"Looking for a Rain God"Summary and Analysis.
LOOKING
FOR A RAIN GOD, SUMMARY
“Looking for a Rain
God” is part of a larger collection of stories, The Collector of
Treasures, and Other Botswana Village Tales (1977), an account of the
history and people of Serowe, a large village in southern Africa. It is told in
the third person by a member of the village. The main action takes place on the
lands surrounding the village, where a family resorts to ritual murder to
ensure rainfall for their crops.
The story begins in the
lonely yet tranquil lands outside the village of Serowe, where people journey
to grow crops each year. The Edenic setting suggests mythic lushness and
abundance. In 1958, however, a seven-year drought begins, and the once-idyllic
land grows dry and barren. Initially, the people respond with humor, but during
the seventh year, after two years of starvation, many succumb to despair. Some
of the men hang themselves. The only people who prosper are those “charlatans,
incanters, and witch-doctors” who make their fortunes off of others’ misery and
desperation.
The seventh year brings
an early meager rain that promises an end to the drought, and the season for
plowing and preparing the land to grow crops is officially announced at
the kglota, or village center. In earnest anticipation, the family
of the old man, Mokgobja, which includes a father, mother, unmarried sister,
and two small girls, journey to the lands outside the village and clear the
field of thornbush, create hedges around it, dig their well, and plow the field
with oxen.
The earth comes alive
and sings with insects. Without warning, the rain clouds depart, leaving the
sun to soak up the last bits of moisture in the air. The earth dries, and the
only remaining goat stops giving milk; the family waits in despair, unable to
plant the seeds that will nourish them. Only the two small girls, Neo and
Boseyong, are content as they play together with dolls, imitating their
mother’s chastisements and hitting their dolls as she might them.
Mindful only of their
plight, the adults take no notice of the girls’ activities. At their breaking
point, Tiro, the girls’ mother, and Nesta, the unmarried sister, commence a
nightly wailing that begins as a “low, mournful note” and ends as a “frenzy,” while
stamping their feet and shouting. As a result, the men find it impossible to
maintain their own equilibrium. The old man, Mokgobja, remembers an ancient
tribal ritual, buried beneath years of Christian training, of sacrificing
children to a rain god to ensure that crops will grow, and he consults Ramadi,
the father of the girls, about it. Gradually, Mokgobja becomes more and more
convinced of the authenticity of his recollection, and the idea is communicated
to the women, then executed by the men.
Soon the bodies of the two small girls are spread on the fields. The act, however, is ineffective in bringing about rain, instead bringing terror to the remaining family members, who flee back to the village. The villagers notice the two girls are gone and ask the family questions, which they fail to answer satisfactorily. The police are brought in, and when asked to show the girls’ graves, the mother confesses and tells what has happened. Mokgobja and Ramadi are sentenced to death for ritual murder, even though their actions are well understood by the villagers, who might have done the same in their place.
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