AfricanFrustration

Shadows of the Past

This passage analysis includes two quotes from //My Children! My Africa!// in which Mr. M and Isabel refer to Africa in a deprecating manner.

Mr. M: The future is ours Isabel. We'll show this stupid country how it is done (25).

//Isabel makes a move towards Mr. M, but he raises his hand sharply, stopping her, keeping her at a distance.// Isabel: This fucking country! (60).

The first passage that disparages Africa occurs during a hopeful and optimistic conversation between Mr. M and Isabel on page 25. Mr. M and Isabel are discussing what they plan to do once they win the money from winning first place at the Festival. Mr. M has ambitions to send Thami to University with the money that Thami and Isabel will win. Mr. M becomes very excited at the thought that Thami will be safe from the savages of the streets; this is Mr. M's greatest attempt to prevent Thami from taking the easy way out by joining the Comrades and give him knowledge as the greatest tool of resisting violence and rebellion. Also, this is the last passage before Mr. M's soliloquy, where he speaks of the wild beasts of the streets and the African timetable of history.

In the second passage, Isabel swears the name of the country after Thami storms out of the room, confessing that he plans to join the Comrades, and after Mr. M refuses Isabel's help and comfort.

By scorning Africa and its identity (past and present), Mr. M and Isabel present an ancient conflict in South Africa; the conflict that has occurred through the shame and frustration of the country's history. Mr. M has a desire to continue to use education as a tool of resistance, and Isabel desires to dissolve the barriers of race between herself and Thami, however, both goals are difficult to achieve. Only at the time that Africans can realize the truths of their past will they be able to make progress for the future.

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