The place of liberation was Birmingham, England. Strange city, she thought. Strange name. More shops than she ever knew existed, and roads that flew through the sky. But that is where they helped her, away from family and friends and everything that was familiar. Far away from the children. Angelika came to learn English, at a small college funded by the Church. So really it was the Good Lord who helped her, as always. But she did not expect Him to have white hands.
Her church had black bishops linking Africa and African Americans. So despite all the pictures of Jesus looking like a European, she had never thought of him like that. Her knowledge of the Lord was her knowledge of the care of those around her, of community, of people helping each other in the difficult times under South African rule. Her knowledge of the devil was the temptation of all people to selfishness, jealousy and anger but, most of all, the actions of the South African army- young white soldiers conscripted and sent on military service to Namibia, who were hardened by the training process and brutalized by what they did in the fight against those who wanted freedom.
The Namibia that Angelika left was hot and dry and highly militarized, where political leaders were detained, tortured or forced into exile and only the churches could set up projects to help people. Survival came through mutual support, through solidarity within communities and within families: helping people who did not have enough food, caring for those who were sick, looking out for each other’s children.
The England that she came to was cold, wet and seemingly calmer. But she came to find that England, too, was becoming more
militarized, with a miner’s strike that pitted government against trade union, a new leader who declared war on them, and police on horseback charging at the protesters. People sent food parcels across the country to areas where the strike held out the longest. Solidarity was strong but it was stretched to breaking point by distance, by the need to get out and find work, by people giving up and moving on. Solidarity was what kept Namibians alive. Solidarity was what grew and died in England at that time.
Angelika arrived in Birmingham in January, in the middle of winter, with one suitcase and no coat. Unlike the desert cold she knew, this did not disappear as the day went by, but settled damply in her bones. The little English that she knew disappeared as soon as she arrived and she was hard pressed in conversation and in class. She was among a group of international students, with common church connections, but the other students were younger than her, busy at parties, while Angelika, quiet in her college room, slowly learnt to speak.
Her aim was to go on to study a course in Community Studies that would help her in the work she had undertaken back home-running a children’s centre for her husband’s church. Eighty pre- schoolers came each day. Mothers dropped them off in the early hours, before they boarded buses heading to the white suburbs where they worked. They collected the children as it began to turn dark. So Angelika and her colleagues provided everything for the children during the day food, care and a safe place to play. Her colleagues wrote to her now, telling her how they were all waiting for her return, telling her how the children were growing- children whose love helped to make her whole.
Angelika had always expected to have a lot of children, as many as the Lord might offer her, but when she got married they were disappointed, because none came. The years went by. At first she and her husband would talk about the children they hoped for but in the end, they stopped speaking about it. They took in three girls from her husband’s family and looked after them.
It was Tembi, a nursing student from South Africa, who began to show Angelika around and make sure she did not spend too much time alone in her room. She urged Angelika to go to the doctor and see what the problem might be.
“Look, you have the opportunity while you are here. You know how bad medical care is at home. Go see the doctor while you can get proper treatment. Maybe they can do something.”
“I don’t like hospitals,” replied Angelika. “People go there and die.”
“No,” replied Tembi, thinking of the similar conditions in South Africa. “Not always. People go to hospital so late that some of them are too sick by the time they get there. By then it’s too late for them. Better to see the doctor sooner. They then can do more for you.”
So she found her way to the women’s Hospital in Birmingham, a concrete block, daunting and unfriendly at the end of a long bus journey. Green lino on the floors and tired pale green paint on the walls, but a better reputation for care than some newer hospitals. “So,” asked the doctor, going through the preliminary questions.
“Tell me about your medical history. When did you first menstruate? Have you normal periods? Have you ever been pregnant?”
“Not ever,” replied Angelika. The doctor directed her to a couch for a preliminary examination.
“Tell me about this scar,” he said.
“Appendix,” Angelika replied. “Ten years ago. The one time I was in hospital.”
“Long scar for an appendix,” commented the doctor. “Let’s see what else we can find.”
She had never been to a gynecologist before, never had an intimate examination. Her body stiffened as he bent towards her. Afterwards, they sent her for an ultrasound scan. Then the doctor called in a colleague and discussed her case. They talked to Angelika together.
“Tell us more about your medical history. About your hospital visits.”
“There’s nothing. My appendix. Sometimes headache or flu, that’s all.” She was lucky, she thought. Some people were sick all the time, exhausted by the workload, queuing at the hospital in the mornings, taking the precious prescribed pill, with hope and expectation, even though so often it was just a painkiller, she had been told.
“Yes, but apart from the appendix, when did you have the other work done?”
“Other work?”
“Well, we’re a bit confused. You’ve come to us to find out why you can’t get pregnant. But the answer’s clear. You’ve been sterilized.”
“Sterilized?”
“You can’t get pregnant because you had an operation to stop you getting pregnant. Your tubes have been cut.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your fallopian tubes have been cut.” He got out a diagram to show her.
“Here. These are the tubes where the egg comes down into the uterus.
Yours have been cut. This is what’s done when a woman comes to us and says she has enough children and doesn’t want any more.
This is one way to prevent you from having children. It’s longer-term than other methods. It’s permanent.”
The doctors at home- young white men- some from South Africa, some of them soldiers, who parked their rifles at the consulting room door, working their military service out on Namibian bodies. “Tell us about the symptoms you had before your appendix was removed,” continued the doctor.
“Stomach pain. More and more. Then one night it was terrible. My brother took me to the hospital. I had to wait long and the pain was bad. Then they came, they examined me, they say my appendix is bad. They make me sleep. Then they cut me and they took the appendix.”
“Maybe it was your appendix,” replied the doctor. “But is it possible that you could have been sterilized at the same time? What consent form did you sign?”
She could not remember any signature. There had been no discussion. She could think only of the faces of the young doctors and their white hands, cutting, stitching. Who knew what they might do when you were unconscious and cut open? Cutting, stitching. This time caring.
This time, trying to repair. “We may be able to reverse it,” the doctors comforted her. “It’s not usually possible, but we have had some success reconnecting fallopian tubes.”
So she went back to hospital. The church carried the cost. Others around her, including Tembi, wanted to shout about it, to write letters to the newspapers and contact the United Nations, to make public what had happened to her and use it in the campaign against South African rule. But Angelika could not bear the thought of people discussing her in that way. She wrote and phoned to tell her husband, but it was hard at that distance to explain. She was constrained by the thought of their conversation and letters being monitored and she felt compelled to shield him from what other men had done to her, feeling somehow shamed by it. So Tembi spoke to the church leaders on her behalf and they helped her to go home during the vacation.
There was not much privacy in their home- four square walls, mercifully made out of brick and cement, not corrugated iron like the homes of so many others. They had an inside toilet and shower, and a kitchen, so they did not have to cook outside. The furniture was big in the small rooms, though. There was only a narrow space to squeeze between the bed, the wardrobe and the walls in their bedroom. The other bedroom housed the girls they had taken in. The sitting- cumeating area comprised a small table and chairs, two wooden framed armchairs with foam cushions and television. The house was full of people when they got home from the airport, and full, much of the time that she was there.
“I haven’t said anything,” said her husband. “I just said that you had been to hospital for treatment. But you know how word gets round.”
“That’s good,” she replied. “I don’t want people looking at me and talking. And I don’t want to think about it myself…” Each time she thought about it, she stepped back in horror. When she asked herself why this had happened to her, she thought of the other women it must have happened to as well, who neither know nor have the chance to reverse their enforced childlessness.
The British doctors had told her they were hopeful, that they believed the operation had been successful but her tubes would still be scarred and her body, no longer so young, might not be able to hold and nurture a baby. She dared not hope that something good might eventually come out of the discovery. She approached her husband with trepidation.
They travelled to the village, into rocky hills where her people had been pushed by colonial settlement. It took three hours to get there, although the actual distance was not so long. Well-maintained gravel roads led through the white commercial farms, but petered out when they reached the reserve, and the last twenty kilometres were over hard rock, through dried out riverbeds, and up steep slopes.
It was August, the driest time of the year, when the colours were all browns and greys and each stick stood out hard and dark against the earth. Two more weeks and the night temperatures would begin to rise, bringing blossom to the thorn bushes and leaves to the larger trees with deeper roots-a time of wind and hazy sunshine.
They walked to the huts on their arrival and were taken to the elders. There the keeper of the holy fire welcomed them. He took water in his mouth and spat it three times onto the ground, talking to the ancestors, thanking them for the safe return of their child and asking for their blessing for her. Then the cow was slaughtered and everyone came from the huts around to share the feast.
The following Sunday, they gathered in church and her husband led them in singing hymns and calling for God’s guidance and God’s blessing on them all.
Two weeks later, Angelika returned to England, buoyed by the warmth of family, determinedly not counting the days. She took the bus from the airport north to Birmingham and found her way to the college, more capable now, more knowledgeable about the transport system and the language. Her fellow students came to greet her, asking for news.
“It is the same,” she said. “People struggle to cope. The number of children at the centre increases each day. There is not enough water in the reserves and people wait for the early rains. The children are protesting in the schools. They are marching in the streets.” Things at home were the same, she thought, and yet so much had changed for her.
Time went by. She dared not hope. But no blood came. She waited a few weeks and then went hesitantly to the doctor. “I’m very pleased to say that you are pregnant,” he smiled. “Seven weeks. Hopefully everything will go smoothly but we need to monitor you carefully to make sure everything is OK. In the meantime, don’t do too much, be careful not to lift heavy things. Get plenty of sleep and eat well.”
She could rest in her single student room, away from the noise of other people and their prying eyes. She could study while she rested. She could afford to eat well, her scholarship allowing her the fruit and vegetables that were difficult to afford at home. She told Tembi but asked her not to tell anyone else. She dared not even tell her husband, for fear that something might go wrong.
But the Lord was with her. The baby stayed and grew. She felt it kick.
Angelika approached the church once more and asked to stay in England until the baby was born. She could not face returning to the hospital in Windhoek. They offered her assistance from an emergency fund so she could give birth in Birmingham and continue her studies afterwards. When she became so large that no one could deny it, she told her husband of the news. When she had safely delivered she sent a message home.
At last, a son is born. A miracle child. Give thanks.
Six months later, surrounded by people at her farewell, Angelika holds her baby, chatting and laughing.
Understanding and appreciating the story
- Why is Birmingham, England, the place for Angelika’s liberation? What does she get liberated from?
- Do you think Angelika has a clear understanding of Christianity?
- Make notes on the problems facing citizens in Angelika’s native country.
- Why do you think the young white doctors sterilized Angelika?
- “Thinks at home were the same, yet so much had changed for her.” How true is this statement and in what ways had Angelika changed?
- Why do you think Angelika keeps her pregnancy secret?
- The author uses short sentences like: “But the Lord was with her. The baby stayed and grew. She felt it kick.” Why do you think she uses such sentences and what does she achieve?
- Describe the character of Angelika’s husband.
- In your own words write a paragraph describing Angelika.
Let’s address the understanding and appreciating the story section:
- Birmingham, England is the place of Angelika’s liberation because it offered her an opportunity to learn English and study Community Studies, which would help her in the work she undertook back home, running a children’s center. She gets liberated from the constraints of her native country, where political oppression, militarization, and limited resources were prevalent.
- Angelika’s understanding of Christianity is deeply rooted in her church and community. She perceives the Lord as someone who cares for those around her, promoting community, and helping each other in difficult times. However, her image of God is shaken when she encounters white doctors in England, possibly questioning her faith.
- The problems facing citizens in Angelika’s native country, Namibia, include political repression, militarization, detainment, torture, and forced exile of political leaders. The country’s struggle for freedom is evident through the actions of the South African army, conscripting young white soldiers, who brutalize those fighting for independence. Additionally, there are issues related to access to basic needs like food, healthcare, and education, which often rely on mutual support and solidarity within communities and families.
- The story does not explicitly state why the young white doctors sterilized Angelika. It is left open to interpretation, but it could be implied that it might have been done without her consent or knowledge, possibly due to prejudice or misguided beliefs about her circumstances.
- The statement “Things at home were the same, yet so much had changed for her” reflects the internal transformation Angelika goes through during her time in England. While the situation in her home country remains challenging, she undergoes personal growth, learns a new language, and faces unexpected medical issues. Her experiences in England have altered her perspective on life and faith.
- Angelika keeps her pregnancy secret, possibly due to fear of something going wrong or facing judgment from others. She may want to shield herself and her baby from any negativity and protect her fragile hope.
- The author’s use of short sentences creates a sense of directness and immediacy in describing pivotal moments in the story. It enhances the emotional impact of those moments, allowing readers to feel more connected to Angelika’s experiences.
- From the given context, Angelika’s husband is portrayed as caring and supportive. He stays by her side and does not reveal her medical condition without her consent. He shows concern for her well-being and is sensitive to her feelings.
- Angelika is a determined and resilient woman who faces challenges with courage. She is devoted to her community, especially the children in the center she runs. She values solidarity and mutual support, and she has a strong faith in her church’s teachings.
Regarding the discussion questions:
- The title “White Hands” likely refers to the white doctors in England who perform the sterilization procedure on Angelika without her knowledge or consent. It might symbolize the abuse of power and the invasive actions inflicted on her by these medical professionals.
- Yes, the use of dialogue enriches the story by providing insight into the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and interactions. It allows readers to understand their perspectives more deeply and enhances the emotional impact of the narrative.
Discussion questions
Do you think there are instances of human rights abuse in this story? Discuss.
- Discuss the relevance of the title, “White Hands,” to the story.
- Do you think the use of dialogue has enriched the story? How?
WHITE HANDS
BY
JAME KATJAVIVI
1. Setting
The story is set in two different countries. It is set both in Namibia and Birmingham, UK. Namibia is going through the difficult times of colonisation with most of its citizens feeling oppressed and tormented by the white people. The protagonist, Angelika, carries the scars of the atrocities of that regime. Her visit to England confirms that her country is not an island. England too has its fair share of strife resulting from worker dissatisfaction. The resulting strikes bring about violence and unemployment. Another important factor worth mentioning is the contrast in the weather. The Namibia she leaves is hot and dry which agrees with
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the political heat created by the oppressive regime. The England she visits is in the middle of winter and is therefore equally oppressive.
2. The plot
The story opens with Angelika‟s visit to Birmingham. We are told that it was the town of her liberation. We learn that she is in the UK courtesy of her church. She has been sent there to learn English. So bad is the situation at home that it is only churches that are setting up projects to improve the lot of the people. It is in one such project the Angelica and her husband work. It is a day care centre for children whose mothers have to go to work but have nobody to leave them with. Besides studying English, she hopes to take a course in Community Studies that would help her run the day care centre.
Her friend Tembi, a Namibian nurse studying in UK, encourages her to avail herself of the medical expertise in the UK to find out why she can‟t have children and perhaps even have the problem remedied. Her visit to the hospital reveals that she had been stirilised. She says this was done without her knowledge by the military doctors who had removed her appendix.
The sympathetic doctors in Birmingham tell her that although the operation is considered permanent they had carried out a few reversals successfully. They are cautious though and tell her that there are no guarantees that her case too would be a success. She consents to the operation nonetheless. Again the church bears the cost of the operation.
Naturally she has to travel back home to meet with her husband to determine the success of the operation. Here too the church meets the cost. She returns to Birmingham and anxiously waits for her to find out whether she is lucky. Her periods do not come and this is a good sign. She shares this news only with Tembi for fear of raising people‟s expectations too high. Her luck holds out and finally it was evident to all that she was pregnant. It is only then that she informs her husband.
She continued with her studies as she carried the pregnancy to term. Six months after her baby was born she bids farewell to her benefactors and heads back home.
- Conflict
- The conflict with weather is very important. It develops the theme of suffering in the story. First Angelika tells us that the Namibia she left was hot and dry. We are then told that the country is highly militarised. Political leaders are detained, tortured or forced into exile. Further, survival came through mutual support, through solidarity within communities and within families.
- On the other hand, England is cold and wet. It was the middle of winter. Angelika however had gone there with few clothes and no coat. The cold she says did not disappear with the day but instead settled damply in her bones. Further, we learn that England too was militarised. A miner‟s strike was on pitting the government against the trade unions. The new political leader declared war on the unions and police on horseback charged at protesters. However, solidarity could not hold out because of distance. Most of the unemployed gave up and moved on.
- Another instance of conflict is developed between Angelika and the white medical personnel. She had had frequent stomach pain but one night it became intolerable. Her brother took her to hospital. There she agonised in
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pain for long as she waited to be attended to. Eventually the operation was carried out.
However, the doctors took advantage of the opportunity to maliciously sterilise her. Contrary to medical practice, her consent was not sought. She says that she did not sign a consent form.
- This sterilisation brings conflict into her marriage. As a newly married couple they talked about the children they hoped to have. Eventually this talk stopped and they adopted three girls from her husband‟s family.
- Finally her people suffered privation in the hands of the colonial government. Angelika tells us that most people had houses whose walls were made of iron sheets. As a result there was no privacy in those homes. Besides, the houses were tiny and lacked amenities like toilets, showers and kitchens. Further, she says that her people still struggle to cope with life. The number of children at the centre continues to rise and the water in the reserves is inadequate.
4. Characters and characterisation
Angelika is the best developed character in this story a. Religious
She firmly believes in God. She tells that it is God who helped her as always. This is in reference to the surgery that she undergoes to correct her sterilisation.
b. Hardworking
Every day she looked after 80 preschoolers at the children‟s centre that she ran. Their mothers dropped them in the early hours and collected them when it began to turn dark.
c. Realistic
When it became obvious that she was not going to have children of her own, she adopted three girls from her husband‟s family.
d. Forgiving
When it became clear that she had been sterilised by white doctors without her consent, her friends wished to write letters to the newspapers and contact the UN to object to the malicious behaviour of the white doctors. She objected to this approach. Clearly she felt no bitterness towards the people who had wronged her.
e. Secretive
Upon missing her periods, she did not readily tell the people around her. Further, she only went to the doctor‟s after 7 weeks. What is more, she did not dare tell her husband for fear that something might go wrong. The only person she told was Tembi whom she asked not to tell anyone.
5. Themes
a. Human rights abuses i. Forced sterilisation
A number of women are sterilised by white doctors without their consent. Angelika is one such woman. Further, she says that she thought of the other women it must have happened to who neither knew nor had the chance to reverse their enforced childlessness. ii. Oppression
Political leaders were detained, tortured or forced into exile.
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The natives had been resettled into remote reserves. The narrator says that the village had been pushed into the rocky hills by colonial settlement. b. Friendship
- Church
The church is responsible for a number of humanitarian assistance. The narrator says that as the South African rule oppressed the people of Namibia, it is only the churches that could set up projects to help the people. Further, the church met the cost of Angelika‟s education, treatment and travel expenses. We are told that they offered assistance from an emergency fund so she could give birth in Birmingham and continue her studies afterwards.
ii. The people of Namibia
The narrator tells us that the people survived the traumatising experiences because of their solidarity. She says that survival came through mutual support, through solidarity within the communities and within the families: helping people who did not have enough food, caring for those who were sick, looking out for each other‟s children. iii. Tembi
We are told that it was Tembi who began to show Angelika around to ensure that she did not spend too much time alone in her room. Further, she is the one who suggested that Angelika seeks proper treatment. As a result, Angelika found out that she had been sterilised without her consent, but what is more the doctors were able to reverse her condition which was thought to be permanent.
iv. The people of England
Angelika visits England at a time they were facing labour unrest. The administration was harsh and the police charged on protestors. She says that the people sent parcels of food across the country to the places that the strike held out the longest.
a. Appropriateness of title
The title is appropriate. The white hands that are talked about were responsible for both the suffering and joy of the protagonist. It is the malicious white doctors in South Africa who sterilised her without her consent. This was a supremacist statement. If they could stop the blacks from reproducing, then the superior white race would have the country to themselves. Ironically, it is the white doctors in England who identify the reason why she cannot conceive and correct the problem through surgery.
b. Significant event
The significant event in this story is the sterilisation of Angelika by the white doctors in Windhoek.
c. Aim of the author
This is a sad story that uses contrast to show that both evil and well-meaning people exist. A group of people should therefore not be condemned because one of them has acted out of line, rather we should judge individuals by their strengths and weaknesses. The strong message is therefore one of tolerance and building friendships.
Q 1 Friendship helps overcome adversity. Using
Angelica‟s experiences both in Namibia and England show that this is true. Give illustrations from Jame Katjavivi‟s White Hands.