In Looking for a Rain God by Bessie Head we have the theme of struggle, hardship,

innocence, desperation, sacrifice, acceptance and connection. Narrated in the third

person by an unnamed narrator the reader realises after reading the story that
Head may be exploring the theme of struggle and hardship. Those who live in the
village are without food. The land has refused to bear fruit for the last seven years.
How desperate some people are is noticeable by the fact that some of the men in
the village have killed themselves. Considering it better that they should die than
to live their lives in complete starvation. Similarly Mokgobja’s daughters reach such
a point that they believe that the only thing that will save them is if they sacrifice
Neo and Boseyong to the Rain God. Though this sounds like a drastic stance to take
and it is. What Head might be trying to highlight is just how desperate Mokgobja
and his family are. Whereas most people would be aware that a human sacrifice
for rain does not necessarily mean that the rain will fall. Culturally Mokgobja has
grown up with tales of the Rain God so his actions do not necessarily disturb him
as they would the reader.

In Mokgobja’s eyes he is simply using Neo and Boseyong for the greater good. In
order that his family may survive the drought and that his crops might grow. Which
may leave some readers to question the value of life in the village. It also doesn’t
help Mokgobja that when he returns to the village the other villagers are suspicious
of him because they do not see Neo and Boseyong. As to whether Mokogobja is
driven by shame or guilt is not easy to say. However he is to face justice for his
actions. This could be significant as Head may be highlighting how incompatible
colonial law is with traditional ways. Though it is also interesting that Mokgobja
does not plead his case. It is as though the reality of what he has done has set in
and he knows that his actions have been inappropriate. Not only has Mokgobja
been beaten by the land but he has also been beaten by his mind. Whereas the
women who initiated the killing of Neo and Boseyong do not appear to have faced
any form of punishment. However they were after all only singing a traditional
chant. It was Mokgobja who took the chant to the next step.

This could be important as Head may be suggesting that at the time the story was
written society in the village was driven by the male. A woman might have had an
idea or a desire to act on something but it was the male in the village who ended
up taking the course of action he deemed to be fit. It is also interesting that both
Neo and Boseyong do nothing wrong throughout the story. There is in reality is no
justification for their death. All they are doing is playing with their dolls. It is other
people’s desperation that results in both Neo and Boseyong being killed to please
the Rain God. Mokgobja fuelled by the beliefs of his childhood feels as though he is
doing the honourable thing. To please the Rain God. It is as though Mokgobja
believes that everything will be alright once the rain begins to fall. Yet is also
interesting when the rain refuses to fall Mokgobja does not blame the Rain God. In
fact he appears to accept that there will no rain with or without a sacrifice. It is as
though the sacrifice of Neo and Boseyong has been pointless.

Though some readers will find it hard to sympathize with Mokgobja it might be
important to remember that he acted as he thought was best under the
circumstances he found himself in. True it is wrong to sacrifice a child (or anybody
else) to a God that may or may not exist but so engrained in Mokgobja’s mind was
the goodness of the Rain God that he believed that his actions were for the greater
good. It is only when he returns to the village and people start to become suspicious
that the truth comes out and Mokgobja faces the justice that many feel he rightly
deserves to face. Two young girls have been killed based on traditional beliefs. A
family has been torn apart and Mokgobja will lose his life for the crimes he has
committed. The reader aware that Mokgobja was driven by the struggle and
hardship he faced. Though he is responsible nonetheless for his actions. Due to his
belief system Mokgobja thought he was doing the right thing. However, this is not
how society and those in the village viewed things.
Bessie Emery Head (July 6, 1937 - April 17, 1986) is widely
considered as Botswana's most important writer. Bessie Emery Head was born
in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the child of a wealthy white South African
woman and a black servant when interracial relationships were illegal in South
Africa. It was claimed that her mother was mentally ill so that she could be sent to
a quiet location to then give birth to Bessie without the neighbors knowing. In the
1950s and 60s she was a teacher, then a journalist for Drum, a South African
magazine. In 1964 she moved to Botswana (then still the Bechuanaland
Protectorate) as a refugee, having been peripherally involved with Pan-
African politics. It would take 15 years for Head to obtain Botswana citizenship.
Head settled in Serowe, the largest of Botswana's "villages" (i.e. traditional
settlements as opposed to settler towns). Serowe was famous both for its historical
importance, as capital of the Bamangwato people, and for the experimental
Swaneng school ofPatrick van Rensburg. The deposed chief of the
Bamangwato, Seretse Khama, was soon to become the first President of
independent Botswana.Her early death in 1986 (aged 49) from hepatitis came just
at the point where she was starting to achieve recognition as a writer and was no
longer so desperately poor.

Summary
Bessie Head’s “Looking for a Rain God” tells the story of a family of African villagers
who make their living by farming the scrubby land known as the bush. Such farmers
do not actually live on the land they farm; they have to journey out into the bush,
some distance from their villages, to reach their plots. The distance may be only a
few miles -- Head is not specific, except to say that the farmers reach their plots on
foot -- but because of the heat, the farmers and their families seek out shady areas
along the way to rest during their journey. Normally the rest areas are shady, lush,
and green, “with delicate pale-gold and purple wildflowers springing up between
soft green moss, and the children could hunt around for wild figs and any berries
that might be in season.” But this year, the land has been ravaged by a terrible
drought, and the moss is crinkly and dry; the flowers are gone, and the soil is
arid. Nonetheless, families who subsist by farming must try to farm or die, and the
small family headed by the elderly Mokgobja is encouraged by a slight misty rain
which they hope will turn into something more substantial. They head out into the
bush -- Mokgobja, his son Ramadi, Ramadi’s wife Tiro, and their three daughters.
One of the daughters, presumably a teenager, is old enough to help with the farm
work, and in the warm mist she and her parents mark off their plot with thornbush
to prevent it from being trampled by goats. Ramadi then tills the ground with a
hand plow. But then the rain, as Head puts it, “flies away.” As days pass and it
becomes drier and drier, the family begins to panic. The oldest sister, Nesta, and
her mother weep incessantly; the nerves of the men are “stretched to breaking-
point” because men are supposed to do something, and there is nothing they can
do. Only the littlest girls, who are too young to realize the seriousness of their
family’s situation, happily play house with dolls made of sticks. Suddenly Mokgobja
remembers something from his earliest childhood, from the days before the
indigenous religion was “buried by years and years of praying in a Christian church.”
In the old days, he recalls, children were sacrificed and their bodies dismembered
across the fields to make the land more fertile. It sounds, to our ears, monstrous.
But the children are prattling their childish nonsense; the women are moaning their
despair; and the men feel impotent. Perhaps the rain god is out there; if they
appease him, perhaps he will help. The children are sacrificed, and still it does not
rain; a “terror, extreme and deep” overwhelms the adults, and they roll up their
blankets and return to the village. Upon the family’s return, all the villagers ask
about the missing girls, and at first the family merely says they died. However,
when the police ask to see the graves, “the mother of the children broke down and
told them everything.” Mokgobja and Ramadi are sentenced, convicted, and
executed for a crime that did not exist back in the old days when human sacrifice
was an acceptable way of ensuring a good harvest. Their blood metaphorically joins
that of their children.

Setting
The story “Looking for a Rain God” is set in the village of Kgotla and the surrounding
areas, Africa. The story is set in the periods before and after 1958. Before 1958, the
land was rich with trees, flowing plants and vegetation. Wild figs and berries were
available to be plucked as and when the needs arise. But all this changes after 1958,
as a seven-year drought seizes the land. The drought changes the natural
landscape. The land transforms into thorny bushes, withering trees and the
grounds become barren. This is the physical setting and the changes to the land
before and after 195 are visible.
The setting tells us about the people in the story based on their socio-cultural or
economic activities. It also reveals information of their socio-cultural practices and
beliefs. The people also rely on charlatans, incanters and witch-doctors to help
overcome their problems with the crops. The actions of the people show that they
believe in soothsayers, witchcrafts and live a primitive lifestyle. The use of the
donkey as a mode of transportation and oxen to plough the land also show that the
people live a traditional or primitive life.
The people in the story live in an agrarian society, planting crops and raising
livestock. Thus, their economic activities depend on the rain.

Characters
The main character in the short story is Mokgobja, who is more than seventy years
old. The other characters (minor) are:

· Ramadi
· Tiro
· Nesta
· Neo
· Boseyong

Mokgobja, Ramadi, Tiro and Nesta are adults, while both Neo and Boseyong are
children.

Mokgobja
· Authoritative
· Emotional/sensitive
· Impractical (believes in dogmatic practices)
· Unwise
· Irresponsible
· Irrational
· Insistent
· Determined
· Selfish, self-centred
· Disillusioned
· Inhuman

Ramadi
· Unrealistic/impractical
· Irresponsible
· Disheartened
· Conspirator/accomplice (in murdering the two children)
· Inhuman
· Irrational
· Determined
· Sensitive
· Desperate
· Insecure
· Easy to be convinced or influenced

Tiro
· Unsympathetic
· Impractical
· Inhuman
· Unwise
· Emotional
· Disillusioned
· Determined
· Guilt-conscious
· Easy to be convinced or influenced

Nesta
· Unsympathetic
· Impractical
· Inhuman, conspirator in murder
· Unwise
· Emotional
· Desperate
· Selfish
· Easy to be convinced or influenced

Neo and Boseyong

· Innocent, naïve
· Playful
· Childish
· Happy
· Obedient
· Living in their own child-world
Theme
a) The forces of nature
b) Irrationality
c) Humanity
d) Despair and desperation
e) The value of life
f) The importance of protecting the younger generation
g) Tribal practices versus modernization

Symbolism
· The two young children symbolize innocence and helplessness. They also
represent future generation
· The sun and rain are symbols of life. They are important sources of life for
people to live and carry out agricultural activities

Figurative Language
Figurative language refers to language that provides more than its literal meanings.
Examples of figurative language in the story include:
· ‘catch the rain in a cup it would only fill a teaspoon’
· ‘earth was alive with insects singing’
· ‘the sun danced dizzily in the sky’
· ‘the rain fled away’
· ‘the sky bare’
· ‘the sun sucked up the last drop of moisture out of the earth’
· ‘hung like a dark cloud of sorrow’
· ‘deathly silence at night’
· ‘devouring heat of the sun by day’

Irony
· Both the children, Neo and Boseyong, are murdered brutally by the people
who are supposed to love, care and protect them.
· The sun is supposed to be an important source of life. But in this story, the
sun is cruel and causes people to kill themselves because of the intense heat. The
sun also sucks all the moisture in the earth and all hope is lost.
Exercise
1. The family members go to their land after the November rains because
A. they want to cut firewood so they can work
B. their animals need to drink water at the well
C. they want to plough their land
D. their house has been flooded

2. The little girls play games

A. because they are disobedient and do not want to work
B. that imitate they way their mother talks to them
C. that will make the rain god bring rain
D. because they are stupid

3. The two women start wailing and stamping their feet because
A. they are practising a rain dance
B. the ground is too hot to stand on
C. they are celebrating the November rain
D. they are breaking under the strain of the drought

4. What happens after the girls sacrificed to the rain god?

A. It rains.
B. It drizzles.
C. It does not rain.
D. It rains till the land is flooded.

5. What do the people do at the kgotla?

A. They gather there to hear the announcement for the beginning of the ploughing
season.
B. They store their blankets and cooking pots there.
C. They sharpen their ploughs there.
D. They keep their livestock there.

6. How do the villagers feel after they learn about the murder of the children?
A. They feel happy because now it will rain.
B. They feel sorry for Mokgobja and Ramadi.
C. They feel angry with Mokgobja and Ramadi.
D. They feel nothing because it does not concern them