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COFFEE FOR THE ROAD

Alex La Guma

A short story “Coffee for the Road” written by Alex La Guma is interesting

because it has an important theme running through it. It is a story about a mother

and two children who are travelling through South Africa during the apartheid era.

The children are desperate for some coffee. The mother stops at a café in a small

town and takes a flask to be filled with coffee. However, black people were not

allowed into the café; they were meant to get served outside through a hole in the

café wall. The café owner shouts at the mother for coming into the café. In rage, the

mother throws the flask at the woman. Later, she is arrested by police who had set

up a roadblock to find her. The story ends with the mother facing an uncertain fate in

the hands of the police. The main theme running through the story is apartheid: the

story shows an example of this racist system where people were treated unfairly just

for being a different race.

The turning point in the short story really emphasises the theme of racism

in the country. This occurs when the mother stops for coffee at a whites-only café; if

you were black, you had to stand outside to be served. It highlights how black people

were made to feel inferior. The mother refused to obey these rules and went inside

anyway. She got screamed at by the café owner, “Collies, Kaffirs and Hottentots

outside!” The mother snapped because she was sick of being treated horribly just for
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having a different skin colour. She threw the flask at the server and cried with

disgust, “Bloody white trash!” and departed the café. This is an example of how the

apartheid regime really affected black people and is a clear message about what the

story is about.

The ending of the story helps make the theme clear: the mother was

arrested for breaching the peace and assault, when all she had wanted was her flask

to be filled with coffee. She had been so annoyed by the unfairness of the system of

segregation and being made to feel inferior to white people that she had lost her

tempter and would now pay a terrible price. It is unlikely that the mother will be

treated leniently. This shows the theme of racism under the apartheid system: black

people were treated badly, and not given justice if they didn’t obey the rules.

I found this short story to be very satisfying to read because it made me

aware of the unfairness of life under apartheid in South Africa. Thankfully, this racist

system has been dispatched to the dustbin of history, largely through the sacrifices

and efforts of South African hero Nelson Mandela who has died and is being

mourned by all races in his country and around the world. The story’s treatment of

this theme gave me food for thought: I hadn’t realised before the extent of racism

under apartheid and the contrasts between rich and poor. I recommend it to people

wanting to get some insight into what life used to be like in South Africa.

SUBMITTED BY:
ALEXANDER HANS DORMIS

SUBMITTED TO:
ALEXANDER F. DIAMANTE