Michela Borzaga

Abstract

While the phenomenon of apartheid has been extensively explored in terms of topographic designs and spatial separateness, its multiple and complex “temporal geographies’’ still need to be explored and assessed. This article seeks to investigate Mongane Wally Serote’s To Every Birth Its Blood (1981) from a temporal perspective – more specifically, how lived time is experienced by the subject under apartheid. Through a close textual analysis of the urban setting and of the characters’ rich and nuanced psyche as well as their physical and affective lives, this article shows how, at the basis of Serote’s novel, there lies an intricate, dynamic and multi-layered phenomenology of time. Serote’s model is one that sees different temporal dimensions at work simultaneously: external time, inner psychic time, and the temporal complication brought about by the apartheid regime (with its unpredictable, pervasive and terrorising methods). This complex temporal tapestry unfolds while being sustained and contained by Serote’s own temporal vision, which is always future-oriented; it is a vision of hope, of individual and communal renewal.

Opsomming

Waar die topografiese ontwerpe en ruimtelike afsonderlikheid van die verskynsel van apartheid reeds omvattend verken is, moet sy veelvuldige en komplekse “temporele geografieë” nog ondersoek en beoordeel word. Hierdie artikel poog om Mongane Wally Serote se werk To Every Birth Its Blood (1981) vanuit ’n temporele perspektief te ondersoek – spesifiek om te ondersoek hoe die karakter “geleefde” tyd onder apartheid ervaar het. Deur middel van ’n nougesette tekstuele analise van die stedelike agtergrond en van die karakters se ryk, genuanseerde psige asook hulle fisiese en affektiewe lewens, toon hierdie artikel hoe daar ’n ingewikkelde, dinamiese fenomenologie van tyd met vele verskillende lae ten grondslag aan Serote se roman lê. Serote se model is een waarvolgens verskillende temporele dimensies gelyktydig aan die werk is: eksterne tyd, innerlike psigiese tyd, en die temporele komplikasie wat deur die apartheidsregime (met sy onvoorspelbare, aldeurdringende, skrikaan-jaende metodes) bewerkstellig is. Hierdie komplekse temporele tapisserie ontvou hom terwyl hy gehandhaaf en bevat word deur Serote se eie temporele visie, wat altyd toekomsgerig is – ’n visie van hoop, van individuele en kommunale vernuwing.