Summary — Chapter 22
Absalom’s trial begins. Europeans sit on one side of the
courtroom and non-Europeans sit on the other. The narrator notes
that in South Africa, the judges are treated with great respect
by all races, but though they are just, they often enforce unjust
laws created by the white people. Absalom’s two accomplices plead
not guilty, but Absalom’s lawyer says that Absalom will plead guilty
only to “culpable homicide” since Absalom did not intend to kill
Arthur Jarvis. The prosecutor denies this petition, however, and
Absalom is forced to enter a plea of not guilty.
The other two defendants—John’s son, Matthew, and a man named
Johannes Pafuri—look sad and shocked while Absalom tells his side
of the story. Absalom says that Johannes planned the robbery after
hearing “a voice” that told him a time and date. After entering
Arthur Jarvis’s house, Absalom says, Johannes confronted Arthur’s
servant and demanded money and clothes. When the servant called
out for his master, Johannes hit him over the head with an iron
bar. Arthur burst in on the robbers, and Absalom fired his gun because
he was frightened. He and his companions ran away. The judge asks
Absalom why he brought the revolver, and Absalom says it was for
his own protection. He also tells the court that Johannes brought
the iron bar and claimed it had been blessed. The judge interrupts
to ask Absalom if his father would bless such a weapon.
Absalom then resumes his narration: after the murder,
he went to Mrs. Mkize’s house, where he met his accomplices, then
buried his revolver in a plantation field. He says that anyone—Mrs.
Mkize, Matthew, or Johannes—who denies this claim is lying. He then
says that he prayed for forgiveness. He spent the following day
wandering around Johannesburg and ended up in a friend’s house in
Germiston. When the police found him there, they questioned him about
Johannes, but Absalom told them that he himself shot Jarvis and
indicated where the gun might be found. He meant to confess earlier,
but he waited too long, and when the police arrived, he realized
that waiting was a mistake. The court adjourns, and outside Kumalo
sees Jarvis. He says nothing, however, because he feels that there
is nothing he can possibly say to him.
Summary — Chapter 23
The trial receives little publicity because the front
pages all carry news that gold has been discovered at Odendaalsrust.
There is excitement at the stock exchange and talk of a “second
Johannesburg” being built. Before the discovery of gold, the land
was wasted, but the engineers’ patience has finally paid off, and
the stock prices are soaring. The English say that it is a shame
that these prodigious feats of engineering should have such ugly
Afrikaans names and that it is a shame that the Afrikaners cannot
see that a bilingual state is a waste of time. In the spirit of
unity, however, they keep their thoughts to themselves.
An anonymous conservative voice takes over the chapter,
noting that some do-gooders want the new profits to go toward subsidizing social
services or higher wages for the miners. This voice notes that it
is a pity that these people, most of whom have no financial standing
to speak of, are so good with words, such as a strange priest named
Father Beresford. The thinking of these people is muddled, the voice
says, and the narrator unjustly accuses the people of Johannesburg
of being greedy when many of the town’s prominent citizens actually
give money to charities and collect art.
Another voice begins, this time one that is more liberal.
It praises the work of Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, who suggests that
the new mines should house whole families in villages rather than
house male workers in crowded compounds. Money is not everything,
the voice says, and the world does not need a second Johannesburg.
