Philida

Authors: Andre Brink

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“Before that day, whatever happened between Philida and me, concerned nobody but the two of us. If anybody else knew about it, that made no difference, it was not their business. To stand there with all the others looking on while those two boys took turns with Philida, the way she lay there exposed like a lamb brought to slaughter, that was unbearable. In the kitchen, when she had her bath in the barrel, or in Ouma Petronella’s room, or down in the bamboo copse, she was always mine only. Now we... were a spectacle for all their eyes. And then the stories started, Ma and Pa’s stories about Maria Magdalena Berrangé, about what was acceptable and what wasn’t; it made me sick. There was nothing left that was only ours any more.
And the last straw came the day Philida went off, with the child on her back, to lay her complaint, to make it known to the whole world that I’d promised to set her free. It was like something snatched away from me and dragged through the mud and shit of the pigsty where that old sow wallowed all day.MoreLess Read More Read Less