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The Cardinals: With Meditations and Short Stories
Mouse lacks love and family, but lives for books. A newspaper job opens her eyes to real life. Johnny, a time-worn journalist, offers love and shelter, but at the price of losing her naive view of society. Can she accept that apartheid rules, and form her own loveless history?
The cardinals
Earth and everything
Africa
My home
A personal view of the survival of the unfittest
Where is the hour of the beautiful dancing of birds in the sun-wind?
Poor man
Earth love.
The cardinals
Earth and everything
Africa
My home
A personal view of the survival of the unfittest
Where is the hour of the beautiful dancing of birds in the sun-wind?
Poor man
Earth love.
141 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1993
8 people are currently reading
194 people want to read
About the author
Bessie Head
48 books204 followersBessie Emery Head, though born in South Africa, is usually considered Botswana's most influential 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 give birth to Bessie without the neighbours knowing. However, the exact circumstances are disputed, and some of Bessie Head's comments, though often quoted as straight autobiography, are in fact from fictionalized settings.
In the 1950s and '60s she was a teacher, then a journalist for the South African magazine Drum. 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 of Patrick 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 48) from hepatitis came just at the point where she was starting to achieve recognition as a writer and was no longer so desperately poor.
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 give birth to Bessie without the neighbours knowing. However, the exact circumstances are disputed, and some of Bessie Head's comments, though often quoted as straight autobiography, are in fact from fictionalized settings.
In the 1950s and '60s she was a teacher, then a journalist for the South African magazine Drum. 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 of Patrick 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 48) from hepatitis came just at the point where she was starting to achieve recognition as a writer and was no longer so desperately poor.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 3, 2019
The whole principle of living and learning is dependent on what is going on in the mind. The mind is like a huge, living tapestry. Everything we see, hear, learn and experience gets fixed into this tapestry for good and, each day, more impressions are being imprinted on it.- Bessie Head, The Cardinals
Bessie Head’s writing really resonates with me. Since I learned a bit about Head’s own sad but inspiring life, it’s been almost impossible for me to read any of her work without thinking of how her own experiences informed her writing by changing how she viewed the world. As painful as it was for her to be an outsider, it also gave her freedom as she was often able to see what others couldn’t, and she could afford to be more honest, after all, what did she have to lose if she didn’t pledge allegiance to any group? Born during apartheid of an illegal union between a white woman and a black man, much of Head’s life was clearly about coming to terms with unbelonging, and one of the ways she did this was by ridiculing the system that deemed her an illegal person. Along with Mariama Ba, Nawal El Saadawi, and Buchi Emecheta, Head is one of the African woman writers who I feel did a lot to look closely at and critique the systems they were a part of. Like the other women mentioned, she was a keen observer of her society, and was able to point out the hypocrisies and highlight the stories that others ignore or gloss over.
This is a book of short stories, the titular one, The Cardinals, being a novella of 120 pages. It’s the one that impressed me the most, although the shorter stories at the end of the book were also really good. The Cardinals is about Miriam, later nicknamed Mouse, a young woman of uncertain paternity who is described by Johnny, the male protagonist, as having been born in a dung heap. The story calls to mind the many people who are born in environments that don’t nurture them, but somehow are able to make some sort of life for themselves and utilize their gifts. Mouse escapes from a shanty town near Cape Town and starts working for a trashy South African tabloid. Head uses her work as a reporter to illustrate the absurdities of the Immorality Rule wherein the races were not allowed to mix and have sexual relations.
The relationship that develops between Mouse and Johnny is quite unnerving. There’s a connection between them that others can’t explain, because “Mouse is only a woman and a rather dull, drab and colourless one at that…No man in his right mind would look twice at her.” With Johnny being considerably older and definitely more worldly, there’s also a power dynamic and plenty of antagonism. We see Johnny as a mentor to Mouse’s writing and Head uses him to share some of her own succinct views of life, love, and writing.
"You come from the same environment that I do and there are things that happened that marked me for life. I just cannot obliterate the scars."
"In writing, as in every other aspect of my life, I observe no rules or style. Just the thought of having to follow a set of rules or wedging myself into a style is enough to make my hair stand on end. Style must conform to me—my every mood, whim or fantasy.”
"The funny thing about writing is that it makes you start thinking. Once you’ve started the process, you just can’t stop. It makes you articulate too. If you write and write every day you begin to feel that your brain is like a well-preserved machine churning out things that will eventually prove to be of use to someone, somewhere."
Definitely a 5 star read.
Bessie Head’s writing really resonates with me. Since I learned a bit about Head’s own sad but inspiring life, it’s been almost impossible for me to read any of her work without thinking of how her own experiences informed her writing by changing how she viewed the world. As painful as it was for her to be an outsider, it also gave her freedom as she was often able to see what others couldn’t, and she could afford to be more honest, after all, what did she have to lose if she didn’t pledge allegiance to any group? Born during apartheid of an illegal union between a white woman and a black man, much of Head’s life was clearly about coming to terms with unbelonging, and one of the ways she did this was by ridiculing the system that deemed her an illegal person. Along with Mariama Ba, Nawal El Saadawi, and Buchi Emecheta, Head is one of the African woman writers who I feel did a lot to look closely at and critique the systems they were a part of. Like the other women mentioned, she was a keen observer of her society, and was able to point out the hypocrisies and highlight the stories that others ignore or gloss over.
This is a book of short stories, the titular one, The Cardinals, being a novella of 120 pages. It’s the one that impressed me the most, although the shorter stories at the end of the book were also really good. The Cardinals is about Miriam, later nicknamed Mouse, a young woman of uncertain paternity who is described by Johnny, the male protagonist, as having been born in a dung heap. The story calls to mind the many people who are born in environments that don’t nurture them, but somehow are able to make some sort of life for themselves and utilize their gifts. Mouse escapes from a shanty town near Cape Town and starts working for a trashy South African tabloid. Head uses her work as a reporter to illustrate the absurdities of the Immorality Rule wherein the races were not allowed to mix and have sexual relations.
The relationship that develops between Mouse and Johnny is quite unnerving. There’s a connection between them that others can’t explain, because “Mouse is only a woman and a rather dull, drab and colourless one at that…No man in his right mind would look twice at her.” With Johnny being considerably older and definitely more worldly, there’s also a power dynamic and plenty of antagonism. We see Johnny as a mentor to Mouse’s writing and Head uses him to share some of her own succinct views of life, love, and writing.
"You come from the same environment that I do and there are things that happened that marked me for life. I just cannot obliterate the scars."
"In writing, as in every other aspect of my life, I observe no rules or style. Just the thought of having to follow a set of rules or wedging myself into a style is enough to make my hair stand on end. Style must conform to me—my every mood, whim or fantasy.”
"The funny thing about writing is that it makes you start thinking. Once you’ve started the process, you just can’t stop. It makes you articulate too. If you write and write every day you begin to feel that your brain is like a well-preserved machine churning out things that will eventually prove to be of use to someone, somewhere."
Definitely a 5 star read.
October 21, 2013
Gradually Bessie Head is becoming my most read author. It all started after the Writers Project of Ghana held its twitter discussion on her book A Question of Power. I had earlier read the book (and two others: A Woman Alone and Maru), even before it was chosen and had had it reviewed on this blog. However, the discussion got me thinking about that woman, her beautiful spirit, her audacious writings, and her sense of humour even in the midst of dire adversity. Thus, I picked three of her books, including Tales of Tenderness and Power and When Rain Clouds Gather.
The Cardinals with Meditations and Short Stories (1993; 141) contains a novella and seven short stories and meditations. It is a story about the effects of racial discrimination and how it breaks down families and flings their members about to the ways of the storms of life. In The Cardinals, set in South Africa, not only are the lives of the natives battered by poverty and destroyed by lack, politics, and racial discrimination and abuse, but even within the blacks there is a class system.
continue from here http://freduagyeman.blogspot.com/2013...
The Cardinals with Meditations and Short Stories (1993; 141) contains a novella and seven short stories and meditations. It is a story about the effects of racial discrimination and how it breaks down families and flings their members about to the ways of the storms of life. In The Cardinals, set in South Africa, not only are the lives of the natives battered by poverty and destroyed by lack, politics, and racial discrimination and abuse, but even within the blacks there is a class system.
continue from here http://freduagyeman.blogspot.com/2013...
December 11, 2015
A moving story set in apartheid South Africa. Mouse, a young shy woman who never knew her real parents and does not know how to love and be loved is pursued by her colleague journalist, Johnny. Johnny has had several amorous affairs but falls in love with Mouse and proceeds to teach her to love him through brutal methods. With several references to South Africa's laws against interracial relationships, these two, though both black, are committing a bigger taboo though they'll never know.
The Cardinals was published posthumously. It's my fourth Bessie Head book but the first time I've read her work before her exile in Botswana. Her writing is powerful. Her narration, brilliant. She writes biting political critique and social commentary. And through her character Johnny she subverts the system and its rules through words and deed. One is left to wonder how far Bessie would've gone with her writing against apartheid if she had stayed in South Africa.
The book also includes a few short stories. Altogether, I think this is now my favourite Bessie book.
The Cardinals was published posthumously. It's my fourth Bessie Head book but the first time I've read her work before her exile in Botswana. Her writing is powerful. Her narration, brilliant. She writes biting political critique and social commentary. And through her character Johnny she subverts the system and its rules through words and deed. One is left to wonder how far Bessie would've gone with her writing against apartheid if she had stayed in South Africa.
The book also includes a few short stories. Altogether, I think this is now my favourite Bessie book.
December 2, 2016
Leider wurde ich mit Sternenwende so gar nicht warm. Die Gefühlswelt der Protagonisten war mir unverständlich, der Klappentext nahm zuviel von der Handlung vorweg und wenn ich im Nachwort dieser Ausgabe lese, dass es sich bei der Beziehung von Johnny und Mouse um Bessie Heads Idealvorstellung der Liebe und gleichberechtigten Partnerschaft handelt, frage ich mich, was ich überlesen habe ...
Für mich war Johnny ein Mann, der zwar eine intellektuell ebenbürtige Frau will, diese sich aber bitteschön unterzuordnen weiß und tun soll, was der Pascha sagt, wenn ihm danach ist. Das ging gar nicht und es war stellenweise echt schwierig, das Buch nicht einfach wegzulegen. Dass die vom Klappentext suggerierte Pointe auch nie offiziell aufgelöst wurde in der Handlung - nun ja, das hat mir auf der letzten Seite dann den Rest gegeben ...
Für mich war Johnny ein Mann, der zwar eine intellektuell ebenbürtige Frau will, diese sich aber bitteschön unterzuordnen weiß und tun soll, was der Pascha sagt, wenn ihm danach ist. Das ging gar nicht und es war stellenweise echt schwierig, das Buch nicht einfach wegzulegen. Dass die vom Klappentext suggerierte Pointe auch nie offiziell aufgelöst wurde in der Handlung - nun ja, das hat mir auf der letzten Seite dann den Rest gegeben ...
June 10, 2024
Frustrating at best. I understand Head’s intention of writing and rewriting the self but it feels overly ambitious. Mouse’s determination to conquer masculine spaces and subvert the docile female apartheid stereotype is constantly interrupted and overshadowed by her submission to Johnny who represents both the law and the father. Overall an easy read and intriguing in terms of its critique of apartheid and the Immorality Act, but blurring the line between fiction and autobiography distracts from the reading experience.
May 17, 2018
I desperately wanted to like this book as it is my first reading of Bessie Head, and I've had so many good experiences from the African Writers Series. But I didn't!
The main character is sold by her affluent mother at birth to a childless couple who live in an inner city slum. We witness her childhood (which is the most interesting part of the book as we see how she begins to learn how to read and write), and her eventual employment by a local newspaper.
This is where my interest waned. I found her love interest annoying and I was unconvinced by their attraction to each other. I also found the dialogue jilted.
The main themes of the book are the immorality act of 1957 in South Africa which prohibited "immoral or indecent acts" (sexual contact) between whites and people of colour, and incest (incest is the second theme not also covered by the act!) I think Head was trying to make a statement about how you can't prohibit love/sex between consenting adults. But honestly, I'm having trouble joining the two together, despite reading as much about the book as I can.
We also see how black women under apartheid/colonialism suffer a double yoke of oppression - both due to their ethnicity and gender. Getting a lot of intersectional feminism vibes from the novella.
The main character is sold by her affluent mother at birth to a childless couple who live in an inner city slum. We witness her childhood (which is the most interesting part of the book as we see how she begins to learn how to read and write), and her eventual employment by a local newspaper.
This is where my interest waned. I found her love interest annoying and I was unconvinced by their attraction to each other. I also found the dialogue jilted.
The main themes of the book are the immorality act of 1957 in South Africa which prohibited "immoral or indecent acts" (sexual contact) between whites and people of colour, and incest (incest is the second theme not also covered by the act!) I think Head was trying to make a statement about how you can't prohibit love/sex between consenting adults. But honestly, I'm having trouble joining the two together, despite reading as much about the book as I can.
We also see how black women under apartheid/colonialism suffer a double yoke of oppression - both due to their ethnicity and gender. Getting a lot of intersectional feminism vibes from the novella.
July 10, 2021
This is the second book of Bessie Head I have successfully read. (I’m still putting off A Question of Power). This book is collection of 8 stories/meditations. The short story, The Cardinals, forms about 80% of the entire book, and in this story, love grows between a woman nicknamed Mouse and Johnny. The former, timid and withdrawn into self - merely even existing. The latter, rough, careless, and taking what he can out of life. The two have a (weird) connection, aside from the fact that they are both writers and work for the same newspaper, African Beat. As the story develops, we catch a glimpse into the past. Woven in Mouse’s & Johnny's story, is another of Ruby (Mouse's unknown mother) and Johnny. However, they are both unaware of this complication of incestuous love. The Cardinals also has themes of racism, laws against interracial sexual contact, and I found myself increasingly offended by the (potential) rapist behavior of Mouse’s work colleagues & their newsroom sexism.
As with Maru, I did enjoy this book and appreciated the introduction in the book which gave more insight into the author, her struggles and motivation behind her writing.
As with Maru, I did enjoy this book and appreciated the introduction in the book which gave more insight into the author, her struggles and motivation behind her writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 15, 2022
3.75/5
I didn’t enjoy this as much as I enjoyed Maru but how much perfection can we expect from 1 woman, really. Bessie Head writes this “woman breaking out of the shell of her intensely consuming inner life by the force of creative expression and/or problematic romantic love” trope so uniquely and that’s why i keep coming back
I didn’t enjoy this as much as I enjoyed Maru but how much perfection can we expect from 1 woman, really. Bessie Head writes this “woman breaking out of the shell of her intensely consuming inner life by the force of creative expression and/or problematic romantic love” trope so uniquely and that’s why i keep coming back
June 25, 2024
The Cardinals by Bessie Head
It is a story about the effects of racial discrimination, and how a young Lady, Mouse lacks love and family but with the help of a newspaper job her eyes are opened to the concepts of real life.
Was a slow read for me but I Loved it.
It is a story about the effects of racial discrimination, and how a young Lady, Mouse lacks love and family but with the help of a newspaper job her eyes are opened to the concepts of real life.
Was a slow read for me but I Loved it.
July 12, 2017
Los relatos cortos se hacen un tanto confusos, no he conseguido leer ninguno al completo. En cuanto a "The Cardinals", aunque es medianamente interesante, la historia termina estancándose un tanto.
July 27, 2018
Though small, this book is one that needs to be read carefully in order to be digested fully.
October 15, 2019
My heart was literally beating as I was reading this. Not from fear but from suspense and how I couldn't believe what I was reading. This novel is an enigma. Worth a read.
March 26, 2022
Bessie Head is an amazing writer, I can’t believe I have only just discovered her work. This text is uncomfortable at points but a quick read.
Not a fan of Johnny in any capacity.
Not a fan of Johnny in any capacity.
January 1, 2023
Also did not love this Head story. Was complex though and more challenging to think through at least!
June 13, 2024
Beautiful written. Loved it.
January 5, 2022
Bessie Head understanding of love from the male perspective is quite insightful. Her grasps of its complexity is equally amazing.
March 31, 2008
Bessie Head’s The Cardinals explores how love—when laced with inventions of race, nation, and family—constructs a fragmented self that cannot function in apartheid South Africa. As a colored woman, Mouse, a character that is named only by others, is marked by multiple displacements: she is unable to place herself spatially, nationally, racially or genealogically. However, when she finds love, one that mutates into sex and hints at incest, her dispossession within South Africa is complete. But it is the possibility of a transcendental love affair that dismantle the inherent binaries constructed within nation, family and race. While the book is short, it produces great insight into the complications of love in fragmented South Africa
This was my introduction to postcolonial fiction, and I loved it.
This was my introduction to postcolonial fiction, and I loved it.
February 17, 2016
A dark novella about a younger woman journalist and her affair with a powerful, masculine co-worker. There is such a fire emitting from the female protagonist that confuses all the hierarchies in the book. Would love to reread. 9
September 13, 2014
loved it honestly
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews