Ndotsheni’s Dry Season

between black and white still occurred in South Africa. Although white people less than black people, they have authority to make law. “The law in Johannesburg is still influenced by a great South African Judge. p. 172” “The judge does not make law. It is people that make the law. Therefore if a law is unjust, and if the judge judges according to the law, that is justice, even if it is not just”. p. 163 ” It is the duty of a judge to do justice, but it is only the people that can be just. Therefore if justice can not be just, that is not to be laid at the door of the judge, but at the door of the people, which means at the door of the people will be more equal but the fact shows the other side. Third social criticism is on politics. Paton describing his criticism through Kumalo’s conflicts with his brother John. John was a carpenter in Ndotsheni but when he came to Johannesburg he became a politician p. 24. John’s positions as politicians makes him proud and feels that he did not need God anymore, it can be seen from his statement below. It criticizes the value that John usually obeys but he did not obey it anymore. “John has become a great politician for South Africa but he has no use for church anymore because he says that what God has not done for South Africa, man must do. p. 25” It seems that he does not believe in God anymore because he does not believe the values that teach by the church. “He paused for a moment, then he said, I do not wish to offend you gentleman, but the church too is like the chief. You must do so and so and so. You are not free to have an experience. A man must be faithful and meek and obedient, and he must obey the laws, whatever the laws may be. It is true that the church speaks with a fine voice, and that the bishops speak against the laws. But this they have been doing for fifty years, and things get worse, not better p. 34.” Politics could change someone’s mind and paradigm, Paton reveals it through John Kumalo which makes Stephen has conflicts with his brother. Kumalo feels sad when he sees the way John speaks about politics. “I Have listened attentively to you, my brother. Much of what you say saddens me. Partly because of the way you say it, and partly because much of it is true p. 36.” Fourth social criticism is on Stephen Kumalo’s conflicts deals with his own village, Ndotsheni. Paton describes the condition in Ndotsheni which makes Kumalo struggle for the restoration of his own land. Kumalo sees many children die because they cannot have milk because the parents are poor. In this conflict, Paton criticizes the economy condition of South African society at that time that is poverty. Because of the dry season which already occurred for many years in Ndotsheni, the village became lacks of water. People cannot plough the land because the land is dry and they have no water to irrigate their farm. Their cattle also become thin because the lack of grass and water. This condition makes them hard to develop their economic life. “If one walked on the grass, it crackled underfoot as it did after a fire, and in the whole valley there was not one stream that was running. Even on the tops the grass was yellow, and neither below nor above was there any ploughing.