Gifts to Posterity - Lesson 1 - Comrades by Nadine Gordimer - Summary

https://theconversation.com/book-review-selling-apartheid-south-africas-global-propaganda-war-4938

1.    Mrs Hattie Telford is returning to her home after a University conference. The Conference was about People’s education which had both White and Black activists in attendance. Mrs Hattie Telford was one of the committee members. 

2.   As Mrs Hattie Telford was about to enter her car, a group of four young men came up behind her. One of them addressed her as Comrade and asked whether she was going to town? She was about to say ‘No’, but she thought about the meeting which was all about black and white unity. Keeping the spirit of the meeting. She decided to give them a lift.

3.     In the car, they started talking. Mrs. Hattie Telford asked them about their hometown. They tell her that they came from Harrismith, a place that was 200 km away from the university. She knew that these young men arrived late for the meeting and that they had missed their lunch. She had her own private and personal plans for the evening. i.e. to unwind with a drink and enjoy the luxury of solitude. Mrs Hattie Telford invites the young men to her home to eat something. The poor, young, black men are glad to accept the offer of a white, rich, old woman. 

4.     The White woman leads them to her house through the kitchen door. She made them sit in the dining room with its tables and chairs. There were many expensive furniture adorning the room like golden wooden ceiling, antique brass chandelier, reed blinds etc. There was also a sculpture of an African lion made from the trunk of a Mukwa tree. Mrs Hattie Telford had a Black maidservant who belonged to the same tribe as the young men. Four of them had greeted her in the common language as they entered the kitchen. Mrs Hattie and the maid prepared cold meat and bread along with coffee. Mrs Hattie was somehow embarrassed that the Black maid was her servant and she didn’t want to parade her in front of the four young men. So, ‘She herself carried the heavy tray into the dining room’ (4, Gift to Posterity) 

5.     As the four young men ate, Mrs Hattie Telford tried to know their names. They didn’t speak English. Mrs Hattie Telford spoke English and the four young men spoke Afrikaans. They were shy and afraid. She offered them apples, bananas and peaches. She said ‘Have some fruit. Help yourself. (5, Gift to Posterity) They filled their plates and cups with food and drinks. One of them tells her that his name is Shadrack Nsutsha. Dumile is the name of the young man who is their leader. 

6.     Mrs Hattie picks up a conversation with the leader Dumile and asks him whether he is at school. None of them are in school for several years. School for them is a battleground, a place of boycotts and demonstrations. They fought for a life which is different from the life led by their parents. Dumile was arrested for some violent protests at school and he was in jail for six months. Shadrack and others are also quizzed about their past and the plans for the future. They all have a common answer - ‘They are not going to say that they’ve been selected for the first Eleven at cricket or that they’re off on a student tour to Europe in the school holidays. (6, Gift to Posterity) 

7.     Mrs Hattie Telford makes the atmosphere lively by pointing her finger at the sculpture of the Lion. She tells the four Black, poor, young men that the sculpture is made by a Zimbabwean artist. None of the four boys are interested in the story. They are not interested in the room, space, antique chandeliers, reed blinds, carved lions - For them the only food that they had, and the hunger was real. 

Author Bio: 

The author, Nadine Gordimer was the daughter of Jewish immigrants and was born in 1923 in Johannesburg South Africa.  It was a time of established legally authorised white supremacy. Citizens were legally classified as either pure white, black or coloured by the government. (Indians were also treated as a separate class of citizen.)   Where one could live was determined by your race.  Where you could go to school was determined by this. In most areas, only whites were allowed to use the libraries, for example. The wealth of the country was concentrated in the hands of whites. Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".