Displacement in When Rain Clouds Gather

Frank Meintjies

doi:10.25159/1753-5387/17078

Authors

Frank Meintjies University of Pretoria https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9199-6144

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/1753-5387/17078

Keywords:

belonging, displacement, Bessie Head, home, place

Abstract

In this article, I examine the representation of displacement in Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather (1969). Head not only features displaced characters but also depicts, through her protagonists, the struggles that arise from displacement. I draw on the work of prominent scholars to explore and apply concepts such as “home” and belonging, which are central to any discussion of displacement, as well as to explore the integration challenges faced by, for example, a displaced person vis-á-vis a settled community. Through a close reading of the text, I demonstrate how Head uses this work to generate important insights into displacement.

References

Al-Ghalith, A., A. Nashwan, S. A. D. Al-Ghammaz, M. Alzghoul, and M. Al-Salti. 2023. “The Treatment of Women in Selected Works by Bessie Head.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research 14 (4): 968–976. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1404.14 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1404.14

Atkinson, Sue. 2011. “A Living Life, A Living Death: Bessie Head’s Writing as a Survival Strategy.” Journal of Medical Humanities 32 (4): 269–278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-011-9153-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-011-9153-5

Antonsich, Marco. 2010. “Searching for Belonging – An Analytical Framework.” Geography Compass 4 (6): 644–659. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00317.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00317.x

Ako, E. O. 2000. “Crossing Borders: A Study of Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather and Maru.” Commonwealth (Dijon) 22 (2): 5–11. https://doi.org/10.4000/1249f DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/1249f

Bazin, Nancy. 1986. “Feminist Perspectives in African Fiction: Bessie Head and Buchi Emecheta.” The Black Scholar 17 (2): 34–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.1986.11414397 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.1986.11414397

Bornewasser, Manfred. 1993. “Social Psychological Reactions to Social Change and Instability: Fear of Status Loss, Social Discrimination and Foreigner Hostility.” Civilisations 42 (2): 91–103. https://doi.org/10.4000/civilisations.2310 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/civilisations.2310

Brubaker, R., and F. Cooper. 2000. “Beyond ‘Identity’.” Theory and Society 29 (1): 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007068714468 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007068714468

Chabwera, Ellinetie. 2008. “Womanhood in Bessie Head’s Fiction.” Journal of Humanities 21 (1): 13–24.

De Mello, Sergio Vieira. 1998. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. United Nations. UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, February 11.

Dieke, Ikenna. 2007. “Bessie Head’s Maru: Identity, Pathology, and the Construction of Difference.” Western Journal of Black Studies 31 (2): 1.

Flusser, Vilém. 2005. “The City as Wave-Trough in the Image-Flood.” Translated by Phil Gochenour. Critical Inquiry 31 (2): 320–328. https://doi.org/10.1086/430963 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/430963

Goodwin-Gill, Guy S., and Jane McAdam. 2017. UNHCR and Climate Change, Disasters and Displacement. UNHCR.

Head, Bessie. 1971. Maru. Heinemann.

Head, Bessie. 1969. When Rain Clouds Gather. Heinemann.

Head, Bessie. 1975. “Dear Tim, Will You Please Come to my Birthday Party.” In One Parent Families, edited by Dulan Barber, 106–111. Poynter-Davis.

Hedetoft, Ulf. 2002. Discourses and Images of Belonging: Migrants between ‘New Racism’, Liberal Nationalism and Globalization. Aalborg University. AMID Working Paper Series 5/2002.

Ibrahim, Huma. 1996. Bessie Head: Subversive Identities in Exile. University of Virginia Press.

Katrak, Ketu. 1995. “‘This Englishness Will Kill You’: Colonial[ist] Education and Female Socialization in Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack, Monkey and Bessie Head’s Maru.” College Literature 22 (1): 62–77.

Lähdesmäki, Tuuli, Tuija Saresma, Kaisa Hiltunen, Saara Jäntti, Nina Sääskilahti, Antti Vallius, and Kaisa Ahvenjärvi. 2016. “Fluidity and Flexibility of ‘Belonging’: Uses of the Concept in Contemporary Research.” Acta Sociologica 59 (3): 233–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699316633099 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699316633099

Lewis, Desiree. 2000. “Living on an Horizon: The Writings of Bessie Head.” PhD diss., University of Cape Town.

Mali, Ujwala Vishwas, and Pradnya Vijay Ghorpade. 2001. “Quest for Identity in Bessie Head’s Novel, Maru.” Research Chronicler 9 (1): 24–30.

Murrani, Sana. 2020. “Contingency and Plasticity: The Dialectical Re-Construction of the Concept of Home in Forced Displacement.” Culture & Psychology 26 (8): 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X19871203 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X19871203

Nixon, R. 1993. “Border Country: Bessie Head’s Frontline States.” Social Text (36): 106–137. https://doi.org/10.2307/466392 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/466392

Okolie, Mary J., and Chinasa B. Abonyi. 2022. “Head, Adichie and the Patterns of Migration Struggles.” Journal of Migration Affairs 4 (2): 22–33. https://doi.org/10.36931/jma.2022.4.2.22-33 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36931/jma.2022.4.2.22-33

Probyn, Elspeth. 1996. Outside Belongings. Psychology Press.

Schimanski, Johan. 2007. “The Postcolonial Border: Bessie Head’s ‘The Wind and a Boy’.” In Readings of the Particular, edited by Anne Holden Rønning and Lene Johannessen, 71–91. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401204071_006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401204071_006

Smuts, Eckard. 2023. “Elemental Humanity in Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather.” English Studies in Africa 66 (1): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/00138398.2023.2128490 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00138398.2023.2128490

Starfield, Jane. 1997. “The Return of Bessie Head.” Journal of Southern African Studies 23 (4): 655–664. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057079708708562 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057079708708562

Steiner, Tina. 2014. Translated People, Translated Texts. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315760223 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315760223

Stotesbury, John. 1990. “The Function Of Borders in the Popular Novel on South Africa.” English in Africa 17 (2): 71–89.

Tshosa, Onkemetse. 2007. “National Refugee Laws in the Light of International Standards: Some Reflections on the Refugee (Recognition and Control) Act, 1967 of Botswana.” Botswana Law Journal 5 (6): 49–76.

Wilhelm, Cherry. 1983. “The Face of Africa.” English in Africa 10 (1): 1–13.

Yuval-Davis, Nira. 2006. “Belonging and the Politics of Belonging.” Patterns of Prejudice 40 (3): 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313220600769331 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00313220600769331