheila Gordon
LanguageEnglish
SubjectSouth Africa, Apartheid
GenreJuvenile fiction
Published1987
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages214
Awards Jane Addams Children's Book Award
ISBN 9780553279115
OCLC 19725213

Waiting for the Rain is a young adult novel by South African-born American writer Sheila Gordon, first published in 1987. It tells the story of two boys, one black and one white, growing up on a farm in South Africa during apartheid. As the boys mature, their friendship dissipates because the black boy seeks political equality while the white boy wants everything to stay the same.

Contents

Characters

Tengo is the main character of the book. He is a black South African child, around the age of ten when the book starts, and lives with his family in the kraal on the Oubaas's farm. He desperately seeks a way for whites and blacks to live equally, thereby ending apartheid. However, in Part Two of the book, he must choose which he wants more: to get an inferior education given by the whites, or to join the violent liberation with the majority of the black population.

Frikkie is Tengo's best friend at the beginning of the book. They have been friends from the time they could walk. He is a white Afrikaner and spends his school holidays at his uncle's farm, playing soccer and running around with Tengo. He wants everything to stay the same and does not accept change.

Oom Koos is the Oubaas, a senior, of the farm. He is Frikkie's uncle and oversees everything that goes on in the farm. He does not want the black protesters to gain power.

Tant Sannie is Frikkie's aunt and Oom Koos's wife. She thinks education is wasted on blacks, and is appalled by the idea of Tengo going to school in Johannesburg.

Selina is Tengo's mother. She does much of the housekeeping for Tant Sannie, such as washing the dishes and clothes, and preparing food for Oom Koos and Tant Sannie.

Timothy is Tengo's father. He is the boss-boy of the farm which means he was appointed by Oom Koos to manage the farm.

Tandi is Tengo's sister. She is constantly sick [has tuberculosis] and stays in the kraal.

Emma is Tengo's classmate. She helps Tengo in different subjects in school.

Joseph is Tengo's cousin (he is fourteen in Part One). He is the first one to introduce the reality of apartheid to Tengo, and later appears as a crucial turning point in Tengo's decisions about his life.

Sissie is Frikkie's sister who cannot abide life on the farm. She has been taught to accept apartheid. Constantly bothers Tengo to make him feel more like a servant. Real name is Henrietta.

Rev. Gilbert is a white liberal who tutors Tengo to help him pass his matriculation exams and get to college. Appears in Part Two.

Matilda is Selina's sister that works for the Millers as a housekeeper, like Selina.

Elijah is a teenage tribal South African who lives in the township of Johannesburg. Fights apartheid with violence.

Mrs. Miller is a white living in Johannesburg. She and her family, though nicer than other masters, still accept apartheid and do nothing to change it.

Claire Miller is the daughter of Mrs. Miller, a white liberal who feels sympathy for the blacks. However, she cannot do much to change it.

Lettie is Tengo's grandmother. Elijah is Tengo's friend who was put in jail for activism.

Synopsis

Part One

When the book begins, Tengo and Frikkie are two young boys on Oom Koos's farm. Frikkie visits on holidays to escape the grinding boredom of the school term, and Tengo lives there with his family. Over time, Tengo comes to see more and more that their friendship is hesitant and tenuous due to the imposing laws of apartheid, and wants to know more. He cannot understand why Frikkie does not like school when there is so much to learn. He desperately wishes to go to the city and get an education. To quench his thirst for knowledge, Selina asks for books from Mrs. Miller. Tengo receives them and loves them, but they only make him want to know more.

Over the course of this book, Tengo is also learning more about apartheid and how it functions. His cousin Joseph, who lives in the squalid township of Johannesburg, visits one day and tells Tengo of the evils that must be faced every day there. Tengo's eyes are opened after this conversation, and through several more events, he is determined to go to Johannesburg to get an education. He gets permission and leaves for the city. He finds that the city is smelly and noisy like Frikkie said it would be.

Part Two

In Part 2 Tengo becomes a much more active member in the fight against the white regime. About four years later than Part One, Part Two details more closely on Tengo's life in Johannesburg, and only briefly visit Frikkie as he is serving his mandatory term in the army. Tengo is receiving tutoring from Rev. Gilbert and living with the Millers for a time. Soon, however, more and more protests break out in response to stricter rules set by the white government, and Tengo's school is shut down. He now has a choice to make: should he choose education and try to matriculate to college, or join the demonstrations against apartheid? He wants to continue his education but does not see how this is possible—at least, not until Joseph returns and offers him a chance to go overseas and be schooled. Before Tengo sets out to leave, he is informed about a funeral held for the schoolchildren that were shot during riots. Once he arrives he sees the army trying to break up the funeral, and as he begins to fight back a gunshot is heard along with a scream. he runs and then is reunited with Frikkie, a current patron of the army. He accidentally hits him, and as he takes his gun he notices who the soldier was. The share good memories, and debate, but they split ways and keep their meeting- and their friendship- a secret.

Terms

Reception

Gordon won the Jane Addams Children's Book Award in 1988 for this book. [1] The New York Times review was less than favourable, saying that although the story is "balanced nicely," and "avoided the great pitfalls of such a story - caricature and sentiment", it left much to be desired:

The characters themselves, and their situations, often feel invented. A Novel of South Africa is the subtitle. One could add, for American Students, so obviously destined is this book for the American market. South African terms give way to American ones: mealies to corn, cross to mad and so forth. Glosses are supplied everywhere. There are, in addition, some serious discrepancies for the knowledgeable reader. How, for instance, does a black child growing up speaking Afrikaans as his white language come so easily to read and speak English from books?

— Lynn Freed, The New York Times review, December 1988. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soweto</span> Township in Gauteng, South Africa

Soweto is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships. Formerly a separate municipality, it is now incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and is one of the suburbs of Johannesburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadine Gordimer</span> South African writer (1923–2014)

Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognised as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great benefit to humanity".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. R. Swart</span> South African politician (1894–1982)

Charles Robberts Swart, nicknamed "Blackie", was a South African politician who served as the last governor-general of the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961 and the first state president of the Republic of South Africa from 1961 to 1967.

Mark Mathabane is a South African author, lecturer, and a former collegiate tennis player and college professor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophiatown</span> Suburb of Johannesburg

Sophiatown, also known as Sof'town or Kofifi, is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. Sophiatown was a poor multi-racial area and a black cultural hub that was destroyed under apartheid. It produced some of South Africa's most famous writers, musicians, politicians and artists, like Father Huddleston, Can Themba, Bloke Modisane, Es'kia Mphahlele, Arthur Maimane, Todd Matshikiza, Nat Nakasa, Casey Motsisi, Dugmore Boetie, and Lewis Nkosi.

<i>A Dry White Season</i> 1989 film by Euzhan Palcy

A Dry White Season is a 1989 American drama film directed by Euzhan Palcy, and starring Donald Sutherland, Jürgen Prochnow, Marlon Brando, Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae and Susan Sarandon. It was written by Colin Welland and Palcy, based upon André Brink's novel A Dry White Season. Robert Bolt also contributed uncredited revisions of the screenplay. It is set in South Africa in 1976 and deals with the subject of apartheid. Brando was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Berea is an inner city neighbourhood of Johannesburg, in the South African province of Gauteng. It is east and adjacent to the Johannesburg CBD. It is located in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Sash</span> South African white womens non-violent resistance organisation

The Black Sash is a South African human rights organisation. It was founded in Johannesburg in 1955 as a non-violent resistance organisation for liberal white women.

<i>The Story of an African Farm</i> 1883 Feminist novel by Olive Schreiner

The Story of an African Farm was South African author Olive Schreiner's first published novel. It was published in 1883 under the pseudonym Ralph Iron. It was an immediate success and has become recognised as one of the first feminist novels.

<i>The Smell of Apples</i> 1993 novel by Mark Behr

The Smell of Apples is a 1993 debut novel by South African Mark Behr, published in Afrikaans as Die Reuk van Appels then published in 1995 in English.

<i>The Conservationist</i> 1974 novel by Nadine Gordimer

The Conservationist is a 1974 novel by the South African writer Nadine Gordimer. The book was a joint winner of the Booker-McConnell Prize for fiction. It is described as more complex in design and technique than Gordimer's earlier novels.

<i>Julys People</i> 1981 novel by Nadine Gordimer

July's People is a 1981 novel by the South African writer Nadine Gordimer. It is set in a near-future version of South Africa where apartheid is ended through a civil war. Unlike Gordimer's earlier work, the novel was ignored by the apartheid government's censor, though the book's South African publisher was later raided by the Security Police.

Ernest Levi Tsoloane Cole was a South African photographer. In the early 1960s, he started to freelance for clients such as Drum magazine, the Rand Daily Mail, and the Sunday Express. This made him South Africa's first black freelance photographer.

Sandra Laing is a South African woman who was classified as Coloured by authorities during the apartheid era, due to her skin colour and hair texture, although she was officially listed as the child of at least three generations of ancestors who had been regarded as white. At the age of 10, she was expelled from her all-white school, and the authorities' decisions based on her appearance disrupted her family and adult life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Ralph Randall</span>

Peter Ralph Randall (1935-2024) was an anti-apartheid publisher in South Africa, who was banned by the former South African government between 1977 and 1981. He later became a professor in charge of teacher education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal resistance to apartheid</span> 1950–1994 social movement in South Africa

Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and took forms ranging from social movements and passive resistance to guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling National Party (NP) government, coupled with South Africa's growing international isolation and economic sanctions, were instrumental in leading to negotiations to end apartheid, which began formally in 1990 and ended with South Africa's first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994.

<i>The Story of an African Farm</i> (film) 2004 South African film

The Story of an African Farm, released in the United States as Bustin' Bonaparte: The Story of an African Farm, is a 2004 South African film directed by David Lister and based on the 1883 novel of the same name by South African author Olive Schreiner.

<i>Skin</i> (2008 film) 2008 film

Skin is a 2008 biographical drama film directed by Anthony Fabian. It is based on the book When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race by Judith Stone, and the life of Sandra Laing, a South African woman born to white parents, who was classified as "Coloured" during the apartheid era, presumably due to a genetic case of atavism.

Robin Beauclerk Smith is a South African actor whose professional career began in theater whilst still in high school in 1970. He attended the University of Cape Town Drama School after school and worked at The Space Theater in Cape Town doing Socio Political shows during apartheid. He moved to Johannesburg in 1979 to continue his career in theatre, and to get into television, which was based there. He broke into movies during the heyday of the B grade action movies in the 1980s, and was for a short time in 1997, a wrestling manager for the then WWF now WWE. He was known in the World Wrestling Federation as The Commandant, who managed the South African Truth Commission for 9 months in 1997.

Eric Miller is a professional photographer based in South Africa. Miller was born in Cape Town but spent his childhood in Johannesburg. After studying psychology and working in the corporate world for several years, Miller was driven by the injustices of apartheid to use his hobby, photography, to document opposition to apartheid by becoming a full-time photographer.

References

  1. ↑ Drew, Bernard A. (2002). 100 more popular young adult authors : biographical sketches and bibliographies (1st ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. pp.  379. ISBN   9781563089206. Waiting for the Rain, which won Gordon the Jane Addams Children's Book Award in 1988
  2. ↑ Freed, Lynn. "WAITING FOR THE RAIN A Novel of South Africa. By Sheila Gordon. 214 pp". CHILDREN'S BOOKS REVIEW. The New York Times. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.