When Rain Clouds Gather

This chapter open with an overview of life in Dinorego’s village, Golema Mmidi, which is populated by roughly four hundred people and has an economy based on cattle ranching and subsistence agriculture. This rather small village is overseen by Chief Matenge, the younger brother of the chief who rules the entire region, Paramount Chief Sekoto. Although these two brothers are often at odds, the easygoing and canny Sekoto often gets the upper hand over the pretentious, quarrelsome Matenge. In fact, he sent Matenge to Golema Mmidi, a minor village, as a form of punishment, and has recently made his brother’s life even harder by sending a young British reformer, Gilbert Balfour, to transform Golema Mmidi’s agriculture.

Dinorego explains all this to Makhaya as they make their way to Dinorego’s residence. The old man is convinced that the people of Botswana want to make practical improvements in their lives, but sees leaders such as Matenge, who is constantly at odds with Gilbert, as obstacles to improvement. Gilbert, for his part, has proven to be a man of remarkable tolerance and vigor; he has even won over the older residents with new methods for organizing the cattle industry and raising chickens. Makhaya feels optimistic about his newly adopted country.

After he arrives at Dinorego’s quarters, Makhaya meets Dinorego’s daughter Maria, an intense and active young woman who has befriended Gilbert. Soon, Gilbert himself appears; he is a gigantic, good natured man who takes to Makhaya (or “Mack,” as he calls him) in short order. Gilbert and Makhaya eat together, and Gilbert explains that Botswana is ripe with potential for development and that he, too, is running away from his country of origin—in this case, from a suffocating life in England. He has been in the country for three years, has struck up a quiet romance with Maria, and has lived through drought conditions that he feels could lead to a crisis. Gilbert asks for Makhaya’s help in his work improving the country; Makhaya readily offers his aid.

Having found a willing collaborator in Makhaya, Gilbert is eager to begin sharing his extensive knowledge of Botswana’s topography and plant life. One of Gilbert’s major initiatives involves fencing off orderly plots to keep the cattle from over-grazing and thus depleting the land. This innovation was something of a break with tribal customs but deeply impressed the older men, including Dinorego, who saw the good results of Gilbert’s land management. Yet the opposition of Matenge has been a considerable source of strain, even for the vigorous young man. Gilbert has also tried to publicize some of his discoveries (such as the revelation that Botswana is well-suited to growing millet as a cash crop) but has been frustrated by the indifference of the country’s colonial authorities.

In order to speed his projects along, Gilbert has decided to instruct the women of the village in better agricultural practices, since the men are often away tending cattle. Matenge, in the meantime, has been losing sleep over Gilbert’s apparent successes. Unlike his canny and adaptable brother Sekoto, Matenge is committed to the old ways and the old privileges of a tribal society and sees Gilbert as a supreme threat to his authority. The subordinate chief has also made an unsavory ally, a political agitator named Joas Tsepe. It is Tsepe who alerts Matenge to Makhaya’s arrival, an event that Tsepe thinks may be Gilbert’s undoing. Gilbert, after all, is now guilty of harboring a political refuge, a step that typically earns the disapproval of Botswana’s new government. Equipped with this news, Matenge sets off to see his brother.