Troubled Waters, by Joseph Diescho

The following text is taken from the chapter "Close your eyes!" from Joseph Diescho's novel Troubled Waters.

Joseph Diescho  

All eyes in the silent assembly hall close. "And we thank you. Lord our Master, for your protection against all of the dark forces against our nation. Now heavenly Master, guide us today and tomorrow in this school. Give courage and strength and obedience to our younger generation, especially the seven boys going from Louis Botha High to the Christian camp in Moddersfontein next weekend. For it is at this camp that you opened the eyes and the minds of many of our leaders - to lead our country according to your will. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen." Young, hopeful eyes brimming with respect turn upwards. The figure standing erect behind the wooden rostrum continues, "This morning I have two announcements." Gearing his throat, the man folds his left hand in a round shape in front of his mouth, "I beg your pardon, I have three announcements." Two smoky blue eyes stare from the green walls to the floor back to the tall figure with hom-rimmed spectacles. To the boy the man looks distinguished. The headmaster, parting the left side of his hair with his right hand, looks across the filled room. "On behalf of all the staff, I would like to thank all the boys of the A Capella Choir for their wonderful performance in the Transvaal Regional Song Festival this year. They brought us two floating trophies and that makes this year, 1974, the eighteenth year in my twenty-one years as principal, that we have come back with at least two trophies. Your parents have sent messages of congratulations." A long index finger wags in the air. "But remember, next year - three trophies! Hah!?" Laughter and applause. The man allows a smile that shows the gold in his lower teeth. "Secondly I received a letter yesterday from the Minister of Education who intends to pay our school a visit at the end of this term. Some of you might already know that the Minister, His Honourable Pieter Van Heerden, was with me at this school many, many years ago. He went on to Government, but I chose to come back here - just to be given headaches every day by you monkeys... And now what you are all waiting for..." The blue eyes of the boy do not blink. "Every year our school participates in camp. It is an old tradition. The seven boys who have been selected will leave next Friday, driven there by one of our school drivers. These are boys who are about to become young men. Perhaps we should already address them as young men." He coughs out a stingy laugh. Students chuckle. "Next year, when they leave here, they will go and serve our country in the army. Then they will be real men, huh! All of them have shown strong leadership qualities and have made a deep impression on me and the other teachers. They are: Dawie Viljoen, Frederick Verster, Andries Malan, Nico Jooste, Gert Rousseau, Benjamin Steenkamp, and our head prefect, Willem Muller. The boy Andries, hearing his name and the long applause and shouting of "Willem, Willie," closes his eyes and leans back as the other boys pat him. Happy and full of youth, his mind races. I made it! I am my father's son! […]

This is an excerpt from Troubled Waters, by Joseph Diescho.

Title: Troubled Waters
Author: Joseph Diescho
Genre: Namibia Novel
Publisher: Gamsberg Macmillan
Windhoek, Namibia 1993 (Reprint 2005)
ISBN 0868488100 / ISBN 0-86848-810-0
Softcover, 13 x 21 cm, 195 pages