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I am a Coloured woman of South Africa. The blood flowing through me was despised by apartheid, for it was not pure and it was not White. Because of this, I struggled with feelings of self-doubt and shame.
This book tells the story of the Wauchopes, a Xhosa family who rose to prominence in the late 18th and early 19th centuries through the exploits of their patriarch, the Reverend Isaac Williams Dyobha Wauchope. Although this talented and restless man died heroically when serving as chaplain the troopship SS Mendi sank in 1917 after a collision off the Isle of Wight, taking more than 600 black South African troops to their deaths, it Is his life and work prior to his military service with which this book is concerned.
Theodor, the eighty-five year old protagonist in this engaging short novel, writes of his early years in Johannesburg in the 1930s and 1940s.
The story begins as he remembers how his journey began. It ends with his arrival in the fledgling Israeli state to serve his ancient homeland as a soldier-farmer on an outlying kibbutz. But the main focus is reserved for the often funny and always ironic accounts of the childhood and youth of an intelligent Jewish boy growing up in a dusty mining town in Africa.
Growing up in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa in the 1950’s and 1960’s the emphasis on the way of life was completely different to the present day some nearly 70 years later.
He writes of his reminiscences of his school days and especially his involvement in sport which was compulsory. Many of life’s lessons were learnt young on the rugby or cricket fields.
