Shades of Colour

By Prince Dibeela

Shade of Colour tells a story of love, prejudice, and unfulfilled promises. It is set in contemporary urban and rural South Africa. Dave grows up in an orphanage in Johannesburg, South Africa. He meets Jackie, his future wife, while in high school. Their journey from the city to rural South Africa shows them the beauty and the unpleasantness of rural life in South Africa. Together they navigate and experience the many challenges and historical complexities that define race relations today in the new South Africa.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Mar 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491895078

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Dave, as he was affectionately known, grew up in an orphanage in Johannesburg. He never knew his biological parents and grew up thinking that all the kids around him were his actual brothers and sisters. His idea of a loving family was many children with several adults who took care of them, provided them food, regulated their lives, and made them go to church. He thought it would be boring to be a family of two adults and two children like the homes of some of his schoolmates. He actually felt sorry for them and believed that they led quite uninteresting lives. He loved it in the orphanage and couldn’t imagine life without this crowd, which was at times rowdy and at others loving and peaceful. The wardens were often authoritarian and would even go to the extent of beating any child who did not obey them. Dave did not mind the wardens, and it seemed all the other children were happy to comply with the regime. What mattered was that they were well fed, they had a place to sleep, and they received a good education. They were often reminded of how lucky they were; they could have been living on the streets, sleeping in some dark alley where they could be raped or even killed by bad people. They were not allowed to throw away food; otherwise, the wrath of the matron would be meted against them. They would be reminded that many children go hungry every day all over the world, and that millions even die from lack of food. It was unthinkable to see food thrown in the garbage bags. Once, the cleaners saw that one of the children had dished a full plate of soup and then returned it after having barely touched it. They reported this to the matron, who summoned all the children to the hall. They had already settled in for the night, and it was about five minutes before lights off, which would normally be at 9.00 p.m. They heard the siren and knew that something was very wrong, and they marched to the meeting hall and stood attentive. When they got to the hall, the matron was already standing there, a stoic, plump, and serious-looking woman of mixed descent. She was flanked by three staff members, two males and a woman, who were equally serious. Dave and the other children wondered what could have happened; the only time such an impromptu gathering was called was three years ago, when a child had sneaked out to go to the cinema with a group of local boys. Since then there had not been anything of this sort.

The matron looked piercingly at each of the children as they filed into the hall. Once they had all sat, she continued to look at them as though to read their minds. She then picked the bowl of food from the table and bellowed out, ‘Who is responsible for this?’ There was dead silence. She continued to stare at them, and before she could open her mouth again, a petrified-looking girl stood up in the middle of the hall and owned up to the deed. The other children looked at her as though to say, ‘Look at the trouble you have caused!’ Dave was sure she was going to pee herself, given how scared she was.

‘So, how do you explain this?’ The matron interrogated.

The girl fidgeted about, clearly uncertain what to say. Then suddenly Dave jumped up, and the whole crowd looked at him, wondering what on earth he could want to say.

‘And then?’ The matron looked at him rather bemused.

‘I was sitting next to her. Yes, I can vouch for her,’ he stumbled. By this time the matron was really irritated. She was known for being one who wants to be in charge, and she would not tolerate being interrupted.

‘It was a fly!’ Dave screamed.

‘What fly?’ the matron retorted.

‘It fell into her food. I was there.’ He sounded more convincing.

‘Why didn’t you say so?’ said Abram, one of the male wardens next to the matron. He was known for his soft and peaceful character; he would do anything to avoid a conflict.

The matron was not amused—she was even more irritated by Dave and Abram, who clearly were sympathetic to this wasteful girl. She dismissed the meeting, but not before telling Lucy, the young lady who did not finish her food, that she would be helping out in the kitchen the next day by cleaning the dishes.

Dave went to bed feeling satisfied with himself. He was a hero and had saved the life of a poor soul. She could have been beaten, made to wash dishes for the whole week, or even expelled. The next day he was the hero of the home, and he walked with a swagger, feeling the glare of the other children as he went about his chores.

If there was one thing Dave hated about the school, it was the siren that woke them up in the mornings. Every single day, expect on weekends, the siren would go off at 5.30 a.m. The morning siren was an irritant to him. He saw it as an intrusion and a form of control, which he resented. Somehow he would always wake up at least five minutes before the bell would go off. If it so happened that the siren would go off before he got up—and that was rare—he would be depressed the whole day. He valued his freedom, and although he lived under a controlling regime, he still knew how to negotiate the system.

One time one of the younger children opened a tap and was not able to close it. The water poured out and covered the whole dormitory area, creating a real mess. Dave was the first person to notice this, and he ran to close the tap and save the situation. However, just as he closed the tap, an orderly by the name of Mrs Klass came along and accused him of having caused the mess. He protested and tried to explain that he was only saving the situation, but Mrs Klass was not prepared to listen. She reported him, and despite his objections he was sentenced to wash dishes for the week. He never forgot that act of injustice and vowed that he would fight any injustice as long as he had breath in his body. Ultimately the sentence was reduced because he went on a hunger strike. This was the beginning, albeit modest, of a journey of activism and the self-belief that an individual could make a difference through his actions. This experience was a painful one, and it remained etched in his young mind. However, it was also an accomplishment for him because it helped him realize that one can stand up against systems of injustice.

The community in which Dave was brought up was known as the Home of Hope. There were on average forty-two children at any one time. The children came from all racial groups—white, black, so-called coloured and Indian. They ranged in age from babes as young as a few weeks old to sixteen years old. It was interesting that the idea of race and colour did not feature as such within the community life of the home. Dave was not conscious of the race differentials until he was at school; it was when he was in grade three that he had an incident that challenged his naïvity on issues about race relations. Zwai was his good friend, and they often played a game of marbles together. One day as they were playing, a group of boys roughed up Zwai and then turned to Dave and accused him of betraying his own people. This was a scary experience for Dave—and a devastating one. It was scary because he was a non-violent person and did not want anything that caused another creature pain; he felt helpless because he was in no position to defend his good friend. It was devastating because it challenged his world of non-racialism, which he was brought up with at House of Hope. Though, if truth be told, he was always aware of racism because he would occasionally experienced tinges of it in their communal life. For example, the older children in the home were encouraged to take leadership responsibilities in the community. They would be made team leaders to supervise communal life such as cleaning, Bible reading, games, and school homework. Dave was always curiously aware of the fact that the black children were hardly ever made to take these leadership roles. However, even though he was aware of this, he often brushed it aside as just an omission or a mistake.

When Dave was sixteen years of age he went to a boarding school in Johannesburg, where he did his grade eleven. During his matric year, he met someone who would change his life forever—her name was Jackie. Although he was brought up in a loving environment, he was acutely aware that his options were limited. He did not have a family to assure him of financial support in order to go to university, and as a result he had very limited dreams for himself. He simply wanted to be a teacher in order to work in some underprivileged community, and he wanted to give back to society what he had received. However, once he met this girl at the school library, his life changed forever. They both needed the same book, which was the only copy available in the library at the time. Dave had it first, but Jackie was quite insistent that she was going to have it because according to her, she needed it most. Dave was miffed by her wilfulness and felt she was being silly. He left it to the librarian to decide, but to Dave’s disappointment the man said it was a matter they could decide between them. He tried to protest, but the librarian would have none of it, and Jackie gleefully took the book and marched out with it. Dave begrudgingly followed her to the courtyard in front of the library, where she stopped and motioned to him.

‘I knew you would be such a darling. Others would have refused to share the book,’ she said with a chuckle in her voice. Before he could say anything, she said to him, ‘I think we should meet in the history block, in class 4B. You could probably be of some use; I am not so good at maths, you know.’

‘What time would you like to meet?’ Dave asked. He couldn’t believe himself. How could he allow himself to be bossed around by a girl like this? He became peeved with himself, even though there was something about this girl which