Prophets

Could madness really be prophetic visions?  What is the upside to being exposed to raw evil and being dragged through hell?  Who are prophets?

In Bessie Head’s A Question of Power, the main character Elizabeth repeatedly refers to herself as a modern prophet because she is constantly invaded by religious dreams and visions.  Elizabeth believes that the epic battle between good and evil is being conducted within her. 

The world outside of Elizabeth, greatly misunderstands her.  She is perceived as being crazy by a lot of people.  However, she acquired friends, good, caring people that took care of her, her son, and pulled her back into an ordinary life.

 Elizabeth lacks a traditional following of parishioners like other prophets such as Jesus, Mohammed, or Buddha, but she has her friends.  They almost uplift her from the hell she has witnessed back to goodness and ordinariness.  She craves to be ordinary.  She has created a motto, repeated throughout the text, “be ordinary” (p.39).  Elizabeth perceives ordinariness as godliness.  Gods aware of their own power, become consumed by power, and do all possible to acquire more power.  The acquisition of power, creates suffering upon others, and the more accumulated ensures more have suffered.  

Elizabeth, while holding the battle of good and evil within her, is immersed into hell.  She suffers the world’s sorrows because after suffering, one can truly see goodness and be good.   Other prophets were not dragged through hell on their paths, being.  Enduring hell, separates Elizabeth dramatically, “none of mankind’s God-like figureheads recorded seeing what she saw on this nightmare soul-journey” (p.35).  She is subjected to pure, raw evil which helps her to understand true goodness. 

Whether Elizabeth is truly a prophet is unknown.  But she believes herself to be. She suffers incomprehensible evil, to overcome realizing true goodness and ordinariness.