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.
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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?
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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.
