The madman, then, is one of those who "insists on the connections" (Williams 1973:264) between the elements of a contradictory world; one who bears the insignia of continuity quite literally on his chest. South African Railways had carried him to the gold mines as a young migrant, and it had brought him back again when the Spirit called him to return once more and "work" (dira) among his own people. We never learned why he had been committed to the asylum. It may have been his fondness for standing as mute witness near the railway depot in the white town where returning laborers alighted. Like madmen and witches everywhere