Part One
In the African countryside, Maru, a former chief of the village Dilepe with a strong connection to nature, is preparing a garden of yellow daisies for his wife, Margaret. He loves his wife deeply but admits that their marriage has “two rooms”—one where his wife loves him and another where she is in love with Moleka, Maru’s former friend. Maru believes he will one day surrender his wife to Moleka, but this is not that day.
The narrative moves back in time to Dilepe, the remote village where the native Masarwa people exist at the bottom of an intense racial hierarchy. On the outskirts of the village, a Masarwa woman dies on the side of the road after giving birth. Her child is found and taken in by Margaret Cadmore, a missionary’s wife horrified by how horribly the Batswana nurses treat the Masarwa child. The child, whom she names Margaret as well, is raised with love; it is only as she grows that she realizes the prejudice the Masarwa people experience.
Now seventeen, Margaret arrives in Dilepe as a teacher. She is taken to the school and introduced to one of her fellow teachers, Dikeledi, Maru’s sister. Dikeledi is shocked to learn that Margaret is Masarwa and insists that, for her own safety, she does not tell anyone. Dikeledi takes Margaret to Moleka (Maru’s friend, whom Dikeledi is in love with), and he drives her to the library where she will live. Along the way, Margaret decides Moleka is “the most beautiful man on earth.”
Moleka walks through Dilepe and realizes that, when he thinks of Margaret, it feels like “finding inside himself a gold mine.” He realizes he is in love with her—an unusual feeling for him. Typically, Moleka is more concerned with the physical aspects of love, while Maru is more concerned with the emotional. The two men are inseparable, but Maru knows that their friendship will likely end one day over a woman.
The new school year begins, and the teachers meet their students. Initially, Margaret feels welcome due to her growing friendship with Dikeledi, but that changes when Pete, the principal, asks if she is Batswana. She replies that she is not; she is Masarwa. Margaret’s revelation about her identity sends Pete into a state of agitation, fearing her refusal to hide her heritage is going to cause chaos and unrest in both the classroom and the village.
At school, Margaret’s entire class now knows she is Masarwa and begins berating her, chanting: “You are a Bushman.” Dikeledi runs in and yells at the children for disrespecting their teacher. Throughout the village, unrest spreads as rumors begin that Moleka has begun sharing a table with his Masarwa slaves and treating them with respect.
Maru, who has been away visiting other villages, returns to Dilepe and sits down to dinner with Ranko, one of his spies. Ranko tells Maru that Moleka invited Seth, the school’s education supervisor, to his home and then ate off the same fork as a Masarwa, shocking Seth. Pete, the principal, chastises Moleka for causing confusion and “stirring up trouble.” Ranko reports that Seth has noticed Moleka acting unusually kind lately, theorizing that he must be in love with Margaret, which might explain his unexpected treatment of his slaves.
After dinner, Moleka is waiting for Maru in his office. Maru begins to dislike Moleka, deciding that love has changed his old friend and made him more “humble and defeated.” He tells Moleka he must take back the bed he loaned to Margaret; if the other Masarwa slaves see her being treated with respect,...
(This entire section contains 1028 words.)
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they may demand the same. Moleka leaves Maru’s office and sends two clerks to remove the bed from Margaret.
At Margaret’s home, the clerks feel bad for treating a teacher with disrespect and allow her to come back with them to Moleka to ask if she can keep the bed for a few days until she can find a replacement. Maru arrives and tells Margaret it was he who demanded the bed be returned. Margaret, shocked to realize this is Dikeledi’s brother, says that she will return the bed, then leaves.
Maru visits Dikeledi, who is furious at her brother over his removal of Margaret’s bed. He explains that he did it in an attempt to prevent a Masarwa revolution, then adds that he now plans to marry Margaret. He knows that Moleka is in love with Margaret and that Dikeledi is in love with Moleka, so he lies in an attempt to spare his sister from getting hurt.
Moleka, confused over the intense nature of his love for Margaret, begins to act very unnaturally. He has finally worked up the nerve to speak to her and is approaching the library when Ranko calls out to him and tells him that Maru has sent a “declaration of war.” Moleka responds that if Maru even approaches Margaret, Moleka will burn his old friend’s house down.
In an attempt to get revenge on Maru, Moleka goes to Dikeledi’s house and plans to kill her. While there, however, he realizes she loves him; quickly, he decides she is the “next best woman on earth” and begins to fall for her. Ranko informs Maru that Moleka has fallen in love with Dikeledi, but Moleka arrives soon after and tells Maru that it was all a lie; he does not actually want to marry Dikeledi.
Dikeledi talks to Margaret at school and offers to deliver a spare bed from her own home to the library. Margaret sketches Dikeledi, who tells her that she has a real talent for art. Meanwhile, Pete decides to issue an ultimatum that either Margaret leaves or he does.
Seth and Morafi, however, tell Pete that the issue has been taken care of, as they think Maru’s “shameful” behavior of removing a woman’s bed will force Margaret to leave the village. Briefly happy, the trio is returning home when an evil spirit threatens them, scaring them into fleeing the village. In their absence, Dikeledi is promoted to principal of the school.
