Setting

Time and physical setting

The short story “We gotta number there” by Rayda Jacobs was published in 2012, but the time setting presents events taking place over a period of several months in the 1990s, probably around the year 1994, when the African National Congress became the ruling party and when the Reconstruction and Development Program was initiated. Jonas Mbulu explains that he was not able to get another job after 1993: “Jonas had worked as a chauffeur and gardener for an American businessman when the company, succumbing to political pressure in 1993, closed its doors in South Africa and Jonas was let go.” (ll. 45-48)

The physical setting is represented by the Cooks’ house and the Imizamo Yethu village, which the Cooks call “the squatter camp” (l. 88). Both places influence the main characters and are symbolic of their social situations. The Cooks’ house, for instance, is a direct symbol of their wealth and financial status. As white South Africans, the Cooks have benefited from apartheid, which translates through a good financial status and ownership of possessions otherwise denied to the blacks. The house is also protected by “iron gates” (ll. 1-2), which symbolize the distance between white South Africans and black South Africans. The house was probably built during apartheid, and the iron gates could have been made to keep black South Africans out. This is most likely why Richard is initially...