9 Unique Books Illustrating South Africa’s Landscapes and People

This Heritage Day I’m bringing you 9 books illustrating South Africa’s landscapes and people to celebrate the diverse cultural well that is South Africa. It wasn’t easy to choose only nine books depicting the breathtaking South African landscapes, its people, and their everyday life as reflected by in the local literature.

A treat: courtesy Peter Wright, Podcast Host, Author and Speaker, this 2nd edition printed in 1883 of “Story Of An African Farm” by Olive Schreiner – published as Ralph Irons.

See the silk embroidered book title?

1. The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner (set in 1883)

The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner presents the lives of Waldo, Em and Lyndall, from childhood to adulthood. The three live on a farm in the Karoo region of South Africa. One major event taking place during the story is the First Boer War. The book is semi-autobiographical as the two principal protagonists (Waldo and Lyndall) portray Schreiner’s life and philosophy.

“Very silently the great wagon rolled along the grass-covered plain. The driver on the front box did not clap his whip or call to his oxen, and Gregory sat beside him with folded arms. Behind them, in the closed wagon, she lay with the dog at her feet, very quiet, with folded hands. He, Gregory, dared not be in there. Like Hagar, when she laid her treasure down in the wilderness, he sat afar off:—“For Hagar said, Let me not see the death of the child.”
Evening came, and yet the blue mountain was not reached, and all the next day they rode on slowly, but still it was far off. Only at evening they reached it; not blue now, but low and brown, covered with long waving grasses and rough stones. They drew the wagon up close to its foot for the night. It was a sheltered, warm spot.
When the dark night had come, when the tired oxen were tied to the wheels, and the driver and leader had rolled themselves in their blankets before the fire, and gone to sleep, then Gregory fastened down the sails of the wagon securely. He fixed a long candle near the head of the bed, and lay down himself on the floor of the wagon near the back. He leaned his head against the kartel, and listened to the chewing of the tired oxen, and to the crackling of the fire, till, overpowered by weariness, he fell into a heavy sleep. Then all was very still in the wagon. The dog slept on his mistress’ feet, and only two mosquitoes, creeping in through a gap in the front sail, buzzed drearily round.”

The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner

Also courtesy Author Peter Wright we can glimpse at this typed dedication on “Story of an African Farm” by Olive Schreiner, 1883 edition.
This book was Schreiner’s first: “this little firstling of my pen” and, published in 1883, she used the pseudonym Ralph Iron (do read Peter’s moving comment below).

2. Fiela’s Child by Dalene Matthee (set in the 19th century)

Fiela’s Child by Dalene Matthee is set in the Knysna forests, in South Africa, where Fiela Komoetie and her family live. They are a Cape Coloured and, one day, they discover a white baby, an Afrikaner child, outside their door. And they adopt him, not considering the consequences.

“The power of a woman was different, he decided: sly, fearless, changeable as the moods of the sea, but he knew instinctively that that was the power against which his own would be measured.”

Fiela’s Child by Dalene Matthee

3. Joyful Trouble: Based on the True Story of a Dog Enlisted in the Royal Navy by Patricia Furstenberg (set during WW2)

When a Great Dane arrives at a Navy Base of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa nobody expects him to win everybody’s hearts, although breaking some rules along the way. As with any canines, challenges will arise along the way, some expected and some extraordinary. But, in the end, an entire town will stand up for this four-legged gentle giant.

“Well, since this is a yarn and sea story, a sailor story and sailors are famous for spinning tales, for telling sea stories that may not be entirely truth, I’ll begin with the traditional opening ‘this is not so…’ he started and his eyes rested on the seaman hat he had placed on his knees.
‘But all is true.
‘Our ship was anchored in the harbour, ready to leave on a short notice. The harbour was named Simon’s Bay, but sailors mostly used its old name, False Bay, that was given by navigators hundreds of years ago because it was often confused with Table Bay, a dangerous bay found a little further to the north. ‘The beautiful town of Simon’s Town began to  develop in the 1600s when the Dutch navigators first stopped here in search for fresh water, fruits and vegetables. (…) At first Simon’s Town had only a small military base, a baker who produced the bread, a carpenter who helped with wood needed for shelters and ships, a blacksmith who produced tools and horse shoes and a slaughter house, for meat.

Joyful Trouble by Patricia Furstenberg

4. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (set in 1948)

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton is a story of courage, endurance, hop and love. The Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom fight the land and the people riven by racial injustice.

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that’s the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.”

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

5. Eve Palmer, The Plains of Camdeboo: The Classic Book of the Karoo (1966)

For generations author Eve Palmer’s family have lived on the Karoo farm of Cranemere, situated on the Plains of Camdeboo. This family have battled for decades against this harsh desert; they have had to adapt to it, learning to fear, respect, and ultimately love it. (Penguin Randome House)

“At first encounter the Karoo may seem arid, desolate and unforgiving, but to those who know it, it is a land of secret beauty and infinite variety.”

Eve Palmer, The Plains of Camdeboo

6. Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk (set during South Africa’s apartheid years)

In the waning days of the South African apartheid, Milla, an elderly white woman, is silenced by a creeping paralysis. As she struggles to communicate with her maidservant turned caretaker, Agaat, the complicated history of their relationship is revealed. (Goodreads)

“First smile!! An unseasonal little shower of rain fell here, and a lot of butterflies drowned, so we put them in the sun and they came back to life, and flew up and then Agaat SMILED!”

Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk

7. The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda (set post 1994, during the new South African democracy with Xhosa nostalgia dating 150 years back)

In The Heart of Redness Zakes Mda sets a story of South African village life against a notorious episode from the country’s past. The result is a novel of great scope and deep human feeling, of passion and reconciliation.

“Bhonco is different from the other Unbelievers in his family, for Unbelievers are reputed to be such somber people that they do not believe even in those things that can bring happiness to their lives. They spend most of their time moaning about past injustices and bleeding for the world that would have been had the folly of belief not seized the nation a century and a half ago and spun it around until it was in a woozy stupor that is felt to this day.”

The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda

8. July’s People by Nadine Gordimer (set post 1994, in a near-future version of South Africa)

Gordimer wrote the book before the end of apartheid as her prediction of how it would end.

“In the wife’s hut a wavy pattern of broad white and ochre bands. In others – she did not know whether or not she was welcome where they dipped in and out all day from dark to light like swallows – she caught a glimpse of a single painted circle, an eye or target, as she saw it. In one dwelling where she was invited to enter there was the tail of an animal and a rodent skull, dried gut, dangling from the thatch. Commonly there were very small mirrors snapping at the stray beams of light like hungry fish rising. They reflected nothing. An impression – sensation – of seeing something intricately banal, manufactured, replicated, made her turn as if someone had spoken to her from back there.”

July’s People by Nadine Gordimer

9. Coconut by Kopano Matlwa (contemporary)

Coconut by Kopano Matlwa depicts how it was growing up as a black person living in white suburbs, where the cost of fitting in can be your very identity. The book is set to redefine what it means to be young, black and beautiful in the the New South Africa.

“Tshepo reckons that it is inevitable that one’s circle of friends will become smaller as one grows older. He reasons that when we begin we are similar, like two glasses of water sitting side by side on a clean tray. There is very little that differentiates us. We are simple beings whose interests do not extend beyond playing touch and kicking balls.”

Coconut by Kopano Matlwa

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