PEOPLE OF THE TOWNSHIPS. By O Bolaji

‘Perhaps one should make a tentative, or half baked incursion into John Lefuo's mind. Lefuo is the main protagonist of this work. What are his motivations? What type of swamping emotions, frustrations ruled him or took over his life? From his first narrative account here he is in no way a violent man...he seems peaceful, a man of letters, with a quasi-philosophical bent.

Here he takes us briefly around the vista of life in the townships (South African townships), showing that despite his rather gloomy moods and despondency he can not be the mad man he appears to be at the end. But what is madness or lunacy? For example, could such a brilliant man, Didi really be a mad man and mass killer as we see in the book, The madness of Didi?

I feel that it is poverty that is the main theme of this work, not so called madness on Lefuo's part. Even now, many years after this book first came out we see how poverty ravages Africa and our vulnerable women in particular. Many ladies find themselves in the hands of unscrupulous sugar daddies and others who take advantage of them. Many others become prostitutes or something close to this. Why would Alice in this book, a young mother, suddenly become promiscuous as the narrative here claims, if not for poverty?

Nor do I have much sympathy for the young man, Lefuo himself. Why can’t he go out and find a job as we can see that he is in no way disabled. He is intelligent, articulate and loves to read. But this does not mean that he can not get some form of employment and help his hapless baby and its mother. His so called morality does not stop him from fathering a baby - then apparently turning against the mother of the child, and even his own society.

John Lefuo prefers to be passive instead of taking a firm grip on reality of life. In sum I believe that if he had been a more practical and responsible man, a lot of tragedy would have been prevented.’