Molteno’s story traces music of life

The Commonwealth Writers Prize winning book is “rooted in its own particular past”, says the author’s note on the last page of the book. The past is of struggle that moulds a society into its modern avatar.

It is the story of a section of the young generation in 1970s’ South Africa that had to flee the country or surrender to the authority the youthful years of life. It is also about individual and societal freedom and finding something in the nothingness.

“Free from fear of arrest, free to be alone, to run to catch a bus, and sit up at the top looking down on the world going by,” the author writes as Jennie discovers the new facets of life in London.

Jennie, who grew up in a family of caring parents and four brothers, is forced to leave the protective life and brace for uncertainties. She goes “underground” with a boy, Kevin, as police crack down on student activists.

The story traces Jennie’s sexual revelations with Kevin and later a sudden aversion to physical intimacy with the man with whom she has to share a bed and give the relationship a legal stamp to earn freedom. The marital torture, both physical and mental, scars Jennie but could hardly destroy her affinity to life. From Swaziland, Jennie flies to London in search of a new life but before biding adieu, she collects memories, both nostalgic and horrific, of the life in Mbabane and the folk music and the simple tunes that bind man and nature in this small village.

A lost soul in London, Jennie gradually precipitates with a group of women, each with her own story, living in a community building. It is a hard survival. Nonetheless it is all about independence. Men, in Jennie’s new life among strangers-turned-friends, are uninvited guests.

What draws Jennie the most is music, and all sorts of, known and unknown. “You’re somebody else but no one is shocked/It’s all in the learning”, grooves the voice of Sasha McKinley.

For Jennie, music binds all and so she ‘collects’ tunes and rhythms from different cultures. And this “ridiculous and insatiable” musical adventure of Jennie brings her face to face with Neil, a seasoned musician and composer who helps her grow with music.

Jennie’s creation is as innocent and vibrant as a child and so she readily gets access to and explores a child’s world with the help of music. Her mission sounds difficult to Neil but her enthusiasm is convincing.

Molteno’s writing follows Jennie’s rhythm, from the trouble-torn land of Africa to the zenith of Western civilisation in London and beyond. Her simple words portray the lives of simple people dancing to the tunes of life and its uncertainties, but never giving up the fight.

“Move on, move on.” The orchestra continues after every interlude “as prisoned  birds must find in freedom/winging wildly across the white/orchards and dark-green fields, on—on—and out of sight”.

The poignancy in describing the changing world of Jennie at home miles away from her sight is the silent cry of hundreds of exiled citizens seeking asylum in ‘foreign land’. While the known world changes, the unknown comes closer with open arms.

Womanhood in Molteno’s story gets a rebellious definition. Jennie, who is determined to face the adversities without Kevin’s handholding; Jaswinder, who wants to defy the family custom of getting bound by the shackles of marriage at a young age; Paula, who rules the roost in a house full of women that welcomes lesbianism but is apprehensive about heterosexuality are vignettes from the seventies’ London. They also talk about social, economic and sexual liberty.

‘If you can walk you can dance/If you can talk you can sing’ is a Zimbabwean saying. The story is fictional “but grew out of real-life experiences”, says the author. The book was first published in 1998 that fetched Molteno the award in 1999. It has been re-published by Indian publisher Niyogi Books this year.

~ NM

Book: If You Can Walk, You Can Dance; Author: Marion Molteno; Publisher: Niyogi Books;
Pages: 483; Price: Rs 495