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Written in simple language, the book paints vivid pictures that stick in the mind of the reader as themes of racial, child and domestic abuse are explored. Gwetai invites the reader to the often forgotten life that black people endured during the colonial era while highlighting the burdens that traditional custom bestows upon women and children.
The story, set initially in colonial Rhodesia and later in the newly independent Zimbabwe, tracks the life of Sabelo Moyo, a train driver who falls head over heels in love at first sight with a nanny, Janet Gumede. After seeing her disembark from a train, her beauty ignites fires of passion and he is in love with her and makes advances but this is in conflict with the rules of her white employers.
They soon get married and have two children, a boy and a girl, Thomas and Precious. The story which up until this point has been told in a third person narrative switches style, as now we are told the rest of the story from the perspective of the two children in first person narrative.
The two children thus take turns to tell a tale of woe as a myriad of unfortunate events befall the Moyo family, starting with dismissal of Sabelo from his job, to revelations that he has a wife he met before Janet with whom he had three children. Due to dwindling resources the family has to relocate to their rural home in Sawmills, where the first wife, Naka Joseph, is waiting with long bottled-up vengeance.
The exotic beauty of the rural landscape is explored as well as the difficulties of rural life and the complexities of a polygamous marriage. A natural rivalry between Sabelo’s two families develops, which leads to a series of unfortunate events for Janet and her family. First Precious, unable to come to terms with the fact that her parents had led a double life they had kept secret from her, runs away to Zambia and ultimately finds herself in Australia, rejecting her family and past. She takes her rebellion to the extreme as she refuses to even invite her parents for her wedding, much to their dismay and the wider community’s disappointment.
As the book races to its heartbreaking climax, complexities of life in polygamous marriages unfold. Joseph, Sabelo’s son from his first marriage, influenced by his mother’s hatred for Janet and her children, allows his jealousy to consume him leading to him poisoning his father and planting false evidence that falsely incriminates Thomas thereby claiming all inheritance for himself.
Janet, now a wheelchair-bound amputee, again from the machinations of Joseph is thus left alone at the mercy of her enemies and the family’s downward spiral is completed when Thomas is released from prison early, only to become an amputee as well, after being hit by a train.
In the book, Gwetai paints a vivid and moving picture of the travails that befall many families due to traditional African patriarchal values. Devoid of any complicated metaphors that might distract a reader from the overall intention of the story, Embracing the Cactus is a must read.
Online Reporter