The Bully Cycle: A South African Story

   In Grace Zuzo’s latest rendition of her South African roots, The Bully Cycle: A South African Story, she uses conversations between Chuaro and her mother to effectively convey the rampant practice of racism and unnecessary violent behavior toward South Africans, their kids, and even animals. Author of feel-good stories such as Why Pastor’s Kid Refused to go to Church, and Different is Not Stupid or Ugly, Zuzo depicts the culture clash between South Africans and Europeans.

The bully cycle begins with the maltreatment and cruelty with which African men are dealt by their European counterparts. They are forced to call Europeans “baas” and “klein baas” (junior boss), while African men are being referred to as “boys.” Ironically, it’s the South African men that go through the rigorous rite of passage to become men.

This cycle is repeated when the man returns home from his day of dehumanizing insults. Chuaro’s mother explains, “The angry black man goes home and takes it out on his wife. That’s why you saw your friend’s father pushing his wife around when he came home. He was angry and trying to feel like the man he is.”

At the same time, Zuzo demonstrates the no-win situation created for the black woman. She states, “The black woman’s story is sadder because she has to deal with the angry black man, her husband, and the European woman, her boss.”

The beauty in this work is in understanding young Chuaro and how she becomes so immersed in her mom’s teaching and father’s preaching. Chuaro, along with her friend Zola, figure out the entire bully cycle: the European man bullies the South African man. The South African man, in turn, takes his anger out on his wife. The wife, having endured bullying from both husband and European “missies,” channels her anger onto her children. The children then bully their dogs, while the dogs bully the cats, which bully the mice. The mice bully the South African men—who can’t stand the sight of mice.

In this bullying carousel, one thing is evident: “everything alive had an outlet for its frustrations and how everything alive that gets bullied would get something else to bully.”

Overall, The Bully Cycle aims to create an awareness of this concept of bullying, especially in younger children. One resounding message from the book is: instead of trying to stop bullying from sprouting all over, the seeds of bullying should never be planted in the first place. Zuzo’s childhood stories deliver profound moral lessons. The Bully Cycle: A South African Story is a great addition to Grace Zuzo’s books, as well as a great addition to your school or home library.