Bessie Head: The wind and a boy

Details as above.

In this story of Friedman and his grandmother, Sejosernye, Bessie Head

shows us the deep love of a grandmother for the boy. Friedman has a
typical boy's "bad phase", but he changes and learns about "life and
its respornsibilities", infiuenced by the
grandmother's stories. However,
the change that is the
turning point in this story comes from outside:
it is a social
change, stemming from a political change
that brings new
trouble to the village.
The wind and a boy

te
Likeall the village boys, Friedman had a long wind blowing for him, but
erhaps the enchanted wind that blew for him filled the whole world
rhaps the
with magic.
Until they became ordinary, dull grown men, who drank beer and
made babies, the little village boys were a special set all on their own.
They were kings
whom no one ruled.
They wandered where they willed
dusk and only condescended' to come home at dusk
from dawn to
hecause they were afraid of the horrible things
in the dark that might
Unlike the little girls who adored household chores
Dounce on them.
showed
and drawing water,
it was only now and then that the boys
first hard
themselves as useful attachments to any household. When the
small dark shapes, quite naked except
for their
rains of summer fell, that the first
out of the village into the bush. They knew
loincloths, sped in
had drowned all the wild rabbits, moles and porcupines
downpour down near the entrances
to
earth. As they crouched
their burrows in the
nose of an animal peeping
would see a small drowned
the burroWs, they burrow, by
flooded
knew it had struggled to emerge from its
out; they out the animal, they
water and as they pulled
the sudden rush of
storm
than rabbits, moles and
'Birds have more sense
would say, pityingly: trees.'
They build their homes in
porcupines. hard a boy and
made easy, for no matter how
But it was hunting a porcupine
hurled his
rabbit ran ten times faster;
his dog ran, a wild a mole stayed
where he thought it
into the body; and
poisonous quills inordinate pride that
So it was with
was safe deep under the ground.
-

of dead animals for their

families to feast
home armfuls much as they
the boys carried the boys lived very
Apart from that,
on for many days.
own games.
with the wind and their could captivate the
pleased, activities of a single family for years
Now and then, the of their surroundings;
hearts of all
the people
imagination and Friedman, and
his grandmother,
combination of the boy, then
ward smile, laugh,
and years, the Ga-Sefete-Molemo

of
ejosenye, made the people
came home as a small
Friedman
cry. two phases.
smiled at his first nursed carefully
They his grandmother
hospital, a bundle care and
With extravagant
bundle from the and night
crooned to day
and
near her bosom

tenderness.
something.
lowered
oneself to do
condescended
t PXressive, overgenerous.
 'because he may be the last child
"She is like that,' people remarked, aie One ot these days:
old n o w and will
she will ever nurse. Sejosenye is

the child is a gift keep her heart warm.

to
married, and had left
w e r e grown,
Indeed, all Sejosenye's children was unmarried
last-born daughter
home. Of all her children, only her
she had indulged
reslt of some casual imating
and Friedman was the
as a typist. She
away where she had a job
in, in a town a hundred miles
immediately, so she handed the child
wanted to return to her job almost
that was that; she could afford to forget him as
Over to her mother and

he had a real mother now. During all

the time that Sejosenye haunted
doctor named
the hospital, awaiting her bundle, a friendly foreign
Friedman took a fancy to her maternal, grandmotherly
ways. He made a
habit of walking out of his path to talk to her.
She never forgot it and on
Friednman.
receiving her bundle she called the baby who toddled
smiled at his second phase, a small dark shadow
They
grandmother; wherever the
Silently and gravely beside a very tall
found this phase
gTandmother went, there went Friedman. Most women
of the restless, troublesome toddler tediousl; they dumped
the toddler
onto one of their younger girls and were off to weddings and
vists on
their own.
Why can't you leave your handbag at home sometimes, granny!
they said.
Oh, he's no trouble,' Sejosenye would reply.
They began to laugh at his third phase. Almost overnight he turned
into a tall spindly-legged, graceful gazelle? with large, grave eyes. There
was an odd, musical lilt to his speech and when he teased, or was up
to mischief, he moved his head on his long thin neck from side to side
like a cobra. It was he who became the king of kings of all the boys in
his area; he could turn his hand to anything and made the best wire
cars with their wheels of shoe-polish tins. All his movements were neat,
compact, decisive, and for his age he was a boy who knew his own mind.
They laughed at his knowingness and certainty on all things, for he was
like the grandmother who had had a flaming youth all her own too.
Sejosenye had scandalised' the whole village in her days of good morals
by leaving her owrn village ward to live with a married man in Ga-Sefete
Molemo ward. She had won him from his wife and married him and
then lived down the scandal in the way only natural queens can. Evern in
oldage, she was still
air,
the air, with
impressive. She sailed
quiet, almost
wit a
through the village
villas head in
village,
acks as time
buttocks time went by ànd expressionless
and they face.
t h o n l e s s lace
ethe
She had
developed large
wal.
rhythm with her walk.
rhythm announced their presenceSence firmiy
firmly in "
Another of Sejosenye's
old certainties was that she was a
plough, but it was like a
special gift. Each season, woman who
hail of sun, she removed herself to in drought or
her lands.
a1rsed and brooded over her She not only
ploughed but
crops. She
was there all the time till
corn ripened and the birds had to be chased the
off the land, till harvesting
and threshing were done; so that
even in
scanty rain, she came home with drought years with their
some crops. She was the
women of the surroundings. envy of all the
Sejosenye always eats fine things in her house,' said. 'She
ploughs and then sits down for many months and they the fruits of enjoys
her labour.'
The women also envied her beautiful grandson. There was
something
special there, so that even when Friedman moved into his bad phase,
they forgave him crimes other boys received a sound thrashing for. The
small boys were terrible thieves who harassed people by stealing their
food and money. It was all a part of the games they played but one
which people did not like. Of them all, Friedman was the worst thief, so
that his name was mentioned more and more in any thieving that had
been uncovered.
But Friedman showed us how to open the window with a knife and

string,'the sobbing, lashed boys would protest.

Friedman isn't as bad as you,' the parents would reply, irrationally.
beautiful Friedman, who
creature. The boy
They were hypnotised by a
around as though he
had become a real nuisance by then, also walked
were special. He couldn't possibly be a
thief and he added an aloof,
face. He wasn't just an
offended, disdainful? expression to his pretty
ward. He was.
sort of in Ga-Sefete-Molemo
boy
ordinary that his grandmother told him al
It happened, quite accidentally,
old. She was
those stories about the hunters,
warriors, and emissaries of
to dreaming by herself
woman, given
normally quiet, absent-minded
a by
now and then as they sat
the boy a little song
Dut she liked to sing
and rather sad; they
them were church songs
the outdoor fire. A lot of
at night - she was one of the
more or less passed her bedtime prayer
as
 little song to her
old church-goers. Now and then she added a quaint'
flickered between then
and as the nighttime, fire-light flames
repertoire
she never failed to note that this particular song was aiways well receiuo
hem,
d
the boy. A little light would awaken in his eyes
and he would bend
by
forward and listen attentively.
Welcome, Robinson Crusoe,3 welcome,' she would sing, in clear,
Sweet tones. "How could you stay, so long away, Robinson how could
you do so?"
When she was very young, Sejosenye had attended the missioon
school of the village for about a year; made a slight acquaintance
with the ABC and one, two, three, four, five, and the little song about
Robinson Crusoe. But girls didn't need an education in those days when
ploughing and marriage made up their whole world. Yet Robinson
Crusoe lived on as a gay and out-of-context
memory of her sch0oldays.
One evening the boy leaned forward and asked: Is that a
special
praise-poem song for Robinson Crusoe, grandmother?
Oh yes,' she replied,
smiling.
What great things did he do?" the
boy asked, pointedly.
They say he was a hunter who went by Gweta side and killed an
elephant all by himself,' she said, making up a story on the
those days, no man could kill an spot. 'Oh! In
elephant by himself. All the regiments
had to join together and each man had to
thrust his sword into the side
of the elephant before it died.
Well, Robinson Crusoe was gone
days and people wondered about him: "Perhaps he has been many
lion," they said. "Robinson likes to be a eaten by a
things. We won't ever go out into the bush
solitary person and do foolish
know it is dangerous." Well, one
by ourselves because we
day, Robinson suddenly
their midst and people could see that he had
a
appeared in
They all gathered around him. He said: "T have great thing on his mind.
all the people." The killed an
elephant for
people were
surprised: "Robinson!"
is impossible! How did
you do it? The very thought of anthey said. "It
approaching the village makes us shiver!" And Robinson elephant
people, I saw a terrible sight! I was standing at the said: "Ah
feet of the
I was just a small ant. I could not see elenhant.
the world
above me until his very head touChea the anymore. Elephant wao
SKy and his ears
like great wings. He was angry but I
only looked into one spread o t
was turning round and round in
anger. What to do
eye which
now? I tho1ak
Ought it
quaint -charming, attractive, appealing.
repertoire - range or list of songs, or stories.
Robinson Crusoe the hero of a story, ship-Wrecked orn an
island, he survived
against all od deS.
 e r to put that eye out. I raised
my spear and threw it at the angry
People!
eye. People! IIt went right inside. Elephant said not a word and he fell to
side. Come, I will show you what I have done." Then the women
one side.
ied in joy:
cried injoy: "Loo
oo-loo-loo!" They ran to fetch their containers as some
ranted the meat of the elephant; some wanted the fat. The men made
sheir knives sharp. They would make shoes and many things from the
ekin and bones. There was something for all the people in the great work
Robinson Crusoe did.'
All this while, as he listened to the story, the boy's eyes had glowed
softly. At the end of it, he drew in a long breath.
Grandmother,' he whispered, adroitly stepping into the role of
Robinson Crusoe, the great hunter. 'One day, I'm going to be like that.
I'm going to be a hunter like Robinson Crusoe and bring meat to all the
people. He paused for breath and then added tensely: 'And what other
great thing did Robinson Crusoe do?"
Tsaa!' she said, clicking her tongue in exhaustion, 'Am I then going
away that I must tell all the stories at once?"
Although his image of Robinson Crusoe, the great hunter, was never
to grow beyond his everyday boyish activities of pushing wire cars,
down old
hunting in the fields for wild rabbits, climbing trees to pull
birds' nests and yelling out in alarm to find thata small snake
now
the wind with the
occupied the abandoned abode, or racing against
awakened a great tenderness in him.
spoils of his latest theft, the stories
dust in deadly hand-to0-
If Robinson Crusoe was not churning up the
swollen rivers and wild
hand combat with an enemy, he was crossing
and ambassador of the chief all his
-
jungles as the great messenger
activitieswere touchingly in aid
of or in defence of the people. One day
for life in a strange way.
Friedman expressed this awakened compassion
found their huts invaded by
After a particularly violent storm, people
to rid themselves of these
many small mice and they were hard-pressed
Friedman to kill the mice.
pests. Sejosenye ordered to us for shelter.
have come
But grandmother,' he protested, 'they them in box
the storm. It's better that I put
a
They lost all their homes in once the rains are over."
into the fields again
ànd carry them out around
at this and spread the story
he had laughed in surprise
then said to their own
who smiled tenderly,
among her w o m e n friends,
bad as you.'
offspring: 'Friedman isn't as to weigh down heavily on Friedman
Life and its responsibilities began was spent in boyish
fourteenth year. Less
time
as he approached his
hard-pressed under difficulty.
 and more devoted to his grandmother and
activities. He grew more
a bicycle so that he
concerned to assist her in every way. He wanted
run up and down to the shops
for her, deliver messages, or do anv
might
other chore she might have in mind. His
mother, who Worked in a town
the bicycle. The gift brought
far away, sent him the money to purchase
the story of his life abruptly to a close.
his
Towards the beginning of the rainy season, he accompanied
miles outside the
grandmother to her lands which were some twenty
village. They sowed seed together after the hired tractor had turned up
the land but the boy's main chore was to keep the household pot filled
with meat. Sometimes they ate birds Friedman had trapped, sometimes
they ate fried tortoise meat or wild rabbit; but there was always
something as the bush abounded with animal life. Sejosenye only had
to take a bag of mealie meal, packets of sugar, tea and powdered milk as
provisions for their stay at the lands; meat was never a problem. Midway
through the ploughing season, she began to run out of sugar, tea and
milk.
'Friedman,' she said that evening, 'I shall wake you early tomorrow
morning. You will have to take the bicycle into the
village and purchase
some more sugar, tea and milk."
He was up at dawn with the birds, a
solitary figure cycling onh a
pathway through the empty bush. By nine, he had reached the village
and first made his way to Ga-Sefete-Molemo ward and
the yard of a
friend of his grandmother, who gave him a
cup of tea and a plate of
porridge. Then he put one foot on the bicycle and turned to smile at
woman with his beautiful the
gazelle eyes. His smile was to linger vividly
before her for many days as a short while
later, hard pounding feet camne
running into her yard to report that Friedman was dead.
He pushed the bicycle
throughthe winding, sandy pathway of the
village ward, reached the high embankment of the
vigorously up it and out of the corner of his eye, sawmain road, peddled
a small
truck speeding towards him. In the green
small boys, he cycled right into its devil-may-care fashion of all the
path, turned his head and smiled
appealigly at the driver. The truck caught him on the
squashed the bicycle and dragged the boy front bumper.
another hundred yards, dropped him and along at a
crazy speed for
careered on another
vards before coming to a halt. The
boy's pretty face was a smeartwentv
the road and he only had a torso' left. all along
ng
 a-Sefete-Molemo ward never
People of Ga-
forgot the last coherent
ds Sejosenye spoke to the police. A number of them climbed into the
e
police
truck and accompanied it to her lands.
They saw her walk slowly
d i enquiringly towards the truck, they heard the matter-of-fact voice
the policeman announce the death, then they heard Sejosenye say
piteously:
Can't you return those words back?'
She turned away from them, either to collect her wits or the few
possessions she had brought with her. Her feet and buttocks quivered
anxiously as she stumbled towards her hut. Then her feet tripped her up
and she fell to the ground like a stunned log.
The people of Ga-Sefete-Molemo ward buried the boy Friedman
but none of them would go near the hospital where Sejosenye lay. The
stories, brought to them by way of the nurses were too terrible for words.
They said the old woman sang and aughed and talked to herself all
the time. So they merely asked each other: 'Have you been to see Mma-

Sejosenye?" T'm afraid I cannot. It would kill my heart.' Two weeks later,
they buried her.
discussed thoroughly from
As was village habit, the incident was
all sides till it was understood. In this timeless, sleepy village, the goats
the main road or lay down and
stood and suckled their young ones on
motorists either stopped for them
took their afternoon naps there. The
or gave way. But it appeared
that the driver of the truck had neither
licence. He belonged to the new, rich,
driving
brakes on his nor a
car
had become fantastically high since
civil-servant class whose salaries
have cars in keeping with their new status:
independence. They had to
as long as it was a car; they were in
such a
they had to have any car,
everything that they COuldn't be bothered to take drivin
hurry about
And thus progress, development, and preOCcupation' with status
lessons.
first announced themselves to the village. It looked
and living standards
With many decapitated" bodies on the main road.
like being an ugly story
 UISCUSSIOI
iscussilon,
Dn, or for written work.
1. work
why, in the second
boys to men? paragraph, does Head seem to
prefer
2. why do you think boys are associated with the wind in the
(2)
3.
opening paragraph?
Why is
Friedman special to his (2)
4. What do you think she
wants
grandmother, Sejosenye? (3)
5 Is
for Friedman?
Friedman a totally innocent child, or does he have (3)
naughtiness as well? some
6 What story (2)
inspires Friedman to want to be
better?
7. Where does this story of the (2)
hunter Robinson Crusoe come
from?
8 What do you think is the (1)
9 How does the
turning point in this story? (1)
10. grandmother change after this turning point? (1)
Why did the village expect "many decapitated bodies"? (3)