Chapter 4 (pages 199-222) Summary

The narrator is summoned before the eight members of the Mother Committee. She is given a history of Tsau and told that Tsau's women, even if they leave, do so with money and skills and so never have to serve others again. The committee praises the narrator for speaking Setswana and not making them speak English to her. One woman, Dorcas, seems to be suspicious making veiled derisive references about bird studies as though she doubts the narrator's cover story. The committee finally votes and they make a rare exception allowing the narrator to stay as long as she is interested in the struggle of poor women strengthening themselves. She may stay in the rondavel, the round thatched hut, next to Mma Isang who will give her food. The narrator must work at whatever tasks she chooses for fifteen...