There are no written accounts by women like Rachel, but plenty of photographs documenting their presence in various camps. It might be unlikely that a girl like Rachel be as well educated as she was, but not impossible, as many Boer households were highly literate.
The inboekseling system is a part of South African history not widely known. The slave trade finally came to an official end in 1838 after a mandatory four-year period of ‘apprenticeship’ to acclimatise slaves to being free. It is clear that slavery or ‘apprenticeship’ practices continued beyond this date, because in 1851 the British government sent commissioners to negotiate with the Voortrekkers the terms by which they could govern themselves. Part of the provisions of this Sand River Convention agreement was that the Voortrekkers desist from their inboekseling practice. Nevertheless, there are records of magistrates registering children as ‘apprenticed’ to households beyond this date.
Acknowledgements
Thank you so much to everyone at Penguin Random House South Africa for publishing this novel, but especially to Fourie Botha and Beth Lindop for taking a risk on this first-time author, for your gentle accommodations and encouragement. To Claire Strombeck, editor whizz, for making double quick time and turning a manuscript into a real novel. Your humour and warm engagement with the text gave me a (usually impossible) insight into a reader’s thoughts. To Dr Garth Benneyworth who, in the early days of this story, allowed me a fascinating peek into concentration-camp archaeology, giving me thoughtful answers to foolish questions and actually making my plot credible. To Prof. Fransjohan Pretorius for generously answering a series of emails about life on commando. To David and Heather Doull, for a grippingly macabre discussion over lunch about paramedic protocol and fatal injuries. To my hosts at De Molen Farm near Clarens, for telling me stories of the valley, showing me the site of the old house destroyed by the British, and letting me find pieces of broken, charred china in the sheep pen. Nothing could have inspired me more to finish my manuscript than your cottage. To Bridget Latter, Lin Visser, and Phil Murray, my readers – your willingness to read and give honest feedback is testament to a long friendship. To Diane Stewart, thank you for walking beside me through the first two years of writing, for your encouragement and wisdom in a foreign world. To my family, who have shown all the excitement and pride about this process that I’ve been too scared to feel. And to Peter, my rock, who encouraged me to give myself permission to dream and then chase those dreams.
Suggested Reading
Boje, J & Pretorius, F. ‘Black Resistance in the Orange Free State During the Anglo–Boer War.’ Historia 58.1 (2013): 1–17.
Delius, P. The Land Belongs to Us: The Pedi Polity, the Boers and the British in the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley: UC Press, 1984.
Grobler, JEH. The War Reporter. The Anglo–Boer War Through the Eyes of the Burghers. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2004.
Hall, D. The Hall Handbook of the Anglo–Boer War. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1999.
Kinsey, HW. ‘The Brandwater Basin and Golden Gate Surrenders, 1900.’ Military History Journal 11.3/4 (1999).
Pakenham, T. The Boer War. London: Futura, 1982.
Pretorius, F. Life on Commando During the Anglo–Boer War 1899–1902. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1999.
Nasson, B. The War for South Africa. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2010.
Nasson, B & Grundlingh, A. (eds). The War at Home. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2013.
Roberts, B. Those Bloody Women. Three Heroines of the Boer War. London: John Murray Publishers, 1991.
Van Heyningen, E. The Concentration Camps of the Anglo–Boer War. Johannesburg: Jacana, 2013.
Von der Hyde, N. Field Guide to the Battlefields of South Africa. Cape Town: Random House Struik, 2013.
Clare Houston
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Copyright
Published in 2018 by Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd
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© 2018 Clare Houston
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First edition, first printing 2018
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ISBN 978-1-4152-0962-2 (Print)
ISBN 978-1-4152-1024-6 (ePub)
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Author photograph by Shane Doyle
Text design by Fahiema Hallam
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