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Indulging In Mpsimangu Speech

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Voice has power. One’s voice can be an agent of change when coupled with two other essential components: golden words and a golden a heart. The power of voice can heal the deepest emotional wounds to help people recover from despair. As Kumalo listens to Msimangu speak to the blind at Ezenzeleni, Kumalo thinks to himself, “And how fools listen to him, silent, enrapt, sighing when he is done, feeding their empty bellies on his empty words” (Paton 124). Despite the fact that Msimangu’s spiritual words promise everlasting bliss only in the afterlife, his speech resonates with his religious audience, inspiring them to continue to persevere against the adversity of their daily lives. By indulging in Msimangu’s words, his followers are able to relinquish their mental burdens even though no solutions are being presented for their immediate problems. Words also have the ability to thaw the icy wall of tension existing between two parties. James Jarvis’s …show more content…

When Kumalo talks to Arthur’s son, he says, “When you go, something bright will go out of Ndotsheni” (282). The brightness inside the young boy refers to his potential. He is curious, precocious, and understanding, yet he is only a child. By not naming the child, Alan Paton obscures the child’s identity, which suggests that anybody could be the bright child that Arthur’s son is. During Kumalo’s vigil at the summit of the Emoyeni mountain, he says, “Ndotsheni is still in darkness, but the light will come there also. For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing” (312). Paton claims that although change is not instantaneous, it is bound to occur and is simply a matter of time. Therefore, when readers experience injustice, they are encouraged to voice their indignation to improve the circumstances because while their voices may fall on deaf ears for a while, they cannot be ignored

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