Although both stories look at relationships between the two main characters, they are both different types of relationships. The relationship between veronica and Okeke never gets further than a close friendship for many reasons. They grew up together in the same village and knew each other since they could probably remember; this will bring certain closeness to them. As they grew older Okeke notices that “she still had a certain attractiveness to her,” even though she had been living in poverty for all her life.
Okeke gets an education but Veronica doesn’t and Okeke goes to a university in the city so he can become a doctor. He wants Veronica to come with him, she refuses and is very fatalistic about it, she believes that there is nothing for her in the city; her family binds her to the village. She also has no education so she doesn’t believe that she can do anything there. She has a very stereotypical view of herself and what a woman should do. The way that the writer has written this in first person narrative makes you hear the voice of Okeke pleading with Veronica to come with him to the city, it also makes it more personal.
Over the years Okeke becomes a doctor and stays in the city occasionally asking how Veronica I, “I never forgot Veronica,” this shows that he had and still has feeling for her. Ten years later Okeke returns to the village and the first word that he spoke to Veronica was her name,” Veronica,” this word is emphasised because this is the first word that he has spoken to her in tem years. They talk about what has happened over the years, Veronica saying that her parents are dead and she says about her brothers and sisters, “they are all gone,” this sounds as if they don’t exist anymore and to her they probably aren’t part of her life anymore, this shows the community of the village, once you have grown up and married you aren’t part of it anymore.
Veronica also notices that Okeke doesn’t have a wife and Okeke says that “all of the women that I meet are only interested in cars and money,” this statement shows the huge city/county split, women in the country live in poverty but women in the city are rich and have jobs and money and cars. Veronica is shocked by this because she believes that women should stay at home and look after the house. She now has a husband and a baby to look after and this widens the gap between the relationship between her and Okeke. Then the Nigerian Civil War breaks out and it is three years before Okeke can see veronica again because Veronica’s village is in the war zone. Okeke returns to find Veronica dying and her husband and baby dead. Veronica doesn’t want to live anymore because she has lost her family and at the end she says to Okeke “Now that I have seen you I am happy,” these last words show that Veronica still had feelings for Okeke. Their relationship is very complex and long and it never really starts off, they just stay friends because of Veronica’s stubbornness and her fatalistic attitude to her life.
On the other hand the relationship between Paulus and Thebedi is very different in comparison. Theirs is a whirlwind romance and it starts off when they are young and live and play together on Paulus’ parents’ farm, them Paulus goes off to boarding school leaving behind the childish vocabulary that he picked up from the black children. The children become segregated, the whites go off and get a good education and the blacks get a basic education and work. When Paulus comes home from school he gives presents to Thebedi who is a black farm worker and Thebedi gives presents to him, Paulus gives Thebedi a wooden box, a red plastic belt and gilt hoop earrings, and Thebedi gives him bracelets that she made. In the summer they go for walks together to the riverbank and Paulus tells her about school, They go swimming together and Thebedi is described using natural imagery, her skin is earthy and her dark eyes are “shiny as soft water,” they then go on to have sex on the riverbed. They went there often during the summer. They had to do it in secret because it was illegal for a white to have a sexual relationship with a black; this was called the Immorality act, so they did it in secret. They slept together in one of the spare bedrooms of the farm house when Paulus’ parents are out. Thebedi has to leave the house before any of the servants see them.
Then when Thebedi is 18, Njabulo, a farm worker, asks to marry her and she accepts. Paulus is leaving to go to college and Thebedi is pregnant, she doesn’t tell Paulus that she is and she also doesn’t tell him that she is getting married. Their relationship has become more distant because Paulus is leaving and because Thebedi is getting married.
When the baby is born it doesn’t grow darker like most African babies but stays pale and it is described as having hair “like that which carries the seeds of certain weeds,” in other words hair like dandelion seeds, it is pale and straight. The baby also doesn’t have the eyes of Thebedi or Njabulo but of Paulus. So everyone in the Kraal knows that it is Paulus’ baby but they keep it secret and are unwilling to tell Paulus when he comes back where Thebedi is, this shows a strong sense of community spirit because they don’t want any harm to come to Thebedi. Njabulo even though it isn’t his baby goes out of his way to look after it, he buys the baby clothes and a bath because Thebedi is his wife and he loves her.
When Paulus comes to see the baby, the relationship seems to be part of the distant past. He then sees the baby and asks if anyone has seen it, he doesn’t see the baby as a human being. Paulus doesn’t want anyone to know that he is the father, and from the dialogue he sounds extremely worried because he could go to prison if the police find out. Because he is so worried about himself he comes back later and sees the baby, when he leaves the baby is dead. Njabulo finds out and he is the one who comforts Thebedi, not Paulus. This shows how much their relationship has deteriorated.
But then the police come and dig up the baby and found out that the baby had died of unnatural causes and so Paulus was brought under charges of murder. Because Thebedi was in shock from losing her baby she says in the preparatory exam that Paulus had killed the bay and she had seen him do it, this is the clear end of their relationship. A year later the real trial came and Thebedi came with a new baby and still had the gilt hoop earrings that Paulus gave her, these show a deeper meaning, that Thebedi still had feelings for Paulus, and show contradicts herself and says that she didn’t see Paulus kill the baby. So Paulus was not guilt even though there was probably enough evidence, and he was let off because the court was more lenient to whites. The court also accused Thebedi of helping to kill the baby; this shows that the court was more harsh to the blacks.
In the end of the story Thebedi is describe by the newspapers as a “black girl” when clearly she is a woman, this shows the derogative nature of the newspapers against the blacks.
Both relationships that are described in ‘Country Lovers’ and ‘Veronica’ fail due to personal and cultural forces. Veronica’s and Okeke’s relationship fails be\cause veronica believes that the city has nothing for her and that her life is in the village. She also has no education and believes stereotypically that her place is at home. Okeke leaves to work as a doctor in the city. ‘Veronica’ looks at the country/city divide in Nigeria and the stereotypical views of what men and women should do. These forces oppress the characters and force the relationship to end
The relationship between Paulus and Thebedi ends because of the apartheid laws which states that they are not allowed to be together and Paulus cracked under the pressure and presumably killed their half caste baby so that he doesn’t get found out and go to jail or to be publicly shamed. There are many personal and cultural forces that cause their relationships to fail.
