Quiet rebellions: An interview with Gothataone Moeng

In “Botalaote,” the opening story to Gothataone Moeng’s debut collection of short stories, we first encounter the protagonist Boikanyo in the warmth of her mother’s presence in the kitchen, where “doors slammed in her wake. In the kitchen, dishes clattered, hot cooking oil splattered, and the aroma of frying potatoes rose” (1). In her old bedroom, her aunt Lydia coughs and sweats her devastating illness: “Above the blanket, her head poked out. What used to be a full head of hair was now just dust-brown and reddish fibers” (6). At the end, Boikanyo reflects on the world of her small rural hometown, its “juxtaposition of school and cemetery” (26), where her “chest ached with the frustration” of not being able to attend a local wedding (8). There is neither lesson nor catharsis but the ordinariness of a life shaped by contradictions, what remains unsaid, and the ways women must navigate the norms that bear upon their lives.