The runaway horses, by Joyce Kotze

The runaway horses, by Joyce Kotze. Jonathan Ball Publishers SA. Cape Town; Johannesburg; South Africa, 2015. ISBN 9781868426393 / ISBN 978-1-86842-639-3

The runaway horses, by Joyce Kotze. Jonathan Ball Publishers SA. Cape Town; Johannesburg; South Africa, 2015. ISBN 9781868426393 / ISBN 978-1-86842-639-3

Joyce Kotze, author of The Runaway Horses grew up in Namibia, studied in Cape Town and worked as a radiographer on the conflict-torn borders of Southern Africa. Her interest in war and its effects on the lives of those caught up in it, stems from her family history.

The Meeting of Cousins

Wintersrust, Transvaal, 1886

THE FACT THAT HE HAD BRITISH COUSINS, not ordinary English-speaking folk, but proper British cousins, had never troubled Martin de Winter. It belonged to his mother s distant childhood, a time that did not fit into their lives here on the farm. It was like a tale in a book or a reading from the Bible: the story was known but there was no evidence to substantiate it. Charles and James Henderson existed only in letters that his mother received from her sister in England, every month a new chapter. But now he was about to meet head-on with the evidence; his cousins, sons of a Redcoat colonel, the enemy, were on their way to the Transvaal. Martin balanced on a branch in the tallest milkwood tree by the drift. His father had left for Rustenburg to collect the Hendersons off the stagecoach and he was watching for the return of the horse-cart. Waiting stretched the afternoon into eternity. The heat was unsparing. Not a breath of wind played with the leaves of the marula and wild olive trees. And in the distance the mountain fused with the scorching sky, the sun still a hand-span from the tall peak in the west. His eyes travelled to Soetvlei, the neighbouring farm. The Maree family was on a visit to Kuruman and would only return the following month. He needed Buks Maree, his friend, on this day of all days, but Buks didn't like the Engelse either. He would only have made matters worse. 'You're not looking properly! Dust! Over there/ came his sister's dramatic voice from under the tree. In English! Stefanie had refused to speak Afrikaans since the news of the Hendersons' visit. Martin turned his gaze to the vlei. Plodding past the ploughed fields were the cattle, a movement of multicoloured hides, black-tipped horns, sharp as Zulu spears, catching the sun. Bleating their way to the opposite side of the vlei came the sheep. They would not drink together. Cattie, sheep, horses; each to their own kind. Like Xhosa and Zulu. Like Boer and Brit. It's Old Klaas bringing the cattle to water,' he called down to Stefanie. 'Do they wear shoes, Ouboet? I won't! Never!'Karel shouted up to Martin. 'Must we speak English all the time?' Rudolf asked. 'Like Ma and Stefanie?' Squatting under the tree, his six-year-old twin brothers gaped at him like baby barn owls. 'Of course we have to speak English,' Martin said. 'The English only speak English, stupid! They don't know a word of Afrikaans. Not a word!' 'What do they look like, I wonder?' Karel called. Martin had no notion what his cousins looked like. He and his brothers resembled their father in all details; brownish-blond hair, deep blue eyes and square chins. Their cousins probably took after his mother: light-brown hair, slight of build. 'Well, Charles is fourteen. Short and fat?' Martin said. 'James is eleven. Thin and scrawny, like our sister?' 'I'm not scrawny! I'm small and delicate. And almost ten.' Stefanie tossed her blonde plait over her shoulder. 'Our cousins are like me. Grand and English.' 'Missy-prissy!' Karel yanked at her pinafore. 'Oh, let go, you little pest!' She aimed a kick at him. Rudolf grabbed her foot, pulled her down and a scuffle ensued. Martin scaled down the tree and separated his siblings. Rudolf sank back on the ground. 'We'll be called traitors. Our uncle is a Redcoat.' 'We'll be lower than baboon shit.' Karel spat to his left. 'Ma says his coat is blue, not red,' Stefanie said, 'with gold - real gold -buttons. Oh, I wish I could see it!'  [...]

This is an excerpt from The runaway horses, by Joyce Kotze.

Title: The Runaway Horses
Author: Joyce Kotze
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers SA
Cape Town; Johannesburg; South Africa, 2015
ISBN 9781868426393 / ISBN 978-1-86842-639-3
Softcover, 15 x 23 cm, 340 pages, 1 map

Kotze, Joyce im Namibiana-Buchangebot

The runaway horses

The runaway horses

The runaway horses is a towering story of love, loyalty and betrayal in the time of the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa.