My Children! My Africa! by Athol Fugard

Author:Athol Fugard [Fugard, Athol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781559366915
Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SCENE 6

Thami alone.

THAMI (Singing):

Masiye Masiye Skolweni

Masiye Masiye Skolweni

Eskolweni Sasakhaya

Eskolweni Sasakhaya (Repeat)

Gongo Gongo

lyakhala Intsimbi

Gongo Gongo

lyakhala Intsimbi

(Translating)

Come, come, let’s go to school

Let’s go to our very own school

Gongo Gongo

The bell is ringing

Gongo Gongo

The bell is calling!

Singing that at the top of his voice and holding his slate under his arm, seven-year-old Thami Mbikwana marched proudly with the other children every morning into his classroom.

Gongo Gongo

The school bell is ringing!

And what a wonderful sound that was for me. Starting with the little farm school, I remember my school bells like beautiful voices calling to me all through my childhood . . . and I came running when they did. You should have seen me man. In junior school I was the first one at the gates every morning. I was waiting there when the caretaker came to unlock them. Oh yes! Young Thami was a very eager scholar. And what made it even better, he was also one of the clever ones. “A most particularly promising pupil” is how one of my school reports described me. My first real scholastic achievement was a composition I wrote about myself in Standard Two. Not only did it get me top marks in the class, the teacher was so proud of me, she made me read it out to the whole school at assembly.

(His composition) “The story of my life so far. By Thami Mbikwana. The story of my life so far is not yet finished because I am only ten years old and I am going to live a long long time. I come from Kingwilliamstown. My father is Amos Mbikwana and he works very hard for the baas on the railway. I am also going to work very hard and get good marks in all my classes and make my teacher very happy. The story of my life so far has also got a very happy ending because when I am big I am going tc be a doctor so that I can help my people. I will drive to the hospital every day in a big, white ambulance full of nurses. I will make black people better free of charge. The white people must pay me for my medicine because they have got lots of money. That way I will also get lots of money. My mother and my father will stop working and come and live with me in a big house. That is the story of my life up to where I am in Standard Two.”

I must bring my story up to date because there have been some changes and developments since little Thami wrote those hopeful words eight years ago. To start with I don’t think I want to be a doctor anymore. That praiseworthy ambition has unfortunately died in me. It still upsets me very much when I think about the pain and suffering of my people, but I realize now that what causes most of it is not an illness that can be cured by the pills and bottles of medicine they hand out at the clinic.

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