Taung Wells
by Martin Koboekae
(Kwela)
Martin Koboekae is known as an award-winning playwright, having written and directed successful plays such as Bush Tale and Cats and Dogs. Thus one would expect Koboekae to do well writing a novel, and Taung Wells is not a disappointment.
Set in the 1800s, the main character is Ramoipone, who is blessed with both the skills to read, write and speak the “white man’s language” and with wealth — the latter inherited from his deceased parents. Because the white Griqualand West authority does not allow black families to keep more than 25 head of cattle, Ramoipone decides to leave for Taung, the Batlhaping capital in what is now the North West province. (In this story we see a missionary, the Reverend Jameson, enforcing the political authorities’ unpopular laws on land, armed with the ambition to lead his own church and graze his livestock without white man’s hindrances.)
Ramoipone leads a contingent of seven families on a 14-day trek to Molelema village in the Taung district. The village is under the leadership of the well-respected King Motlhabane.
In Molelema, Ramoipone encounters the rivalry of another wealthy man, Matong, whose pride is shaken by Ramoipone’s popularity with the villagers. Ramoipone is also unaware of Batswana customs, and initially offends the king — but despite this the king learns to respect him for his wisdom, literacy, knowledge of the Bible and natural leadership skills.
Then, several years later, the area is hit by the worst drought in its history. This is when the story really begins — the tale of how wells came to be dug in Taung, and the drama that accompanies this development. It is Ramoipone who convinces the king to dig a well, based on what he had learnt from a “Boer from Christiana”.
The digging of the well leads to episodes of jealousy, and further drama is generated by the arrival of a beautiful young woman, Mmadipere, Matong’s niece. The drama continues with deaths and other disasters in what is a gripping read.
Taung Wells hints at political resistance to colonial rule well before the 1912 formation of the South African Native National Congress, the forerunner to the African National Congress. Also, one learns that before the 1913 Land Act black farmers and their families could simply trek to other settlements if need be, creating a class of black “voortrekkers”.
The author successfully documents Tswana tribalism, especially with regard to their relationship to the Basarwa (the bushmen) and the Zulus. The reader may be worried, though, by what could read as tribal stereotypes — the powerful Zulu warrior, the moTswana womaniser with good looks. (I asked the author about this and he says he is simply echoing historical facts and perceptions. The novel is, after all, based on fact.)
Koboekae does pinpoint the double morality of the missionaries, in the character of the Reverend Jameson, who enforces the Griqualand Authority’s laws. The missionary foists these unfair laws on the same people he is teaching about the love of God.
Another interesting thing that emerges is the ambiguous position of women in a patriarchal society. Every time Ramoipone and Matong have a conflict, their wives tongue-lash them back to order. These women are their husbands’ consciences.
Koboekae has written Taung Wells with the accuracy of a historian and the dramatic detail of a playwright. The book is a successful fusion of fact and fiction, a story of political resistance in rural areas, a story of the triumph of human spirit and moral evolution — and it’s a page-turner too.
The House of the Eagle
by Duncan Sprott
(Faber)
There seems to be a renewed vogue for fiction dealing with the ancient world, as the success of Manfredi indicates. Sprott’s novel, the first in a quartet that deals with the Greek dynasty of the Ptolemies, who ruled Egypt for 12 generations — ending with the collapse of Queen Cleopatra’s rule.
Antwerp
by Nicholas Royle
(Serpent’s Tail)
A thriller from the author of The Director’s Cut, set in Belgium and revolving around a mysterious filmmaker. “A tonic for our jaded palettes,” said fellow novelist Jonathan Coe.
Snow
by Orhan Pamuk
(Faber)
Much acclaimed for his historical mystery My Name Is Red, Turkish author Pamuk now returns in this political thriller to his homeland as it exists today. A poet, Ka, visits a small Armenian village, and promptly gets snowed in. He’s stuck there, discovering more than he wants to know.