Maru

“The man who slowly walked away from them was a king in their society. A day had come when he had decided that he did not need any kinship other than the kind of wife everybody would loathe from the bottom of their hearts. He had planned for that loathing in secret; they had absorbed the shocks in secret. When everything was exposed, they had only one alternative: to keep their prejudice and pretend Maru had died.” 

The prejudice referred to in this quotation refers to Maru’s wife. She is a Masarwa, the lowest form of human life known to his people. In the village of Dilepe, the Masarwa are slaves, not the wife of a king. In marrying a Masarwa woman, Maru loses much of his social position.

“There had never been a time in his life when he had not thought a thought and felt it immediately bound to the deep center of the earth, then bound back to his heart again—with a reply. Previously, the stillness with which he held himself together to hear the reply had always been disrupted by people. People were horrible to him because they imagined that their thoughts and deeds were concealed when he could see and hear everything, even their bloodstreams and the beating of their hearts. If they knew all that he knew, would they not have torn him to shreds some time ago, to keep the world the way it was when secrets and evil had the same names?” 

Maru contemplates his inner knowing concerning human nature, and his deliberate choice to violate one of the most extreme prejudices in his society by marrying a Masarwa woman. He hopes that the example of his life—in which he was to be a paramount chief, or king—will alter this prejudice, but he admits that he does not know how things will turn out: he has only the hope of his behavior influencing such radical social change.

“At least, the present was simple. But there was a depth of secret activity in him like that in his mind like that long, low line of black, boiling cloud. There was a clear blue sky in his mind that calmly awaited the storm in this heart that calmly as the storm in his and when all had been said and done, this earth would be washed clean of all the things he hated. He slowly continues his walk home, his gaze turned toads the horizon. It was very beautiful.” 

Maru’s ego and his supremacy of position have lent him the authority to act as he wishes. He does not seek approval for the decisions he makes, nor does he take notice of the approbation or condemnation that follows his actions. Frequently, Head describes Maru’s emotions and state of mind through metaphors: here, the very weather mirrors the emotional struggle within him.