Feud

Wechuli, a party activist and farmer at rural grassroots, has been cheating on his wife for longer than he can remember. She catches him with a schoolgirl one evening and attacks her, but she escapes. A tense domestic conflict follows. It gets to be so bad that Marcella's personality seems to change, and neighbours get concerned. The schoolgirl in question and her cohort of friends, however, feel that the woman is being much too fussy for no real reason. Infidelity is common in the area, especially among the local rich and political operators. Wechuli is unable to calm down his wife, and lets the problem to solve itself, somehow, in the long run. It does seem to since the domestic life goes on, they bring up and educate their children, make excellent social connections and are fairly well-off and successful to all appearances. Marcellla eventually adds church work to her teaching career and starts to experiment with infidelity herself. This does not satisfy her, and she starts out as an activist also. It is here that she matches her husband well, and she defines values in a new way, in this way becoming a new individual who rises high in social standing, higher than her husband, perhaps; becoming a beacon. Her bitterness relents. Meanwhile the young girls too come to grips with issues of growing up and finding their own bearings, a life-time task which each, and their boys with them, do in unique and startling ways. They find feuds of all sorts in their society, some of which can be resolved, but most of which they will learn to live with.