THE ARTIST

A short story by Omoseye Bolaji

It was if he were engulfed in some sort of sudden whirlpool! One minute he was all alone at the plaza, and the next a woman was throwing her arms around him hugging and kissing him. After some time he
managed to see who it was: Nono!

"It's been a long long time indeed!" she said now kissing him briefly and taking his hand. "Ah, you haven't changed at all!"

He wished he could say the same for her. She had put on some weight and there were hard lines etched around her face. And then of course there was the terrible scar on her neck. That's where the guy stabbed her, he thought.

"Let me buy you lunch here," she said to him. "Let's go to Ronnie's" In her direct authoritative manner she led him to the eatery and to a corner where they sat down. She noticed that even after she ordered the initial drinks and ice cream he still looked rather awkward and remote.

It's my fault, she thought. It was about time they put the past behind them. She said: "Seems you are still in pain after all this time. After all, it happened some four years ago. Poor you! I knew it would hurt you a lot. Does it mean you will never forgive me?"

He stared at her. "Do I look like someone fighting? I don't blame you. It was my fault. I was stupid and believed very much in love. I was naive; I did not know then that love is wasted on most of our black women,"

She stared at him. "Don't say that. Don't be cynical please " she said. "It's not like you at all." He thought about his great love for her at the time; and how he had felt when he learnt that at the same time he
stupidly thought she was his girlfriend, she was spending nights with another man (Dan) and was pregnant for him. The awful pain and shock had lingered on for quite some time.

As they sipped their drinks Nono said: "That's why I could not tell you at the time, I knew you loved me so much; it was so sweet, so good but we women want security. You and your artist's mentality and good
behaviour was not enough. Dan had money, a fine car, apartment. I allowed him to seduce me. I stayed with him. It was only after some months I realised he had other women; he even abused me whilst I was
pregnant. It was either he had never loved me or at some point hated me. I had to leave him in the end,"

"So you were heart-broken eh?" he said trying not to sound sarcastic. "You had left our city here by then, but word soon reached us that you were already hooked with another man..."

She stared at him. "Yes, that was Shasha, the one who nearly killed me. Maybe it was a rebound thing, or the fact that he always had a lot of money to spend on me; at least in the beginning. Then I discovered that despite his short, very slender frame he was a very violent man...fights everytime...he called me a witch who wanted to control him completely...he never had any time for romance for me. It reached a peak the
day he slashed my throat with that awful knife.

"The pain was paralysing. I thought I was dead of course. It was only later that I heard that even when I was being rushed to the hospital he was celebrating 'killing' me with some of his friends, drinking like a fiend. Of course I made sure I sent him to jail later. Who knows what he would do to me when he's finally out of jail?"

He wished she would stop, but she went on: "I thought about you a lot whilst recovering; about your good nature and your real love. I sometimes even wondered whether what happened to me was because of
what I had done to you. I wondered whether you were perhaps even happy that I had suffered a lot too; that I was being punished?"

He grimaced. He hated violence and blood and gore...he could sympathise, empathise with what had happened to her; though any love he had for her was gone for ever of course.

Nono squeezed his hand. "It's like we are strangers now; as if you hate me now. Yet I have been alone for over a year now with two young children whose fathers despise me (one in jail). It's a pity we can
not go back to the past. You hate me now?"

He said nothing as she, in her authoritative manner, now went on to place food orders for both of them. She knew, or rather she thought from the experience of how she knew him well in the past that he would not mind. She wished that - if only for a few seconds - he would gaze at her again in his love-suffused manner of the past. Now he was more or less a stranger. I did this to him, alas, she thought.

Nono said now, smiling that smile of hers he knew only too well. "Maybe you were just too good for me. You were too kindly and decent. My artist! I treasure all those wonderful sms-es you used to send to me. I
still remember those tender embraces and kisses. Yet you were just too good...you never even tried to sleep with me even when we were all alone. What a decent man you are! I can even confess that I used to
sometimes imagine you sleeping with me tenderly..."

He winced. She's now really spitting on my grave, he thought. "Good guys" lose out everytime.

She saw some emotion in his eyes now, and squeezed his hand again. He wished she would not touch him at all. She said: "Maybe your reward will come sometime...I mean, decency and true love should have some
compensation. I really still respect and like you...”

He said: “A fat lot of good that does me when the woman I love so much ends up in the arms of other men every time,"

She began to sob softly. It was clear that he had become cynical. Maybe he did not believe in true love again. And who could blame him? I did this to him...

She managed to say, just as the waitress brought their food on plates: "Okay I am sorry. Let's eat now..."

OMOSEYE BOLAJI: A voyage around his literary work

A review by Julia Mooi

Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga has just published this new study on Omoseye Bolaji’s literary profile. As someone who has published a similar work on Bolaji, I was very excited about this new book. Soqaga selects certain works of the author which he comments on.

I was particularly happy that Soqaga dwells in length on the novel, People of the townships which is a favourite of mine. There is some disagreement on the way Bolaji portrays women in his fiction; but I think that it is obvious he enjoys portraying most central women in his books as the so-called femme fatale. This is particularly clear in the Tebogo Mystery series.

From Susan in Tebogo Investigates (2000), to Neo in Tebogo and the epithalamion (2009) these “irresistible women” often cause havoc, and Tebogo’s weakness towards these women (though he is happily married) can hardly be concealed.

In the latest Tebogo book, Tebogo and the bacchae (2012) we have at least two examples of femmes fatale that stand out. Lolita, early in the book; and then of course Thobeka. There is thus nothing to suggest Bolaji would change this approach in his works in general.

Hence, People of the Townships (not a Tebogo adventure) is intriguing in his own way. The protagonist, John Lefuo has been rightly described as a misanthrope. This negative approach seems to affect even his “romantic” life, or the lack of one. His erstwhile girlfriend, Alice Memela has a child by him but despite this John certainly does not like her.

So can we then assume (though never stated) that Alice was a sort of femme fatale too?; or how else could a man of apparently high moral values like John have been attracted to her initially? The problem in the narration is that John’s (now) strong dislike for her colours the way she is presented. If it was true that she was piling up boyfriends so easily, does this not suggest that she was a lovely, charming lady?

And there are other questions we might still ask. Why is the baby being brought up in the Lefuo household? What was the real reason that made John break up with her apart from her “promiscuity”?

Many readers, especially we females of course, were not happy that John Lefuo kills Alice in the end; mainly because of the possible future plight of their child. It is a concern critic Ishmael Soqaga shares in this new study. Soqaga writes:

“It is very sad John would have to go to jail for the murder he had committed against Alice the mother of his daughter. To many, it is extremely unbelievable that a person like John will do such a horrific, malicious act against a woman. John in the first place was a decent man who dislikes “immoral” acts, he is brilliant and he always has a good vision about the spread of literature among the blacks in the township. He likes to read and is quite frank that he knows lots of things but is quite surprising at the very same time how John decided to end the life of his ex-girlfriend...

“It might be argued that John was supposed to let Alice live and ignore her as he did with other girls like Rose and so on and allow her to live the life of “fun” as she preferred. What is the point here? John, as his mother worried about him when she was still alive, and knew very well that he was only partially accepted in his family house. Also, what about his daughter who will be in care of John’s family? One hopes that John will continue with his ambitious adventure of reading and writing books in jail...”

TEBOGO AND THE BACCHAE

Book: Tebogo and the Bacchae
Author: Omoseye Bolaji
Publisher: Mbali Press (Ladybrand and Lesotho)
Book lay-out by Thabo Ntai


...The pivotal character of 'Thobeka' in Tebogo and the Bacchae

A perspective by Leke Giwa

Omoseye Bolaji’s new adventure of on investigator Tebogo Mokoena, Tebogo and the Bacchae (2012) has just been published. Another fascinating story, much of the appeal for many readers will focus on the author’s presentation of another “intriguing lady”, Thobeka

Tebogo’s initial impressions, upon first seeing her, cosmetically seem unflattering, but yet mixed with increasing fascination:

He suddenly felt, then saw, a young woman staring at him. She obviously worked here, as she had emerged from the kitchen. Her eyes were fixed on him.
She was striking-looking, Tebogo felt. She was very slender and very dark. Her face was not beautiful, but was quite picturesque. Her eyelashes were orchestrated in a most bewitching manner.

Bewitching! That was it! Tebogo thought this girl, this young woman, gave the impression of being an attractive young “witch” if such a thing existed. She had a most disconcerting stare. Rubbish, Tebogo tried to tell himself. I’m imagining things she’s just an ordinary woman. Maka (lie) she’s not!!

She came to his side and smiled. Her movement was graceful, quite feline. “You are new here. This is your first time here,” she said flirtatiously.
Tebogo found her very attractive, “you are right,” he beamed, “although to be honest, if I had known someone like you was here, I would be coming here everytime!”
She laughed, “My name is Thobeka” she said.

..................

Unambiguously Thobeka also takes a liking to our Tebogo too (though he’s married). Some time later, they go for a drink and he vouchsafes to her:

“Well, you look like the type of lady men will be fighting over! I don’t want your boyfriends taking an axe to me!”

“Ag, I’m single, “Thobeka said.

Tebogo could not help laughing. He felt that a woman like Thobeka could never be single. It was impossible. He had no doubt about it. She looked at him sideways, laughing.

This almost seems like a modern exchange between Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba – characters created by Thomas Hardy in Far from the Madding Crowd!

As we soon learn in this work, Rebaone Ntokozo, a woman journalist, dislikes Thobeka and does her best to paint her in a bad light to Tebogo.

She tells Tebogo: ".... The cleaner here (at shebeen) for example knows about Thobeka too. I can call her now to tell you …”

Tebogo winced. He touched Rebaone’s hand lightly, “No, no, I believe you. I appreciate your honesty. You are a journalist. A brilliant one. You can express yourself with such competence. Being a woman of course augments your intelligence and perspicacity!”

“Hey that’s a big word!” Reboane laughed, “even I don’t know this perspi - stuff of yours. Actually I have nothing against Thobeka. But I just pity those men who are foolish enough to get involved with her.”

But Tebogo, apparently stricken with Thobeka in his own way, finds himself making excuses for Thobeka as he muses:

It appeared to Tebogo that it could be rather easy to destroy a woman’s reputation. Thobeka had explained what had happened when she had stayed the night in Mpho’s house, and her innocuous account had had a ring of authenticity. But for Rebaone, the slant was that Thobeka was something of a slut or cheap woman.

Yet over the years, how many boyfriends had Rebaone had herself? She seemed desperate in her utterances and mien, and it was likely that a number of men would have taken advantage of this too. Should we start to imagine how many times Rebaone herself, an adult to boot, had spent nights at disparate men’s houses?

What did it matter anyway? Tebogo thought. It was a new era – women were ‘free’, more than free really. In the new millennium women could have as many men as they wanted, and the moralists could flinch about this. Yes the reputation of a woman still mattered to a certain extent even nowadays, but was it fair to try to drag a woman down, as he was sure Rebaone was doing?

....................

Tebogo’s delight is again obvious when he comes across Thobeka at the Park later. Even when the mystery of Khayachow town has been solved, Tebogo in the end still goes out of his way to make her happy, indulging in some sort of match making. His fascination here is almost reminiscent of his relationship with Charlotte in Tebogo and the Haka; but one feels he goes much further in this new book.

Yet it is a weakness in this book (unless this critic is the one committing a clanger) that Thobeka is never given a surname in this work.

Tebogo and the Bacchae is the latest (2012) and 8th volume in of the Tebogo Mokoena Mystery series. It already has at least two different editions.