Out of Bounds

Set against the backdrop of South African apartheid between 1948 and 1994, each story of exiled South African author Beverley Naidoo’s collection, Out of Bounds: Stories of Conflict and Hope (2001), explores how the political climate affects various children throughout the country. Each story focuses on a specific decade, starting in the late 1940s and ending in the early 2000s. Naidoo, a staunch opponent of apartheid, was imprisoned and later exiled for her resistance to apartheid. Each of the seven protagonists in her stories experiences oppression, racial prejudice, and social injustice.

“The Dare,” which takes place in 1948, begins with Veronica, a young white girl who avoids punishment after stealing a flower from the property of her white neighbor. The story then shifts to follow a young Black girl who is dared by her friend to trespass on the same white man’s property and do as Veronica did. The girl agrees, but while she is on the white man’s property, she witnesses her own brother being brutally beaten by the white landowner for speaking out of turn. Despite the landworkers pleading for the landowner to stop beating a kid, he persists. The story demonstrates how different rules apply to different people based solely on the color of their skin.

“The Noose” takes place in 1955. Due to a new rule in South Africa, all non-white men are required to declare which race they belong to and receive an official certificate to prove so. As a result, segregation becomes the law. Whites, Africans, and all dark-skinned people are forbidden to live and interact with one another. The story is seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, who witnesses how segregation grabs his family “fully by the throat.” The boy’s mixed-race father is mistakenly certified as a Black man, negatively affecting all aspects of his life, including his ability to work. The story details the formation of South African segregation laws such as the Population Registration Act and the Group Areas Act.

Set in the 1960s, “One Day, Lily, One Day” follows an 11-year-old Lily, a white girl whose liberal parents taught her to believe that white people and Black people are equal. Janey, a Black girl lives with Lily’s family, along with a Black man the family refers to as Uncle Max. However, Lily’s viewpoint is challenged when she befriends another white girl, Caroline, whose parents feel the exact opposite of Lily’s parents. Caroline’s parents do not think Black people deserve the same rights as white people. When Lily’s father is arrested for fighting with the resistance against apartheid and twice listed as a communist, all Lily wants is freedom for everyone. The story highlights the formation of the Suppression of Communism Act and the Abolition of Passes Act.

“The Typewriter” takes place in the 1970s in an era when typewriters are illegal. A little girl named Nandi is asked to do a favor by retrieving a typewriter from her grandmother’s house. However, when Nandi goes to her grandmother’s house, she witnesses her grandmother attempting to hide the typewriter in her neighbor’s garage. When Nandi’s grandmother is caught in the act, she is arrested. Nandi is forced to run away.

“The Gun” is set in the 1980s. A young Black boy, Esi, and his father work on a reserve protecting animals from poachers and other perils. However, due to their skin color, neither is permitted to use a firearm on the job. Instead, when a threat is detected, their job is to warn the owner and let him handle it. When the landowner goes away, the reserve is tended to by a neighboring overseer. However, the overseer is much crueler to Esi and his father than the landowner. Later, the overseer gets hurt while trying to protect the animals. Esi refuses to help him, instead taking his gun and leaving the overseer to die. The tale demonstrates the “Underground War” fought by the racially oppressed victims of apartheid in South Africa during the 1980s.

“The Playground” takes place in the 1990s. As schools begin to desegregate, some children resent attending school with students of different skin colors. Rosa, a little Black girl, is placed in an all-white class. At recess, another student fibs, telling Rosa that the principal wants to see her. Rosa follows the student, who leads her to a secluded area where some angry kids had planned to beat her up. Fortunately, a friend of Rosa’s interrupts before the beating takes place, bringing Rosa to the playground. As Nelson Mandela is elected in free democratic elections and apartheid nears its end, the story shows the importance of ending the Bantu Education Act, which legislated that Black people should receive a lesser education.

Following a devastating flood, “Out of Bounds,” which takes place in the 2000s, follows a young rich boy who decides to help a young poor boy by delivering water to his pregnant mother. In spite of the young squatter living in harsh poverty right next to the rich boy’s home, the poignant story illustrates how civil South Africa has become across social, racial, and class barriers since the 1940s.

Beverley Naidoo was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was raised under apartheid laws that granted privilege to white children over Black children. At 21 years old, Naidoo was arrested for resisting these laws. In 1965, Naidoo moved to England, where she met and married a fellow South African exile. Apartheid has remained an important theme throughout her work, including her 1985 debut, Journey to Jo’Burg.