“Senses of Silence”: Historical Trauma in To Every Birth Its Blood

Abstract

SummaryThe critical reception of Mongane Serote's To Every Birth Its Blood (1981) has over the years been muted and unbalanced in appreciating the novel as a work of great depth. In this article I argue that a significant aspect that has been overlooked in the study of To Every Birth Its Blood is the presence of historical trauma in the novel and how it in turn shapes the novel's textuality. Through a rereading of the text, I argue that only in understanding the significance of memory and historical trauma might one arrive at a truer reflection on the novel. This intertwinement revolves around the manner in which oppressive laws have rendered South Africa (un)homely for the black population, expressing a sense of dislocation and alienation and a lack of self-worth in the novel's key characters, which change as a new mood and dynamic overwhelm the forlorn atmosphere of the early section to a point at which resistance is posited as the only alternative. Crucially, I will demonstrate that rather than being a novel of disjuncture, the novel is part of a continual process of Serote's project of rendering visible the horrors of apartheid.