Sex, Gender, Becoming - PULP

164 lize kriel
The ‘Mrs Stech’ in Tini’s testimony is represented as not commenting
on her pregnancy, taking quite a while to register that Tini’s ‘illness’
was the result of her miscarriage and as being in a state of shock, but
not disbelief, upon learning that her husband was the impregnator. 43
According to Stech, his wife was suspicious throughout the pregnancy,
but was fooled because Tini’s body was clumsily shaped anyway and
she stealthily faked her menstrual cycles (which Mrs Stech checked
repeatedly), by applying animal blood 44 (to bed linen and underwear?).
Stech portrayed his wife as far more in control, as a lot more
pre-emptive, than Tini did. Yet it was also Stech who emphasised his
wife’s weakness whenever he needed to convince the missionary
Director that he ought to be granted a vacation in a friendlier
climate. 45
Ironically, it was as a result of Stech’s wife’s insistence that Tini left
their house. This gave the younger woman an opportunity to speak
freely and to be redeemed, while the sickly, probably depressed,
older woman remained in her husband’s shadow and was sacrificed as
her husband’s excuse that enabled him to justify his fleeing from the
scene of his crime. Yet it was not as if Tini spared any sympathy for
Mrs Stech; it is as if there was a bit of Schadenfreude in her remark
that she was sent away by Mrs Stech because the missionary wanted
to ‘use her again’ — thus implying that he preferred the younger girl
to his wife. However, it should be kept in mind that these were the
words reported by the Van Wyks and not by Tini herself. It is not the
kind of remark she was likely to repeat in the presence of her
godfather, but it was precisely the stuff out of which white gossip
could be yarned: the sexual attraction to the ‘darker’ races by an
apparently prudish missionary.
43
EA BMG Gegen Stech: BMW 1/4225 12-15: C Beuster – HT Wangemann, 18 Februar
1892.
44 EA BMG Gegen Stech: BMW 1/4225 45-53: C Stech – BMG, 2 Juni 1892.
45
On their way to the coast, Stech obtained the following medical certificate
stating his wife’s condition: EA BMG Gegen Stech: BMW 1/4302:
L.S.
De ondergetekende med. Dr. en als sodanig pratiserende te New Castle
(Natal Z. Afrika) Da de echtgenote van den Wel Ewd. Heer Christian Stech
een geruime tyd in geneeskundige behandeling gehad te hebbe, delkeaard
by deze dat eene Europeische reis en geruime tyd verblyf aldaar, haar
wenschlyk ja gebiedend noodzaakelyk is tot herstel haren gezondheid en
herstel der verlorenen krachten.
Zendelingstatie
Konigsberg
(Natal)
28 Januarie 1892
Dr. C.K. Aueling
Given the shocking state of her domestic circumstances, it comes as no
surprise that Mrs Stech needed to recover some strength. The irony is that
Stech used her condition as an opportunity to abandon the Transvaal and
create some distance between himself and his accusers.