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bending_sickleI've taken possession of a poor, sadly abused book I found at the Flying Pig Beach Hostel called The Sentinel by Madge Swindells. (Don't bother with the Wiki, there's no article on her, though she's registered on the list of authors).
It's set in the dying years of apartheid-South Africa, 1982-1991.
Since this is a subject I know near to nothing about - even when we did a group project on it, my friend Roisin did most of it, voluntarily, as she'd just moved from South Africa. It was the first time I'd heard of it, back in 1998, which is extremely depressing when you think about it.
To think of all the historic events that have happened in my life time - seriously historic, like the fall of the Berlin Wall and Russia, and the end of apartheid and the split of Czechoslovakia** - and how blissfully unawares I was, how ignorant I still am of them... Depressing, I say again.
Especially because ever since I've been very little, I've been singing along to Eddy Grant's Gimme Hope Jo'Anna, never realizing exactly what I was singing until years later. As a child I'd always thought it was about a man in the gallows due to be hanged (or hung) at daybreak, pining for his girl, Joanna.
So with this novel, I'm learning all sorts of historical stuff - though not enough, because unlike most good historical novels, she doesn't give much background explantaion, so I had to crack my knuckles and go on Wiki.
The History of South Africa in the Apartheid Era - the Soweto Riots, the South African 32 Battalion, the South African Defense Force and the legal definition and ramifications of apartheid.
Nelson Mandela and the Rivonia Trial aren't mentioned as they happen waaay prior to the events in the novel.
One of the central characters, a foster child, is recalssified from white to coloured, and has to struggle with how she now sees herself and how this changes how others see her. The two other main characters, both male, join oppsing sides of the anti-apartheid forces.
I've been learning words, too, though kaffir (as an ethnic slur) I had a vague idea of. (Sort of like what I had with coolie in The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by MGVassanji (review.) Gammat is a new word, presumably Afrikaans, meaning "halfbreed" (highly possible it's used as a slur, not just description), but it's not on the Allmighty Internet. These terms led to the list of terms for multiraciality and the caste system in colonial Latin America.
What I didn't know, and had to resort to Wiki to find out, thanks to only the most gruesome of details being provided in the novel, as necklacing as a form of lynching. All I'm saying is that it involes a car tire, gasoline and fire.
Of course, once on Wiki, I then explored linguistics, like code-switching, Macaronic language, Spanglish, and English as a lingua franca for Europe.
I really ought to track down a copy of Forgiveness, starring the lovley Arnold Vosloo. You know, apart from the recent Mandela film, Goodbye, Bafana, I think it's called.
Meanwhile, there's YouTube: Life Under Apartheid, Exposing the Myth: White South Africans Support Apartheid, The New Apartheid of South Africa, Witness to Apartheid, and finally, The Apartheid Comparison and Is Israel An Apartheid State.
* Edward Heath
** Ok, not "seriously historic", but I remember first hearing of the country in 4th grade as "the smallest country in the world". It was a filthy lie, but since then I've always smiled at the idea of this tiny country splitting even smaller. Also, that is one hellish way to spell the sound "chek".
It's set in the dying years of apartheid-South Africa, 1982-1991.
Since this is a subject I know near to nothing about - even when we did a group project on it, my friend Roisin did most of it, voluntarily, as she'd just moved from South Africa. It was the first time I'd heard of it, back in 1998, which is extremely depressing when you think about it.
To think of all the historic events that have happened in my life time - seriously historic, like the fall of the Berlin Wall and Russia, and the end of apartheid and the split of Czechoslovakia** - and how blissfully unawares I was, how ignorant I still am of them... Depressing, I say again.
Especially because ever since I've been very little, I've been singing along to Eddy Grant's Gimme Hope Jo'Anna, never realizing exactly what I was singing until years later. As a child I'd always thought it was about a man in the gallows due to be hanged (or hung) at daybreak, pining for his girl, Joanna.
So with this novel, I'm learning all sorts of historical stuff - though not enough, because unlike most good historical novels, she doesn't give much background explantaion, so I had to crack my knuckles and go on Wiki.
The History of South Africa in the Apartheid Era - the Soweto Riots, the South African 32 Battalion, the South African Defense Force and the legal definition and ramifications of apartheid.
Nelson Mandela and the Rivonia Trial aren't mentioned as they happen waaay prior to the events in the novel.
One of the central characters, a foster child, is recalssified from white to coloured, and has to struggle with how she now sees herself and how this changes how others see her. The two other main characters, both male, join oppsing sides of the anti-apartheid forces.
I've been learning words, too, though kaffir (as an ethnic slur) I had a vague idea of. (Sort of like what I had with coolie in The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by MGVassanji (review.) Gammat is a new word, presumably Afrikaans, meaning "halfbreed" (highly possible it's used as a slur, not just description), but it's not on the Allmighty Internet. These terms led to the list of terms for multiraciality and the caste system in colonial Latin America.
What I didn't know, and had to resort to Wiki to find out, thanks to only the most gruesome of details being provided in the novel, as necklacing as a form of lynching. All I'm saying is that it involes a car tire, gasoline and fire.
Of course, once on Wiki, I then explored linguistics, like code-switching, Macaronic language, Spanglish, and English as a lingua franca for Europe.
I really ought to track down a copy of Forgiveness, starring the lovley Arnold Vosloo. You know, apart from the recent Mandela film, Goodbye, Bafana, I think it's called.
Meanwhile, there's YouTube: Life Under Apartheid, Exposing the Myth: White South Africans Support Apartheid, The New Apartheid of South Africa, Witness to Apartheid, and finally, The Apartheid Comparison and Is Israel An Apartheid State.
* Edward Heath
** Ok, not "seriously historic", but I remember first hearing of the country in 4th grade as "the smallest country in the world". It was a filthy lie, but since then I've always smiled at the idea of this tiny country splitting even smaller. Also, that is one hellish way to spell the sound "chek".
