Unfolding
the Documentary
A Novel
by Matshidiso P Taleng
First
edition published in 2016
Review by
Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga
“Internal
darkness was a place of comfort, the only way I could connect with the spirits
of all the fallen angels, I loved the darkness that turned me heartless.
Until
the Lord brought me a mic to speak my mind and stand on his right, now I stand
firm beside him and refuse to indulge in the things that turned me away from
the light”
Tshepang,
a talented, beautiful young girl, while at school was a fine looking young
girl. But she finds herself immersed in
something that nearly ruined her precious life.
She was deeply fond of poetry. ‘Unfolding the Documentary” a novel-the
work of fiction by Matshidiso Taleng is very good - many might even dub it a masterpiece. The first time I read the book I was totally
engrossed from the inception. Chapter
one from the book begins by making the reader to desire to read the book
incessantly.
“Tshepang,
are you trying to break down my door?
And why are you crying, are you okay?”
Palesa asked. Tshepang let
herself in and sat on the couch as she gave Palesa the letter, “Tell me, that’s
not you?” she said to Palesa.
Palesa slowly sat on top of the table staring at the letter she wrote 20
years ago with her signature at the bottom.
“Unfolding
the Documentary” is a work of fiction highlighting some of the serious
social problems that are currently prevalent in our communities. Child abuse, women abuse, peer pressure and
family issues feature prominently in this book.
When Tshepang was in school, she was feeble-minded. Her friend Vinolia introduced her to a
terrible moonshine lifestyle. When her
mother tried to forewarn her about being embroiled with Vinolia, Tshepang opted
to be haughty. Alas! such behaviour
caused her to commit unpalatable mistakes.
She was introduced to smoking, sexual relationship and suddenly she
became disobedient to her parents. In
her first relationship with her boyfriend “Fire” his real name Konelo the
notorious leader of the gangster crew, eventually she was emotionally debilitated. Beforehand, she approached her mother Dudu
with the intention of seeking her opinion concerning sex. Despite her mother's advice, subsequently she
ends up having sexual intercourse with Konelo.
Initially she was not sure by the time she was having sex with
Konelo. Nevertheless, this continued
until she discovered that she was pregnant.
Abruptly, Konelo told her to have an abortion. She was 16 years old by the time she did
abortion. Her handsome boyfriend apart
from the fact that he gave her money to see the doctor he did not offer her any
further support. At the time of her appointment to do abortion, nobody
accompanied her. She was downcast, firstly
by her boyfriend and secondly by her best friend Vinolia. She was hurt and further upset when she found
that Vinolia was engaging in sex together with Konelo and Vinolia's boyfriend “Sticks”
at the same time; and that Konelo was a married man.
Tshepang
was living with Dudu her mother and Tebogo her father. Suddenly after she realised she committed
those silly mistakes she went to her mother and explained everything to
her. Her mother understood and the
following year she found her another new school. In her new school she encountered with
bullying from another pupils especially boys.
Apparently, Lesego was popular with bullying. But the new environment became fruitful to
Tshepang. She became fervent with
reading in the library and actively participated in poetry. Usually poetry became her interesting
activity. Enchanting people appeared to
her life. The librarian Palesa and her
fellow pupil in school Fezile who later became her boyfriend began to be
intimate. The trios were great bards
however Palesa was greatly fascinating.
In
actual fact Tshepang is the adopted child by Dudu and Tebogo. Dudu is a barren married woman. Tshepang in
her teen she experienced some of the abysmal difficulties of life. Her appearance in the book starts with the
first chapter and from chapter nine to chapter thirteen the writer mentions
her several times. Her family was
solaced and bosom to her. Always when
they were with her they remained closely together despite their marriage
problems. Tshepang could not recogniz
or having suspicions concerning her adoption.
She grew up being treated fairly and with care and when she committed
mistakes she was disciplined.
Notwithstanding, sometimes Duduand Tebogo were having different views. Tebogo was convinced that the time was now
right for her (Tshepang) to know the truth, albeit in contrary Dudu thought
differently. Her concern was that, by
revealing the truth to her especially when she’s still in school would
obviously affect her. She believed the
right time will be “when she completed her studies”.
The
marriage of the two wasn’t good at all.
Initially, the problem started when Dudu sister commenced to stay with
them. Tebogo enjoyed being with
Kekeletso more than his wife. The
situation in her marriage made her to cogitate about the two. What really was her sister doing? What did her husband think about her? She immediately becomes forlorn, her husband
forgets about special days which they used to spent together.
It is to the author's credit that the characters come to life and the narrative is flowing; for example:
“Tebogo
leaving without saying anything this morning and Keke not texting back was
because it was all part of the surprise, she smiled alone and went to the
bathroom, ran a bubble bath, played their list of favourite songs that were
played at their wedding, poured herself some bubbly and relaxed in the path
while patiently waiting for her husband to come and join her. Tebogo came in with Keke, they were all over
each other like a bad rash. Keke stopped
kissing him for a moment and asked him what if Dudu was still in the
house. “Since it’s our anniversary,
she’s probably waiting for me at our usual restaurant, I’m sure she was already
there when she called, you know how dull she can get,“ he continued kissing
her. “Okay, why don’t you call her and
just make sure that she’s there, I don’t want to get caught,“ she said.
“Nobody’s
going to get caught, relax, she’s there I’m telling you, well okay, let me take
a bath first and then I’ll call her, how’s that?” he asked. “As long as you let me come wash your back,“
she said. “You just read my mind,“ he
said, while kissing her and pushing her towards the bathroom where Dudu was,
neglecting the decorations of Dudu and Tebogo’s wedding pictures on the wall,
the sweet aroma of the food she just cooked, with the table nicely set, some
nice soft music, candles leading to the bathroom and red roses leading to their
bedroom, everything was just perfect if only he had noticed.
“What
the hell is this?” Dudu asked with rage
all over her face...
Tshepang
grew up in such situation but she never noticed division in her parents. When she grew up Keke was already deceased
together with her baby. She died a tragic
death by the time she gave birth to a baby boy.
However, things became aggravated when Tshepang became curious about the brown
envelop that was placed together with her childhood photo album in her parents’
bedroom. Tshepang boyfriend was in the
house on that day and Tshepang mother wanted Fezile to see photos of baby Tshepang. “As
she got to her parent’s bedroom and pulled out the album that was
between blankets in the closet, a brown, old looking envelope fell to the
ground, she picked it up and looked at it, it didn’t say who it was going to so
she opened it, it was a letter written by hand, she sat down and read it, her
heart was pounding from what she was reading, she quickly got up and went to
her room, took Palesa’s poetry book and went back to her parent’s bedroom, took
the letter again, opened Palesa’s book, she realised that every Poem of Palesa
had her signature at the end, which matched the signature in the letter, she
was certain that it was her writing. She
got out of that room and went to the lounge.
“What
is this?” she asked. Dudu and Tebogo
looked at each other and didn’t say anything.
“Are you going to answer me or do you want me to ask you again?”
The
reason why Tshepang reacted insolently when she knocked at Palesa's house so loudly
it was because she wanted to know the truth about the letter she got from the
brown old looking envelop. She found
that Palesa was her real mother. Palesa
wrote this letter after she gave birth to her.
So
after giving birth and thinking all of those things, my decision became even
more firm because now I realised that my situation was never going to
change. I started thinking how was I
going to explained to my child that her grandfather is also her father or how
my mother hated me so much that she let me get raped right in front of her
eyes, so I signed the adoption papers without my family’s concern, after all
nobody was there when I gave birth, my dad just drove me to the hospital and
said he was coming, so after I had signed the papers I asked the social worker
to give me a pen and paper, then I wrote a letter to my baby and asked for the
social worker to tell the adoptive parents to give that letter to the baby once
she was old enough to understand what was written in there, I told her that it
was okay for them to read it if they wanted to.
Then I signed the letter at the bottom and gave it to the social worker,
got out of that hospital as quickly as I
could and never went back home or anywhere near it, I didn’t want to see that
house ever again.
Palesa
since her young age, she suffered a lot at the hand of her inhumane- relentless
father. She was nine when her father
started to abuse her sexually. When her
mother died her father was having sex with her.
She was ignored by her aunt when she reported the situation to her. Her aunt just felt sympathetic, but that was
bogus, hardly genuine as she completely failed to intercede. She grew up helpless, vulnerable and
exasperated. Hapless, in school or among the neighbours nobody ever recognised
the signs of sexual abuse in her.
Scandalously, her mother gave her feeble response when she asked her why
she allowed this to happen to her.
Palesa was crestfallen to learn that her father prefers to sleep with
her just because he suspected that his wife was cheating on him and he was
afraid of being infected with HIV/AIDS.
However, it is surprising to understand that both parents died with
Aids.
The novel “Unfolding the Documentary” by
Matshidiso is very alluring to read.
She continues to demonstrate that she is sensational, sapient writer. Considering her young age one would appreciate her sedulous
efforts to produce such exhilarating work of fiction, certainly she deserves to
be commended. She constructed the novel
very well. The characters are
impressively vivid, including the plot which is coherently glamorous and
phenomenal. Definitely, the spellbound
novel it is the work that will dramatically inspire and instill confidence
among the Africans. Consequential,the
success of the book is the clear testimony that African continent will continue
to produce wonderful writers that are effervescent. It is completely
resplendent to see young female writers of the calibre of Matshidiso contribute
such dazzling literary material that intends to underpin quintessential
literature. MatshidisoTaleng is one of those writers who contribute ardently
to burgeoning African literature. Her
novel is a work of hope and inspiration.
It evokes extraordinary moment when African literature used to be
intriguing.
In this wise, one can reminisce about Miriam
Tlali the first African female writer to write a novel in South Africa. Miriam Tlali would recall “Ultimately (my)
book was published, after six full years of rejection by all the publishing
houses in South Africa, of course all being white. The publishers did not approve of the title
of the book, Between Two Worlds, because I was shifting from one world to the
other in my work, and they felt the title would offend the censors-they would
immediately pounce upon it! When it came
out it was “innocent” title of Muriel at Metropolitan. First they said: “Let’s call it Miriam at
Metropolitan but because I did not like it, it was changed to Muriel at
Metropolitan.
To an extent, Matshidiso’s colourful style of writing can be closely alike with the late
Yvonne Vera. Likewise Matshidiso in her
deluxe novel she never budges in expressing issues that are connected with
sexual abuse experiences by children, unfaithful marriage life, adolescent lifestyle
etc. Vera work is intimately concerned
with the politics of the female body, in relation to such traumatising
experiences as infanticide, rape and abortion.
Many outstanding female African
writers have done fantastic things in the world of letters. Bessie Head, Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta,
Mariama Ba, Yvonne Vera, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, NoViolet Bulawayo,
Taiye Selasi, Toni Morrisson etc are awesome women of African literature. I am totally chuffed by Matshidiso's novel
“Unfolding the Documentary”. I hope she
will consider writing another series or part two of “Unfolding the Documentary”. MatshidisoTaleng is a sensational young
vivacious female writer who continues to contribute immensely to literature.
The author's first poetry book “Secrets” which is an
anthology of poems, has been acclaimed by literary pundits as one of
extraordinary book of poems that will continue to be recognized as
splendid. Moreover, her newly novel will
remain one of her great achievements in the world of letters. The book is graphically prodigious. With her
incredible zeal, she immaculately expresses things that are happening in
today’s world. Sexual child abuse,
unsafe sex among the teenagers, marriage problems, friendship and so on.
