Resentment for the Tree

Short story review

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Humans are one form of animal species, and this level of awareness makes the willingness to adapt and evolve even more imperative.

Although the heart and soul of a neighborhood is shaped by its inhabitants, by design, suburbs are low-density and defined by who they lack. By comparison, Greenside is “full of blackness” because domestic work is plentiful, and Boers and Afrikaners do not reside in Townships.

Set during the era when black Africans were being forcibly evicted and restricted to homelands, and black Americans were actively engaged in the Civil Rights Movement, Mrs. Plum is a novelette-length story about an entitled hypocrite who fancies herself an enlightened liberal.

This account, narrated by Karabo, spans three years. Initially reserved, presumably because of her awareness of her societal place, but more likely because she has moved, she is now observant due to negative frames of reference and suspicious of surface-level cordialities, especially if delivered by foreign-born blacks.

A quick study, Karabo easily wins favor with the lady of the manor, and her daughter. Initially impressed by their willingness to help her academically, she eventually feels resentful because of their continued failure to accept her opinions or learn about her culture.

Written by Es’kia Mphahlele during his exile, this tightly woven personal growth narrative features an activist liberal who engages in cruelty but fails to understand that it infects as much as it informs. Because it chronicles social injustice, Western readers unfamiliar with the mistreatment of black South Africans will not find solace where there is none.

Part of this story's power is its ability to question whether change can be achieved politically if and where power remains unchecked. It also explains why education is viewed as dangerous when the true peril is the desire to control how acquired knowledge is utilized. Finally, it shows how relationships change as time affords space for true personality to be expressed.

A banned read in South Africa until 1979 and weighing in at 14,900 words, thematically this is not a poetic demonstration of ingrained bias. Rather, it is a one-of-a-kind expression of how implicit bias and supremacist sentiments are globally inherent and characteristic of human conditions.

Anti-DEI advocates and deniers of wealth inequality fostered by privilege-based social disorder will not appreciate threaded suggestions to act upon discontent. Similarly, civil rights and women’s rights activists will find it difficult to overlook the next micro-aggressive encounter. Either way, this recital of racial segregation is an oldie, but goodie.

Rating: 4.95/5 stars

Additional shorts featuring characters with unchecked ascendancy:

Field Trip, by Githa Hariharan

Wingless, by Marcie R. Reardon