Written in the same style as The Source, that is, as a tapestry of short stories spanning the history of a nation from prehistoric to contemporary times. This book provides a wonderfully rich and unbiased history of South Africa, beginning with the brown-coloured nomadic tribes of the Kalihari Desert who hunted Springbok and Ostriches with their poisoned arrows. It moves on to the kingdom of Zimbabwe that flourished during the Middle Ages, and that traded with the Muslims during Islam's Golden Age, before Europe had even charted the vast coast of Africa. Michener gives an extremely insightful account of South Africa's founding, with Cape Town being established by the Dutch East Indies Trading Company as a stopover on the way to Indonesia. The trekboer and voortrekker expansion into the African veldt is described in a violent and hostile way, with the Dutch driving the natives off their land and building structures to defend themselves against marauders. Michener goes on to discuss the British takeover of South Africa, the ensuing hostility between the Boers and the British, and the culmination of this hostility in the Boer War. The original book, apparently did not go past this point, but the edition I read goes on to talk about the injustice of life under Apartheid, which we can appreciate more than ever, having had a rich historical overview of the development of tension between blacks and whites. The book finishes by describing the booming diamond industry which has fuelled South Africa's economy for much of the 20th century. A remarkable book that explains everything that everyone should know about South Africa, especially the Dutch-British hostilities, and the reasons behind the abhorrent implementation of Apartheid.
Author: James A. Michener
Year published: 1980
Filed in: Historical Epic