'The women were the backbone of agriculture.' Explore the ways in which Head vividly demonstrates this in the novel.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2010). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. There will be various ways of approaching this question but it is inescapable that Head makes women the centre of society in Golema Mmidi.
2. At the beginning of the novel she says that the men take charge of the cattle but the women are the 'tillers of the earth'.
3. Cattle herding/droving is ultimately almost destroyed by the drought and the men spend a great deal of time arguing the issues with the Chief.
4. Gilbert's plans for educating the villagers to grow other crops are frustrated by the fact that only the men have access to his classes but once he introduces the plan for growing tobacco the women seize on it with enthusiasm.
5. Certainly the women take charge of the day-to-day provisioning for their families and are more sympathetic to the idea of co-operative working, so that the tobacco farming becomes a great success.
6. Arguably without the women's efforts the village would not have survived.