The question proposes that July's
People by Nadine Gordimer is a political
masterpiece which presents certain clashes between individuals when confronted with ‘The power Shift’ which took place in the
period. There are four premises in the question:
a. July’s People is a
political masterpiece
b. It
presents clashes between individuals
c. The
clashes are due to “The Power Shift”
d. It is
about the particular period
I provisionally
agree with the second and the third premises: July’s People presents
clashes between individuals and the clashes are due to “The Power Shift”.
However, I do not believe that the novel is mainly a “political” masterpiece or
that it is about the time in which the novel was written.
Political masterpieces such as Mein
Kamf, Das Capital or The
Prince promote a particular political ideology; they are mostly didactic in
nature. However, July’s People is mainly a narrative about a family
undergoing displacement in which politics of the time is in the background. The
political atmosphere provides the spatiotemporal setting for the story. The
politics at no place in the narrative overwhelms the unfolding of the story.
Looking at the fourth premise, the novel was published in 1981 when South
Africa was still administrated by a pro-Apartheid government of whites. Though
there were constant clashes and skirmishes, there wasn’t a revolution at the
time the novel was written on which the content of the novel could have been
based. In fact, a revolution similar to the one in the novel takes place much
later in 1994; hence, many call July’s People a futuristic or a
prophetic novel.
Looking at the third premise, the clashes
in the novel are mainly due to “the
Power Shift”. The term “The Power Shift” refers to the switch of power from the
hands of the minority pro-Apartheid whites to the majority blacks in South
Africa. However, there is plenty of evidence in the novel to indicate that
there had been clashes of various kinds as mentioned by the narrator prior to
the power shift due to the unequal distribution of social capital: land, jobs,
and access to education, healthcare, knowledge, technology, and entertainment.
These clashes culminate in what the question terms as “Power Shift”.
The question suggests that clashes took place
only between individuals and thereby neglect the clashes between communities as
well as clashes involving the international community indicated by the USA
evacuating its citizens after the rebellion and the presence of the foreign
mercenaries.
As a result of “the Power Shift” conflicts
emerge. These conflicts are both external and internal. When looking at
external conflicts resulting from the shift in the power-dynamics in the South
Africa of the narrative, Gordimer deals with at least six instances of
clashes: black vs. white; master vs.
servant; husband vs. wife; the city people vs. the country people; the ruler
vs. the ruled; and parents vs. children. Looking at the internal conflicts
resulting from the power shift, almost everyone in the novel has to recalibrate
his or her place in the scheme of things – this leads to a lot of soul
searching and doubts causing existential angst.
Given the time constraints, I will limit
my answer to the clashes between the white and the blacks, the master and the servant, the husband and the
wife and the parents and children as a result of the power shift. Before
the hypothetical power shift, the whites, the masters, husbands and parents
occupied a relatively superior position in the scheme of things or “the Chain
of Beings”. Whites held the lion’s share of socioeconomic wealth in South
Africa. They owned the resources such as DeBeers Diamond Mines in which the
native blacks were mere workers. They owned lucrative businesses and engaged in
best professions while blacks were mainly restricted to low paid menial labour.
They occupied best neighbourhoods while the blacks were restricted to
reservations or underprivileged rural communities. They and their children had
access to high culture and recreation while the black community had to be happy
with things like gumba gumba. As a result of the revolution, they lose all
these. Some try to flee by air and are shot down. Their very lives are under
threat. The fate of Smales represent the fate of the whites who remain in South
Africa. The revolution causes Smales to leave their upper middle class life in
Johannesburg and flee with July to his village. In the village, the Smales had
to adapt to a completely different way of life and renegotiate their position
in the scheme of things: “They were no longer the benevolent masters and the
grateful servant. Now he was their host and protector and the balance of power
had shifted.” While the children effortlessly adapt to it, the adults suffer.
Bam, who was the ultimate authority as the master of the house, Maureen’s
husband and the children’s father as well as the head of a successful firm of
architects was the worst affected at the beginning. In the city he had kept his
distance from July due to the communication difficulties; consequently, once in
the village he had to rely completely on Maureen in order to communicate with
his erstwhile servant. The loss of his vehicle and later the gun almost
emasculated him; upon Daniel taking his gun Bam “suddenly rolled over onto his face
as the father had never done before his sons.” However, he renegotiates his
position by building a rainwater tank for the use of July’s village and by
hunting food for them. In the end, the reader comes across a Bam and children
who are fully absorbed by the black community. Interestingly, it is Maureen who
had greater access to the black world find the shift most unbearable and in the
end makes a desperate attempt to escape the shift by running towards the sound
of the aircraft abandoning her family.
Looking at the clashes and the power shift
from the point of view of the blacks, the lives of rural black people seem to
have been largely untouched except for the possible loss of income from people
like July who went to city looking for greener pastures. July, Daniel, and
Ellen were rural blacks who worked for whites. They occupied a prominent
position in their communities due to their relative affluence and hybrid
status. With the whites being forced to flee for their lives, their position in
their communities and income are threatened. This could be one reason for July
being against Maureen working with the other black women and the way he keeps
on acting as he used to in the city at least in public. Yet, he, in
not-so-subtle ways, lets the Smales know who has power. He take the Bakkie and
learns how to drive without permission and when accused of stealing by Maureen
he speaks in his own language and asserts himself in no uncertain terms.
In conclusion, July’s People
published in the 1980s is a timeless narrative - with politics forming the
background music for the narrative – which presents clashes between
individuals, communities and even the international communities over the unfair
distribution of socio-political capital which ultimately results in so-called
“Power Shift” in a South Africa which is yet to come.
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