Plot Summary And Main Themes In The Gunny Sack By M.G. Vassanji
We only have access to the past today through its traces-its documents, testimony of witnesses and other archival materials. In other words, we only have representation of the past from which to construct our narratives or explanations. – Hutcheon
The Gunny Sack (1989), Vassanji's first novel, recreates the history of an Indian trading community in Africa. It brings out in vivid terms the currents and cross-currents of racial discrimination and hatred, cultural dichotomies, identity crisis and the stereotypical, culture-specific modes of behaviour. The story, put in a historical perspective ranging from colonial days to post-colonial era, brings to the fore the trauma, the agony and the disillusionment of the dislocated people. The travails of living in the shadow of colonialism and neo-colonialism unfold as the narrator walks down the memory lane, picking up threads of his past, mostly in a linear mode.
The narrator-protagonist Huseni Salim Juma (nicknamed Kala) is born and brought up in Africa, has his roots in India and finally comes to Canada. An old gunny sack which he gets as a kind of gift and a repository of his past from his great grandmother Ji Bai prompts him to explore the past in an apparent attempt to comprehend his present state of exile in an alien land. Throughout his narrative, he shows an uncanny ability to connect the past with the present, creating a discourse through memory, in which history and myth, and fact and fiction mingle quite effortlessly. Images from his school days, particularly the memory of his adolescent infatuation with his teacher Miss Penny nee Mrs. Gaunt, overwhelm the narrator. Miss Penny's exhortation: "Begin at the beginning" takes him back to the remote past of his ancestry. He traces his origin to the Shamsi community in India. He recalls how the Shamsis are dislocated as a result of drought and religious infightings. Some of them move to Africa in a bid to better their economic prospects, among whom is his great grandfather Dhanji Govindji. One day he comes to Zanzibar, and works for some time as a clerk in the village Matamu where he becomes the elderman (the Mukhi) of his community in course of time. His casual alliance with a black native slave Bibi Taratibu results in the birth of a son named Huseni. It upsets the religious feelings of his own community, and he is asked to marry a girl of his own community and faith. He marries the daughter of a widow, Fatima. The keep, Bibi Taratibu, leaving behind her son, shifts to the other end of the village and runs a tea-stall to eke out her living for some time before her final disappearance. Fatima gives birth to a male child to be named Gulam. When the sons grow up, they are married, Huseni to Moti and Gulam to Ji Bai. Dhanji's family acquires riches, respect and influence. Matamu and much of the coastal area, it is to be noted, is under the German rule at the time Dhanji's family is flourishing. The natives who are suppressed and exploited harbour deep-seated hatred for the colonisers as well as for Indians/Asians for supporting the alien masters.
The Maji Maji revolt by the Blacks is a natural outcome, but the Germans are able to crush it. Huseni, the half-caste, shows his sympathies for the rebels, hobnobs with them, and continues to meet his African friends and his mother against his family's wishes. When Dhanji raises his objections, Huseni leaves the family, never to return again. His wife Moti gets married to someone else and leaves. Dhanji spends a lot of time, money and energy in search of his lost son, but in vain. One day he is murdered, possibly by one of his own community on the suspicion of misappropriating the community funds lying in trust with him. The village Matamu comes under the threat of attack by the British. The Indians vacate the village and disperse to various directions. Most of them reach Dar-es-Salaam. Then there is a shift in the narrative. The centre of action is now Nairobi where the narrator's father Juma marries Kulsum in the household of Awal, his mother's sister, after the death of his mother Moti. Awal treats Juma harshly, mainly because of his pedigree-going back to Bibi Taratibu. Juma and Kulsum-the narrator's parents-come to live separately and raise their family. The happy days come to an end with the death of the narrator's father. The Mau Mau movement, a rebellion against the British by the Black natives, greatly affects the lives of the Indian diaspora. The Indians find themselves in an awkward position, sandwiched between the Whites and the Blacks. The relationship between the Indians and the natives under the circumstances is beset with mutual suspicion and hostility. The British rulers show a condescending attitude towards the Asians in order to get their support in ruling the Black natives.
The Mau Mau Movement is dealt with severely, resulting in violent incidents, cases of rape and loot. After the death of the narrator's father, his family moves to Dar-es-Salaam where his mother runs a tailoring shop, and rears and educates her children. The area in which they live is mainly inhabited by the Indian families who run their own shops and stores. The Indian families continue to observe their customs, traditions and rituals pertaining to their different faiths. The narrator recalls his childhood days, his mischiefs and his relationship with Begum, his domineering sister, and his brother Jamaal. Ji Bai and her husband Gulam-now a missionary-come to Dar-es-Salaam. Ji Bai, now an old woman, is kind and considerate and wants to revive old ties with Kulsum and her family, but Kulsum relentlessly avoids Ji Bai for a long time. However, Ji Bai is able to revive the relationship to some extent when she cures Sona of his mysterious fever by her home-remedy. Tanganyika (now Tanzania) gets independence under the leadership of Julius Nyerere. The new rulers at once start the decolonization process.
The Indians/Asians now find themselves at the receiving end. They face the onslaughts of racial discrimination, open hostility and even violence. Laws are passed to deprive them of their properties. In Uganda, they are asked to quit. Radical African leaders demand integration of the Indian diaspora through inter-racial marriages. These moves start a second-generation migration to Canada, the U. S. A. and other countries. Those who decide to stay back have to make compromises. Kulsum's family decides to stay where it is, though Kulsum has to undergo many unpleasant experiences of being alien. She has to fight it out with her tailor Omari, a black native, who wants to take possession of her shop. Her well-knit family disintegrates. To the great dismay of Kulsum, her obedient daughter Begum elopes with her White lover, one Mr Harris, to London. Years later, her elder son Sona, too, leaves for America for higher education. Many of her immediate and close neighbours and relatives, too, depart. She has to bear with the changed circumstances. Her younger son Salim Juma has to undergo compulsory national service as part of his education. His camp experience at Uhuru, a remote place in the interior, is significant in two ways. Firstly, it makes him come face to face with the ugly face of racism practised by the Blacks against the Indians/Asians. And it paves a way for his stormy relationship with a native girl called Amina, which changes the course of his life. Amina joins a radical group of revolutionaries after her visit to America. Salim Juma, once her lover and now a married man, fails to resist Amina's charms. Amina and her friends are detained on the charge of anti-national activities. Salim Juma is advised to leave the country to escape possible detention for hobnobbing with Amina. After a swift goodbye to his wife Zuleika and his child-who is deliberately named Amina by him-he escapes to Lisbon, from where he goes to America. He stays in Boston with his brother and then comes to Canada. Ji Bai, after her visit to India, also lands in Canada. She dies, instructing her great grandson Aziz to hand over her old gunny sack in which she has put a number of mementoes of the past to Salim Juma. It becomes increasingly clear that Vassanji sets his story in the background of important historical events in East Africa. He shows that history moves on its course relentlessly, affecting communities and individuals.
The Gunny portrays the history of the dislocated people. In fact, the novel takes up several interrelated issues: the dislocation of the whole groups of people, the identity problems and the agonies of living in uncertain times. The dislocation occurs mainly due to the "pull" or the "push" factor, or both. The search for a greener pasture-the lure of lucre-is the single most important factor behind most of the migration in the world. This is called the "pull" factor. The "push" factor obviously refers to the circumstantial dislocation which occurs when one is pushed by adverse conditions to leave one's country. The uprooted people have to create what Avtar Brah calls a "diaspora space", an intersection of borders where all the identities and subjects become "juxtaposed, contested, proclaimed or disavowed. . . " The dislocation of the Shamsi community in the novel is mainly caused by the "push" factor. Adverse conditions at home force the likes of Dhanji Govindji to migrate to Africa and other countries. This is the first generation migration. Initially, the things are pretty good for most of the migrants. Dhanji's family prospers until it faces another dislocation when the British supplant the Germans. The narrator's family chooses to live in Nairobi, and is able to withstand the pressure of events. Like most Indian families, it defends itself from cultural invasions and onslaughts on identity. It is only in postcolonial days, after African countries get independence, that there is real pressure on the Indian diaspora to change its cultural affiliations, and either assimilate or quit.
Under the prevailing circumstances of oppression, hostility and exploitation, the diasporic communities could have only two choices, accommodation or quitting. Those who have no choice but stay try to adjust themselves to the new conditions. But when stringent laws against the settler communities are passed, their properties are nationalised and legalized efforts are made to force their daughters in wedlocks with the Blacks, many among them make a beeline for developed countries.
