The Setting Sun and the Rolling World

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1987

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Story 11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story 11 Summary: “The Ten Shillings”

Paul Masaga is an unemployed homeless man living in Harare. He moved to the city two years ago after receiving a Junior Certificate (JC) in the hopes of becoming a clerk. Yet he quickly realized that there were only so many white-collar jobs for JC recipients, leaving Paul and countless others unable to find work they believe is worthy of their paid educations. Paul reflects, “Education [...] it awes us as did the bicycle, the motorcar and the aeroplane. It is a Western thing and we throw away brother and sister for it but when it fails we are lost” (108).

Paul swallows his pride and accepts an interview for a manual labor position at a tobacco-grading shed. He obtains the position, and his European interviewer gives him a letter to bring to the supervisor, Mr. Thomson. Yet when Paul arrives at work the following Monday, Mr. Thomson tells him to go home because he has no experience grading tobacco. Paul brings up his JC, and Mr. Thomson says, “I said I want someone who knows tobacco-grading work. I should have said I wanted a JC if I had wanted that” (111).

Defeated, Paul tracks down the European interviewer, who apologizes and hands him a 10-shilling note for his trouble. It is more money than Paul has seen in two years. In closing, the author writes, “With tears of goodwill [Paul] forgave everybody for the misery of the world” (112).

Story 11 Analysis

“The Ten Shillings” depicts a dilemma that Mungoshi suggests afflicts many young educated Zimbabweans: There are not enough white-collar jobs for the educated, but the educated are too inexperienced to land blue-collar jobs. This is consistent with Mungoshi’s broader contention that education is no golden ticket to success, despite the emphasis many Zimbabwean families place on it. Again, Paul Masaga could easily be a slightly older version of Nhamo from “The Setting Sun and the Rolling World,” who left his family farm for the city, armed with a formal education and an unflagging confidence in his ability to succeed there. Stories like “The Ten Shillings” expose that confidence as arrogance.

The story also touches once more on European racism. Given his lack of success in obtaining employment, Paul only attends the job interview because he wants to counter the racist assumption that Africans are lazy. The narrator comments, “If [Europeans] knew anything about the emotional life of an African it was that he was unstable, a potential rapist and murderer. So he had gone only to save himself regrets later on” (107).

Yet despite Paul’s need to counter stereotypes, he also internalizes that racist messaging, which makes him feel worthless. This may be why he is so grateful when the European interviewer gives him 10 shillings for his trouble. In an instant, Paul forgives the Europeans who built and maintain the racism systems that keep him down, all for a mere pittance of 10 shillings.