THIS short story is unique from
the rest of the stories in the
anthology because of its unusual
narrative point of view.
Unlike the others which are
dominated by the omniscient
narrator, this one is told in the
second person.
Remember, literature provides
a lens through which readers look
at the world and point of view is
that lens through which the author
allows you to ‘see’ and ‘hear’
what’s going on.
Skilful authors can fi x their
readers’ attention on exactly the
detail, opinion, or emotion the
author wants to emphasise by
manipulating the point of view of
the story.
The second person is a point of
view where the narrator tells the
story to another character using
the word ‘you’.
The narrator tells the narrative
by directly addressing the reader
or the second person.
The evidence that the narrator
is communicating from the
second-person mode is that the
story-teller directly addresses
the reader using second-person
standard pronouns (i.e., you, your,
yours, yourself, and yourselves) or
second-person archaic pronouns
(i.e., thou, thee, thy, thyself, and
thine).
The second-person point of view
treats the reader as a witness to
the story.
The second-person point of
view is the least commonly used
narration mode.
It is commonly combined with
the fi rst-person point of view
when the narrator communicates
as ‘I’ and addresses the reader as
‘you’.
When you encounter this point
of view; pay attention.
Why?
The author has made a daring
choice; to achieve a specifi c
purpose in mind.
Most times, second-person
point of view draws the reader
into the story, almost making the
reader a participant in the action.
This is what Mungoshi has done
in this packed short story.
It is the only point of view
that brings out deep-seated
personal feelings, attitudes and
experiences.
Through the ‘Singer at the
wedding’ the story-teller succeeds
in doing two main things:
demonstrating the feelings of a
scorned woman, and through
her indicting fake love which is
embodied in the meretricious
nature of white wedding.
I am reminded of one quote
from my former ‘O’ Level
Literature teacher: It is the
dissembling nature of things that
beguile men (men are deceived by
surface glitters that do not last).
The whole story invites you
through the singer to participate
in the indictment of superfl uous
and superfi cial Western marriage
practices.
So, you see!
There are two levels of satire:
at the individual level (where
alienated African men are
satirised for preferring rot to
enduring procreative love); and at
the macro-level where the whole
African society is deceived into
taking part in such alienating
hollow pursuits.
At the micro-level we see the
abandoned ‘traditional’ woman
expressing her bitterness at both
her husband and the woman who
has enticed him with her wiles.
The second person narrative
point of view is the most suitable
vehicle for complaining.
It brings out the bitterness of
the complainant as well as reveals
the target of her tirade.
Coupled with the second person
are elliptical pauses (scattered
throughout the story) which bring
both suspense and opportunity
for you the reader to meditate
and fi ll in what is missing using
your own conclusions and thus
encourage you to participate in the
indictment of the target.
The very fi rst paragraph
sums up the background to the
narrator’s bitterness. She begins:
“This is my song to you who would
not read the meaning in my heart;
who would not see the depths in
my eyes; who would not hear the
silent music of my limbs: you, who
turned your back on my smile and
a deaf ear to my plea.
“This is my song to you who
robbed me of my youth and hung
it on a dry tree for the vultures
to peck at, bleeding with love for
you.”
This opening quotes the
refl ections of an honest African
girl who has given herself
including her virginity to an
African man who then abandons
her in preference to a ‘modern’
African woman who in fact has
lost her virginity and consequently
her purity elsewhere.
He falls into the trap of aunts
who cheat her into believing that
she is still a virgin when in fact the
metaphysical test of the broken
egg suffi ces to indicate that this
bride is far from innocent.
Our singer explains: “Take that
egg, the day you paid the bride
price. It stood on the table, alone,
pure, white, vulnerable… The egg
is cracked but you preferred to
listen to the Aunts: She is a virgin!
Words!”
The ‘modern’ aunts connive
with their daughters to deceive
‘modern’ men who are gullible
because they live fake lives and
treasure fake wives.
On a symbolic level the story
dramatises Africa complaining
against her people for deserting
her for fake alien mothers.
The rest of the story narrates the
hollowness of the white wedding.
Africans are expressly black, but
they prefer white weddings.
The observations of the singer
betray the ignorance of the
wedding couple together with
their false supporters.
None of them understands the
import or motions of the white
wedding, but they just falter
through them for the sake of
publicity – to show the world that
they are ‘modern’.
In the end they become
caricatures.
And we laugh with the singer.
The groom is clad in a sky-blue
suit and the bride is “in a white,
white – the egg and virgin that she
is – fl owing wedding gown that
defi les all shadow in its rich folds.”
All this is false and our singer
could not be further from the truth
when she rues: “how false I fi nd
things that defy shadows.”
It is indeed true that in African
philosophy the shadow is a
refl ection of substance and gravity.
These fakes typify those who
have run away from their own
shadows.
The irony of it all is in the
manner the motions of the white
wedding are faltered through
with stubborn determination
notwithstanding the mocking
of symbolic interjections: they
dovetail from the cracked eggs,
the ominous uneasy taciturnity
between the couple, the endless
meals, hesitation to cut the
wedding cake, the clumsiness of
the fi nal of many attempts to cut
the cake, the extra-big cake chunks
that the groom shoves forcefully
into the bride’s small mouth, the
subsequent murmurs of clumsy
excitement of the conspiring mob
shouting vulgarities ‘give it to her’,
all capped by the broken wedding
plate which pronounces the fi nal
judgement with unrelenting
fatalism.
It is a marriage bound to fail
because it was no wedding after
all. It was an imitation of one by
empty mimics and adorers of
the false honey-bird of the white
world.
This story indicts Africans who
abandon their way of truth and
endurance in pursuit of hypocrisy
and death.
Our bride abandons enduring
love. He abandons the African
seed he has planted in this
forgotten wealth of fecundity our
singer is.
She represents the undying love
of Africa.
She is Africa itself.
This is what he abandons in
pursuit of deceit.
The bride he sacrifi ces his
money for is a triple-turned fake;
has experienced ‘three abortions’;
a product of a despised mother
‘deserted by her drunken husband,
left single-handed to raise fi ve
daughters none of whom has been
successful.”
Such is the choice of blindfolded
African men.
Africans, beware!