Skip to main content

THE SCATTERING by Lauri Kubuitsile...a must-read

Synopsis
South-West Africa, 1904: When German colonial authorities issue an extermination order, the Herero are forced to flee into the Kalahari desert and seek safety in British Bechuanaland (modern day Botswana). Tjipuka, a young Herero mother, escapes the genocide with her infant, but is captured and put to work in the death camps in Luderitz. There, she has to find the courage, and the will, to survive against all odds.

The Transvaal, 1899: Riette's nursing ambitions are crushed when she is forced into marriage with an older neighbour. When he is taken captive by the British colonial regime and their farm set ablaze during the Second Anglo-Boer War, she and his daughters endure the horrors of the British concentration camps.

Against the backdrop of southern Africa's colonial wars at the dawn of the twentieth century, THE SCATTERING traces the fates of two remarkable women whose paths cross after each has suffered the devastation and dislocation of war.

Moving and intimate, Kubuitsile's novel provides a fascinating glimpse into the indomitable human spirit in the worst circumstances. The book is dedicated to Ponche, whom Lauri Kubuitsile says is 'a very good friend of mine, a sister really, who is part Herero, part German.'

IN STOCK: N$ 235.00
Book Buddy Namibia, 163 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Eros, Windhoek
+264 81 739 2998
bookbuddynamibia@gmail.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Children's Story: The Sleepy Owl (Zulu Folklore)

Zulu-speaking people ( Amazulu ) belong to one of the largest cultural and linguistic groups in southern Africa. There are an estimated 12,5 million Zulu-speakers currently thriving in South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Malawi, Botswana and Mocambique with the largest concentration of people in South Africa (approximately 10,5 million). The word iZulu means 'heaven' and the word zulu means 'rain', if translated into English (Amazulu means 'rain people'). The  Amazulu is not a homogenous group of people and consists of different clans who had settled in the mountainous and hilly rural areas of northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. This cultural and linguistic group is patrilineal and had migrated in a southerly direction along the eastern coast of Africa from the 9th century onward. According to notable archaeological finds, they initially came from an area in modern Cameroon. The largest of these clans was established by Zulu kaMalandela around 170

Poem: I Am An African by Professor Wayne Visser

I Am An African I am an African Not because I was born there But because my heart beats with Africa's I am an African Not because my skin is black  But because my mind is engaged by Africa I am an African Not because I live on its soil But because my soul is at home in Africa When Africa weeps for her children My cheeks are stained with tears When Africa honours her elders My head is bowed in respect When Africa mourns for her victims My hands are joined in prayer When Africa celebrates her triumphs My feet are alive with dancing I am an African For her blue skies take my breath away And my hope for the future is bright I am an African For her people greet me as family And teach me the meaning of community I am an African For her wildness quenches my spirit And brings me closer to the source of life When the music of Africa beats in the wind My blood pulses to its rhythm And I become the essence of sound When the

Book Review: Being Chris Hani's Daughter by Lindiwe Hani and Melinda Ferguson

'I guess the best place to start a story is at the beginning. My name is Lindiwe Hani. I was born on 27 December 1980 to Limpho and Martin Thembisile Hani. My father was also known as Chris. My parents named me Lindiwe, which in isiXhosa means ''the daughter we have waited for''. In that year, a leap year, the world's population sat at 4 434 682 000, the Voyager 1 space probe confirmed the existence of a moon of Saturn that was to be named Janus (or Janusz) - how's that for prophetic - and Robert Mugabe was elected president of Zimbabwe.'  It took me a day and some to get over reading Lindiwe Hani's autobiography, Being Chris Hani's Daughter , because I desperately wanted to hang on to the fuzzy feeling of being a confidant to its brave author that developed as I read the book. This is precisely why some biographies are pure magic. They take the reader behind the scenes of major socio-political events and in the process, create a sense of t