The Madonna of Excelsior

Zakes Mda explores the history of a mixed race family in small town South Africa. The Madonna of Excelsior fictionalizes the events in Excelsior, Free State, in 1971, when 19 citizens were charged with breaking the Immorality Act that forbade sex between white and black citizens. Rather than the big city, the stage is the small town. In this urban location, characters are very familiar with each other, although often they refuse to recognize each other. The characters are subject to many social constraints. Significant emphasis is placed on how social boundaries are constructed, with racial discrimination as a primary source that influences (and possibility determines) outcomes. At the same time, the natural world is never far away, as the author follows his characters through their lives. Many of the rich and poor in this small town make their living or scratch their livelihoods from the land.

Niki is the heroine of this story, and we follow her through events characterized by both racial and sexual exploitation. The author explores how human relations resulting from apartheid were distorted by unequal power relations and by specific abuses. Unjust events set off a sequence of tragic action. Political forces can intervene in the minutiae of people’s lives. And, at the same time, the author recounts how people themselves make up those very forces. The story recounts the consequences for black and white of the prosecutions under the Immorality Act.

As the story progresses, the black son of the heroine is fighting in the African resistance. Niki has to manage the emotions she feels for her own children, one black and one mixed race, and for the white boy that she used to care for as a baby, who is now fighting in Namibia against those seeking independence and majority rule.

The Madonna of Excelsior becomes a history of personal liberation at a time of transition for Niki and her family. The author describes how the characters struggle with the changes taking place in their lives. While one of the chapter headings argues “Everyone is a hero at one time and a villain at another time,” this reflects a lightness of touch rather than a misplaced sense of social justice. The story moves on to the role played by the newly elected councillors, including a son and daughter of our heroine, to illustrate the dilemmas faced by the newly powerful in a newly democratized state.

The story touches on issues of equity in development, as squatters occupy part of the land on the edge of the town. How should the protectors of the newly liberated poor respond? Is it an infringement of orderly development or a people’s right to take the initiative into their own hands? While the council debates, a populist politician seizes the opportunity. Through such events, the author offers his own perspective on present dilemmas facing South Africa, which is one of profound optimism. New kinds of relationships emerge that offer the possibility of overcoming the damage of the past. The transition is primarily understood through personal change rather than political transformation. And, as the point of transition passes, so the characters move on with their lives. In this small town, the main characters find a way of acknowledging their bonds with one another, even if they cannot wholly accept each other.