Now Is The Time For Running By Michael Williams

“The game is 2-2 when the soldiers come in their jeeps down the path to Gutu.”

Set in Africa, Now Is A Time For Running tells the story of a young boy and his brother victimized by Zimbabwe’s political tyranny. The book opens with soldiers in red berets, led by Commander Jesus, coming into the village they say to punish them for not voting for the president.  In reality, we find out they are only there to steal the food relief that is soon coming from an American Church.  After the food arrives, the soldiers annihilate most of the  village. The main character, Deo and his brother Innocent witness the brutal beatings and murders of their mother and grandfather. All they have left is each other, Deo’s soccer ball, and Innocent’s special box as they trek to South Africa to seek help from their father, who they do not know.

Williams divides the narrative into three parts, each with distinct settings, plots, themes.  Deo and his passion for soccer is the main thread throughout the narrative. And like each section of the book, Deo changes as it progresses.

The first portion of the book tells how Deo, a gifted soccer player, and his autistic brother, Innocent, are forced to flee Zimbabwe for South Africa.  The back drop is the 2008 Zimbabwean presidential elections.   As the only survivors of the Gutu massacre, they flee to the only person they know, Captain Washington, in a nearby town. He tells them to go to South Africa. After numerous trials crossing a treacherous river, avoiding the Ghuma-ghuma, and then wild animals in the game park, they arrive in South Africa.

The second portion of the story is the adventure of Deo and Innocent getting to Johannesburg and then learning how to survive there.  The back drop is the Johannesburg Riots of 2008.  We initially find Deo and Innocent, naively enjoying a peaceful life at a tomato farm near the border.  They soon start to see the resentment that the local people are harboring against refugees and leave.  In Johannesburg they struggle, but eventually find lodging under a bridge with a rag tag group of refugees where they provide child care.  However, this existence comes to an end as xenophobic riots begin and Deo is hit with another tragic loss.

In the third portion of the story we find Deo, now having fled Johannesburg for Cape Town.  The back drop is the 2010 World Cup.  He is constantly high, sniffing glue, trying to forget the tragedy and meaninglessness of his life.  He is recruited by the coach for South Africa’s street soccer team to play with them.  He slowly starts to find meaning in his life through the sport of soccer, and the relationships he builds with his team mates.  Deo finds that his father left him and his brother a message of hope in a Bible that Innocent had stashed in his Bix-Box.

Williams scripts themes of perseverance despite tragedy, evils of absolute power, humanity of the disabled, and healing through sports throughout this powerful story. It’s clear that he has written Now Is the Time For Running, to provide a face and a story to the nameless, voiceless refugees that are in South Africa, and by extension criticizing xenophobia throughout the world.  Just as Coach Salie at one point in the book, brings the South African street soccer team together by having everyone listen to the other’s stories, Michael Williams uses the story of Deo to powerfully weave a story that provides humanity to the refugees in South Africa.