MARU

Maru, a king among his people, has made a serious misjudgment that makes his
people question his morals and his respected position. By marrying a Masarwa
woman, he has lost the esteem of his. Maybe life had presented him with too
many, destinies, but he knew that he would accept them all and fulfill them.
Maru has complete control over the world he inhabits: only his best friend,
Moleka, and his sister, Dikeledi, have enough authority to advise him. No one in
the village has the power to change his mind or to influence his decisions. He
stands alone the king of his village and the next paramount chief. This isolation
emphasizes his loneliness, though he rarely acknowledges it.

Similarly, Maru believes that he can change his peoples’ views on the Masarwa,
and he marries Margaret Cadmore, a Masarwa, to prove that point. Maru’s love
for Margaret is such that he forgoes this privilege so as to be with her. In doing
so, he demonstrates both the genuine nature of his affection and also his strength
of character, not being influenced by the prejudicial condemnations leveled at
him by other people in his village. He is a rather dreamy and impractical person,
concerned more with imagining a future without prejudice than with bringing it
into reality, but his eloping with Margaret nonetheless effects change, in
demonstrating the possibility of a genuine interracial romance being possible. His
greatest strength is his insight, his ability to read and understand the world and
the people within it, with the exception of his best friend, Moleka.