Suré Barnard

An encounter can be described as either 'an unexpected or casual meeting' or 'a confrontation or unpleasant clash between hostile factions or persons' or it could be both. It is impossible for a story to unfold without an encounter happening in some way or another, even if it is simply the chance meeting of two people, never mind the deeper connection that will occur. At the beginning of his book, David Medalie states that "every story presents an 'encounter' [...] some are interpersonal, some socio-political [and] some ideological" (1997: x-xi). This essay will look at the 'encounters' that can be seen in Kwashiorkor and The Barren Woman.
Kwashiorkor (2009: 31-43), written by Can Themba, is the story of a baby who has a very serious disease due to a lack of nutrition, which is brought about by the harsh circumstances of her upbringing and a lack of money to buy the necessary foods required by a child. The most important encounter that can be found in the story is when Dave, a journalist and the narrator of the story, meets the child for the first time. In this encounter, the kwashiorkor baby is an encounter with the extreme reality of suffering. It forces Dave to realise that the detachment that he and his sister, Eileen, usually live with does not make the problem go away. The disease is also a symbolic representation of South Africa at the time and the suffering that was going on daily to which people merely turned a blind eye. Dave also comes to this realisation and it forces him to confront the detachment with which he writes and also the effect that this might have on his own life. The 'encounter' in this story forces both the reader and the characters to make an inward inspection in order to confront the harsh reality of the world and how it could possibly affect people.
The Barren Woman (2009: 10-19), written by HIE Dhlomo, is the story of a woman, Mamkazi, who is unable to have children. This story has a double encounter that starts off as innocent and then moves to a much deeper level and the consideration of the possibility of evil. Mamkazi's first encounter is with the fact that she is barren, which is a terrible thing in African culture. Her barrenness is quelled when a miracle happens and she falls pregnant. This causes the first encounter to no longer function as a very important part of her life. The second encounter occurs after her baby is born and she wakes up one night to find that it has been smothered to death in its sleep. Mamkazi then encounters the debilitating feeling of failure and the fact that she now once again does not have a child. This encounter occurs on a much deeper level because it is an encounter with herself and her realisation that she will go to any length in order to have a child. Mamkazi exchanges her own child for that of a woman who had had twins and no one is the wiser. Unfortunately, Mamkazi's actions weigh heavily on her own conscience and it causes her health and relationships with the people in her life to deteriorate.
Therefore, it is possible to reiterate the fact that no story can unfold without some kind of encounter occurring. The encounters that occur to every person on a daily basis is reflected in the fact that authors also base their stories on the various encounters that can occur in a character's 'life' during the span of a story, whether it is a short story or a novel. Encounters are what shape people and characters and cause different consequences to unfold, depending on the choices made with regard to the specific 'encounter'.

Bibliography
Medalie, D. (ed.) 2009. Encounters: An Anthology of South African Short Stories. South Africa: Witwatersrand University Press.