looking for a rain god summary bbs 2nd year

This story shows the conflict between the ancient ritual and the contemporary code of conduct in South African people. In ancient times, human sacrifice was universal characteristics of many rituals. The old man's family, in this story, also followed ancient ritual but he became a victim of modern law. Of course human sacrifice should not be allowed but he was sacrificed by the modern law. The incident of this story also shows that people do not think about what is right or wrong when they face the question of survival.

summary of 'looking for a rain god'

The land where people went to plough was lonely and it was surrounded by the forest and the bush. But the land was at the walking distance from their village. There was no source of water on the land and the farmers depended on the rainfall to plant or grow their crops. From 1958, a seven year drought fell upon the land of the African country, Botswana. The wells went dry and even the leaves of the tree curled up and withered. The ground turned powdery and the sun burned their skin. No one knew what to do to escape the draught and the heat. Some people also committed suicide hanging on the trees. In such days, only the incanters and witch doctors made a pile of money in the superstitious societies.

After seven years, some rainfall appeared in November and it was very little and scanty. But the villagers became very hopeful and they came to the center of their village to hear the proclamation of the beginning of the ploughing season. Many families were ready to go to plough their lands.

An old man over seventy, Mokgobja and his family also left their village for their land. They had a donkey cart to carry their belongings. He had a middle aged son, Ramadi, his unmarried sister, his wife, Tiro, and their two little daughters Neo and Boseyong. All of them had gone to the lonely lands in the hope of sowing crops. Ramadi began to plough the land, but the rain flew away again. The rain clouds fled away and left the clear sky. The two little girls knew nothing except to play making small dolls out of the old cloths and shouting at them like their mother did to them.

As the drought lingered, they again became hopeless and they waited and waited for the rainfall. They knew that nothing was more important than the rainfall. They thought that all of them would die in starvation. The two women who were so worried in the drought that they began to let out a frantic cry and wailing each night and they would stamp their feet and shout as if they had lost their heads. The men sat quiet and self-controlled. But as the women continued wailing every night, the old man, Mokgobja began to talk to his son Ramadi. He said that there was an ancient ritual to call the rain god. And the rain god would accept only the sacrifice of the children. Then the rain would fall and the crops would grow. Old man and his son talked about it a lot and finally, they decided to do it. The two little girls, Neo and Boseyong knew nothing except playing. The innocent girls were sacrificed for the rain god.

After it was all over, the bodies of the little girls were spread across the land but the rain did not fall. The whole family was overwhelmed in terror and shock. Finally, they packed their things and came back to their village. The people in the village noticed the absence of the two little girls. They replied that the girls simply died in the land. Soon police came and they replied in the same way. When the police wanted to see their graves, their mother broke down and told everything. The old man and his son, Ramadi were given death penalty for the ritual murder. The villagers, who had witnessed all this, felt that they were also saved from the same fate by a hair's breadth. They could have sacrificed anything to make the rain fall. In this way, this story shows the effect of ancient ritual for making the rain fall.