The Train Driver is set in a graveyard of unmarked graves, which symbolize the lack of respect and individual identity granted to the impoverished Black people buried there. Simon, the gravedigger, refers to the unidentified bodies in the graveyard as “the ones without names,” and the anonymity of the bodies buried in the graveyard is portrayed as a tragedy in and of itself. Throughout the play, names are tied to identity, and the namelessness of the dead robs them of identity and personhood. Roelf agonizes over not knowing Red Doek’s name, since he believes that knowledge will allow him to learn about the woman he killed, but his wish is never granted and Red Doek remains anonymous. Roelf visits her town and speaks to the police, but no one can tell him Red Doek’s name because no one claimed her body. Roelf is horrified to realize that Red Doek endured an entire life of suffering, and now that her life is over, her “big happy ending” is that nobody wants her. In this way, Red Doek represents dozens of ignored, unwanted bodies buried in unmarked graves. Their lives were dominated by oppression and despair, and now, those same forces act upon them in death.
Not only do the graves not identify who is buried within them, they are not marked as graves at all. Simon leaves pieces of garbage on the graves, a gesture that Roelf initially misinterprets as a sign of respect. In reality, Simon leaves trash on the graves simply to remind him not to dig in those spots again. Roelf believes that the graves should be marked with crosses as a sign of respect, but Simon points out that the sticks used to make a cross would be stolen for fires. This point highlights that poverty prevents the living from properly mourning their dead, as gestures of respect lose importance when compared to practical acts of survival. The forces of oppression that marginalize poor Black South Africans strip the dead of their personhood and stop the living from bestowing respect on those they have lost.
Unmarked Graves Quotes in The Train Driver
SIMON: My name is Simon Hanabe, I am the one who puts the nameless ones in the grave. This is how it happened. When I first see the whiteman…he is walking among the amangcwaba where the ones with names is sleeping…. Then he sees me watching him and he comes to me and starts talking but that time I didn't know what he was saying––his words were all mixed up like he was drunk. So he gets very cross with me when I shake my head and tell him I don't know what he is saying.
ROELF: Fucking hell! What a miserable bloody ending to your life’s story. I wouldn’t even bury my dog like this, man! (Goes to one grave and picks up an old motorcar hubcap) And this rubbish on the graves? What the hell is this idea?...You put these here?
SIMON: Ewe. There is no flowers in Shukuma.
ROELF: I see! So that is what it’s supposed to be…respect for the dead! Then why not just a simple cross, man?...Remember Jesus? You people are supposed to believe in God and Jesus, isn’t that so?
ROELF: (with vicious deliberation) Ja. Give me her name…or show me her grave…and I will do it. S’trues God. In both official languages because I am fully bilingual…I’ll do it so that her ghost can hear me. I’ll tell her how she has fucked up my life…the selfish black bitch…that I am sitting here with my arse in the dirt because thanks to her I am losing everything…my home, my family, my job…my bloody mind! Ja! Another fucking day like this one and I won’t know who I am anymore or what the fuck I am doing!
ROELF: You don’t understand anything. I’ve crashed! I was on the rails, I was going forward, everything up to schedule…until it all crashed. Thanks to that woman with the red doek I don’t know if I’ve got a home anymore. I don’t know if I’ve got a family anymore, or a job or…ja…a life. You said it: this is the place for the ones without names…and I think I’m one of them now. Roelf Visagie? Who the hell is he? You got your spade so dig another grave, man.
ROELF: This place is a bloody disgrace to humanity!... Have you got no respect for the dead? Because if that is the case then you are worse than those dogs in the bush. And you know why? Because these are human beings lying here and you are also supposed to be one as well…(An excited little laugh as an idea occurs to him)…Ja!...you can even make a cross with [the stones]!... (On his hands and knees, placing stones on the graves) See how easy it is….
(…Roelf moves to another grave where he makes another cross. His behavior is becoming increasingly absurd.)
ROELF: Makes you think, doesn’t it? All of them…some mother’s children…one day you and me also…(Gestures to the graves)…and that’s how it ends for everybody. Yes...make no mistake my friend...black man or white man...the worms don’t care about that...it’s all the same to them...
SIMON: I sing to [the ghosts]. I sing like my mother sing to me when I was a little boy and she carry me on her back….
ROELF: You think they hear you?
SIMON: Ewe. They go back to sleep….And all is quiet again.
ROELF: Don’t you feel a bit sorry for them? A little bit sad?
SIMON: No….Why you ask me so much?
ROELF: Why? Because it’s one of your own people for God’s sake. It was certainly somebody’s…I don’t know…husband or brother if it was a man, or somebody’s mother or sister or wife if it was a woman. One thing I know for sure is that if I had to dig a hole and put one of my people in it, I’d have some very strange feelings inside me…even if I didn’t know their name or who they were or what they were.
ROELF: I was thinking about those pondoks in the bush…and I was thinking…she lived in one of those pondoks…Ja! That was what Red Doek called home. A young woman, a mother, with her baby! You get it? That is fucking hopeless, man. Think about it. Wouldn’t you also want to go stand on a railway line and wait for the next train if that is all life has to offer you and your baby? And then to make it worse…that is still not the end…Because the big happy ending is that Nobody Wants Her!...Nobody came to claim her! Nobody wants her! And when we start looking…even we can’t find her.
Unmarked Graves Symbol Timeline in The Train Driver
