The Present Moment by Marjorie Macgoye

The Present Moment

Marjorie Macgoye

A gentle story, told in a matter of fact way, which carefully but deftly draws you in. Women's memories create a jungle of images - all which tell the story of how their lives were influenced by world events.

Extract
'You can think and still watch.'
'Nobody wanted to be watched in the forest,' put in Wairimu. 'Quiet you had to be, deadly quiet, or else you were a dead man.'
'Can't we leave it alone?' asked Priscilla. 'The Emergency finished twenty years and more ago. We are free now. Let us not keep chewing over it.'
'Some of us had losses,' insisted Mama Chungu. 'You may not like to be made to remember it, but it's true. We cannot get away from it.'

Indeed we cannot get away from it, thought Priscilla. But we can try to keep it in the past instead of living haunted with the images of blood and iron.

Parallels
  • A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe
  • Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton