-
Domenic Pugliares
-
Virginia Phlieger-Kroos, OPA
-
Andrés Neruda
-
Patrick McGlade
-
M. Hopffgarten
-
James F. Risher Jr.
-
Katherine Whitley
-
Carrie Bolesky
-
Lorraine Burrell Hughes
-
Gregory Wilson
HISTORY - Republic of South Africa
|
Sort By:
|
|
Products per Page:
|
|
By Bernard Botes Krger
A century ago, one of the five most recognizable names in the world was arguably that of Paul Krger, president of the Transvaal Republic—a small Southern African country inhabited by a white tribe—who took on the overwhelming superiority of the mighty British Empire in defense of his people’s sovereign independence. It was a David and Goliath story. As most of the world—including the US—cheered the Boers on, they fought a desperate war to the bitter end (1899-1902) against colonialism, until their country lay smoldering in ruins and an estimated 27, 929 Boer women and children, as well as an untold number of blacks, had died in British concentration camps.
Yet within little more than half a century, those same Afrikaners had squandered their political capital and gone from being the world’s favorite underdog to one of the most reviled names in history. Their subsequent social engineering project known as apartheid became an abhorrent concept in the eyes of the international community.
Bernard Botes Krger is a fifth-generation descendant of the wartime president, Paul Krger. He is an Afrikaner who lived most of his life in the turmoil and conflict that has dominated his country’s history. His new historical novel, A Battlement of Spears, tells the remarkable story of how not only the Afrikaners, but also the many other former sovereign nations within the redrawn borders of the postwar South Africa struggled to come to terms with a common identity, often with devastating consequences. “What cruel twist of tectonic irony caused the deepest scar on the earth’s surface across the face of that continent that would also suffer the most appalling of human tragedies?” the author asks.
Set against the backdrop of the timeless mountain called in Zulu uKhahlamba (Barrier of Spears), a dramatic geographic boundary that divided nations throughout history, A Battlement of Spears is an epic story spanning twenty-four years and two continents, of two young men with similar interests but vastly different cultural backgrounds who become unlikely friends. In a tragic series of events they will discover what sacrifices are exacted from those who would dwell in the symbolic no man’s land of the summit, where fog often obscures the vision and deprivation dulls the senses, until it becomes all too easy to drift into hostile territory or stumble into the jaws of the precipice. In the process they will become separated, spending a lifetime before finding each other again a world away, on a different continent. But in the course of their respective journeys, they will also learn that barriers are not always what they seem, and that choices are sometimes inevitable, with far-reaching consequences. In that hauntingly beautiful land it is never merely about survival, but about the things that make it truly worthwhile, such as loyalty, friendship and honor, regardless of the price.
Do not go into this story expecting to encounter the usual themes of race. To consider South Africa synonymous with racial hatred would be an oversimplification. This story is not about race. In fact, despite the elaborately drawn details highlighting many of the customs of traditional cultures—Portuguese, Zulus, KhoiSan, Afrikaners, rural and urban, conservative and revolutionary—the story is not even uniquely South African. It is not about apartheid, or about Blacks, or Whites. Rather, it is about the countless ‘gray’ people of many different cultures, ordinary individuals simply looking to survive, who become trapped in the consummation of historical inevitabilities that are neither of their doing, nor of their choosing.
Written in a style that endeavors to entertain while enlightening the uninformed about South Africa’s long road to democracy, the book provides extensive background explanations (yes, footnotes) to those interested in the historical, anthropological or linguistic aspects of a ‘rainbow nation,’ which today recognizes eleven official languages and several royal families, besides a multitude of unofficial languages and dialects. And while A Battlement of Spears is a work of fiction, based, according to the author, on “countless true stories,” it becomes evident within the first few pages that many of the events portrayed are too detailed and specific not to have been experienced by someone. Some elements of the story are unmistakably autobiographical, but much of it simply represents the collective consciousness of a people struggling to find solutions.
At once terribly sad and gloriously uplifting, A Battlement of Spears is a novel that poses uncomfortable questions, which other nations do well to ponder. While we may like to think that the horrors of an apartheid South Africa or a nazi Germany happened a world away, among people considered racist and evil, it may come as a shock to realize that in many respects those people weren’t all that different from ourselves, and that many of the same issues they confronted are still alive and flourishing in our civilized world today. Unknowingly, many of us may also be among those ‘gray’ people, likewise trapped in the consummation of historical inevitabilities that are neither of our doing, nor of our choosing. And sooner or later, we, too, may be forced to make the tough choices that we have subconsciously sought to avoid.
How telling it is that the selfsame bitterly divided South African population succeeded so admirably in becoming one of the few societies in modern history to find a peaceful solution to their own political problems, due in great part to the triumph of their phenomenal Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tearing down barriers, it enabled different cultures to throw in their lot together while nonetheless maintaining their respective cultural identities.
FORMAT: Softcover
By Bernard Botes Krger
A century ago, one of the five most recognizable names in the world was arguably that of Paul Krger, president of the Transvaal Republic—a small Southern African country inhabited by a white tribe—who took on the overwhelming superiority of the mighty British Empire in defense of his people’s sovereign independence. It was a David and Goliath story. As most of the world—including the US—cheered the Boers on, they fought a desperate war to the bitter end (1899-1902) against colonialism, until their country lay smoldering in ruins and an estimated 27, 929 Boer women and children, as well as an untold number of blacks, had died in British concentration camps.
Yet within little more than half a century, those same Afrikaners had squandered their political capital and gone from being the world’s favorite underdog to one of the most reviled names in history. Their subsequent social engineering project known as apartheid became an abhorrent concept in the eyes of the international community.
Bernard Botes Krger is a fifth-generation descendant of the wartime president, Paul Krger. He is an Afrikaner who lived most of his life in the turmoil and conflict that has dominated his country’s history. His new historical novel, A Battlement of Spears, tells the remarkable story of how not only the Afrikaners, but also the many other former sovereign nations within the redrawn borders of the postwar South Africa struggled to come to terms with a common identity, often with devastating consequences. “What cruel twist of tectonic irony caused the deepest scar on the earth’s surface across the face of that continent that would also suffer the most appalling of human tragedies?” the author asks.
Set against the backdrop of the timeless mountain called in Zulu uKhahlamba (Barrier of Spears), a dramatic geographic boundary that divided nations throughout history, A Battlement of Spears is an epic story spanning twenty-four years and two continents, of two young men with similar interests but vastly different cultural backgrounds who become unlikely friends. In a tragic series of events they will discover what sacrifices are exacted from those who would dwell in the symbolic no man’s land of the summit, where fog often obscures the vision and deprivation dulls the senses, until it becomes all too easy to drift into hostile territory or stumble into the jaws of the precipice. In the process they will become separated, spending a lifetime before finding each other again a world away, on a different continent. But in the course of their respective journeys, they will also learn that barriers are not always what they seem, and that choices are sometimes inevitable, with far-reaching consequences. In that hauntingly beautiful land it is never merely about survival, but about the things that make it truly worthwhile, such as loyalty, friendship and honor, regardless of the price.
Do not go into this story expecting to encounter the usual themes of race. To consider South Africa synonymous with racial hatred would be an oversimplification. This story is not about race. In fact, despite the elaborately drawn details highlighting many of the customs of traditional cultures—Portuguese, Zulus, KhoiSan, Afrikaners, rural and urban, conservative and revolutionary—the story is not even uniquely South African. It is not about apartheid, or about Blacks, or Whites. Rather, it is about the countless ‘gray’ people of many different cultures, ordinary individuals simply looking to survive, who become trapped in the consummation of historical inevitabilities that are neither of their doing, nor of their choosing.
Written in a style that endeavors to entertain while enlightening the uninformed about South Africa’s long road to democracy, the book provides extensive background explanations (yes, footnotes) to those interested in the historical, anthropological or linguistic aspects of a ‘rainbow nation,’ which today recognizes eleven official languages and several royal families, besides a multitude of unofficial languages and dialects. And while A Battlement of Spears is a work of fiction, based, according to the author, on “countless true stories,” it becomes evident within the first few pages that many of the events portrayed are too detailed and specific not to have been experienced by someone. Some elements of the story are unmistakably autobiographical, but much of it simply represents the collective consciousness of a people struggling to find solutions.
At once terribly sad and gloriously uplifting, A Battlement of Spears is a novel that poses uncomfortable questions, which other nations do well to ponder. While we may like to think that the horrors of an apartheid South Africa or a nazi Germany happened a world away, among people considered racist and evil, it may come as a shock to realize that in many respects those people weren’t all that different from ourselves, and that many of the same issues they confronted are still alive and flourishing in our civilized world today. Unknowingly, many of us may also be among those ‘gray’ people, likewise trapped in the consummation of historical inevitabilities that are neither of our doing, nor of our choosing. And sooner or later, we, too, may be forced to make the tough choices that we have subconsciously sought to avoid.
How telling it is that the selfsame bitterly divided South African population succeeded so admirably in becoming one of the few societies in modern history to find a peaceful solution to their own political problems, due in great part to the triumph of their phenomenal Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tearing down barriers, it enabled different cultures to throw in their lot together while nonetheless maintaining their respective cultural identities.
FORMAT: Hardcover
By Michael Gaffley, EdD
The most powerful part of your book is the passion and perspective about the caught-in-the-middle "colored" people of South Africa. This is a thesis that deserves to be heard.
"We in America are conditioned to see South Africa, as so often we see our own country, in black and white ways. Michael Gaffley teaches us better. His is a book full of pain and passion -- and wisdom. Dr. Gaffley is a teacher for all of us, buttressed by academic credentials as well as life experiences that begin with searing childhood experiences."
-- David Lawrence Jr., retired publisher of The Miami Herald and president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation
FORMAT: Softcover
By Michael Gaffley, EdD
The most powerful part of your book is the passion and perspective about the caught-in-the-middle "colored" people of South Africa. This is a thesis that deserves to be heard.
"We in America are conditioned to see South Africa, as so often we see our own country, in black and white ways. Michael Gaffley teaches us better. His is a book full of pain and passion -- and wisdom. Dr. Gaffley is a teacher for all of us, buttressed by academic credentials as well as life experiences that begin with searing childhood experiences."
-- David Lawrence Jr., retired publisher of The Miami Herald and president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation
FORMAT: Hardcover
By Bernard Botes Krger
A century ago, one of the five most recognizable names in the world was arguably that of Paul Krger, president of the Transvaal Republic—a small Southern African country inhabited by a white tribe—who took on the overwhelming superiority of the mighty British Empire in defense of his people’s sovereign independence. It was a David and Goliath story. As most of the world—including the US—cheered the Boers on, they fought a desperate war to the bitter end (1899-1902) against colonialism, until their country lay smoldering in ruins and an estimated 27, 929 Boer women and children, as well as an untold number of blacks, had died in British concentration camps.
Yet within little more than half a century, those same Afrikaners had squandered their political capital and gone from being the world’s favorite underdog to one of the most reviled names in history. Their subsequent social engineering project known as apartheid became an abhorrent concept in the eyes of the international community.
Bernard Botes Krger is a fifth-generation descendant of the wartime president, Paul Krger. He is an Afrikaner who lived most of his life in the turmoil and conflict that has dominated his country’s history. His new historical novel, A Battlement of Spears, tells the remarkable story of how not only the Afrikaners, but also the many other former sovereign nations within the redrawn borders of the postwar South Africa struggled to come to terms with a common identity, often with devastating consequences. “What cruel twist of tectonic irony caused the deepest scar on the earth’s surface across the face of that continent that would also suffer the most appalling of human tragedies?” the author asks.
Set against the backdrop of the timeless mountain called in Zulu uKhahlamba (Barrier of Spears), a dramatic geographic boundary that divided nations throughout history, A Battlement of Spears is an epic story spanning twenty-four years and two continents, of two young men with similar interests but vastly different cultural backgrounds who become unlikely friends. In a tragic series of events they will discover what sacrifices are exacted from those who would dwell in the symbolic no man’s land of the summit, where fog often obscures the vision and deprivation dulls the senses, until it becomes all too easy to drift into hostile territory or stumble into the jaws of the precipice. In the process they will become separated, spending a lifetime before finding each other again a world away, on a different continent. But in the course of their respective journeys, they will also learn that barriers are not always what they seem, and that choices are sometimes inevitable, with far-reaching consequences. In that hauntingly beautiful land it is never merely about survival, but about the things that make it truly worthwhile, such as loyalty, friendship and honor, regardless of the price.
Do not go into this story expecting to encounter the usual themes of race. To consider South Africa synonymous with racial hatred would be an oversimplification. This story is not about race. In fact, despite the elaborately drawn details highlighting many of the customs of traditional cultures—Portuguese, Zulus, KhoiSan, Afrikaners, rural and urban, conservative and revolutionary—the story is not even uniquely South African. It is not about apartheid, or about Blacks, or Whites. Rather, it is about the countless ‘gray’ people of many different cultures, ordinary individuals simply looking to survive, who become trapped in the consummation of historical inevitabilities that are neither of their doing, nor of their choosing.
Written in a style that endeavors to entertain while enlightening the uninformed about South Africa’s long road to democracy, the book provides extensive background explanations (yes, footnotes) to those interested in the historical, anthropological or linguistic aspects of a ‘rainbow nation,’ which today recognizes eleven official languages and several royal families, besides a multitude of unofficial languages and dialects. And while A Battlement of Spears is a work of fiction, based, according to the author, on “countless true stories,” it becomes evident within the first few pages that many of the events portrayed are too detailed and specific not to have been experienced by someone. Some elements of the story are unmistakably autobiographical, but much of it simply represents the collective consciousness of a people struggling to find solutions.
At once terribly sad and gloriously uplifting, A Battlement of Spears is a novel that poses uncomfortable questions, which other nations do well to ponder. While we may like to think that the horrors of an apartheid South Africa or a nazi Germany happened a world away, among people considered racist and evil, it may come as a shock to realize that in many respects those people weren’t all that different from ourselves, and that many of the same issues they confronted are still alive and flourishing in our civilized world today. Unknowingly, many of us may also be among those ‘gray’ people, likewise trapped in the consummation of historical inevitabilities that are neither of our doing, nor of our choosing. And sooner or later, we, too, may be forced to make the tough choices that we have subconsciously sought to avoid.
How telling it is that the selfsame bitterly divided South African population succeeded so admirably in becoming one of the few societies in modern history to find a peaceful solution to their own political problems, due in great part to the triumph of their phenomenal Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tearing down barriers, it enabled different cultures to throw in their lot together while nonetheless maintaining their respective cultural identities.
FORMAT: E-Book
|