My copy of Dancing the Death Drill arrived from Cape Town recently. I had the opportunity to have a copy personalised by the author, hence the long distance order. No matter where you get your copy, it is a wonderful read. It is available in pring and Kindle from Amazon.Dancing the Death Drill opens in 1958 with a Paris waiter, Jean-Jacques Henri, stabbing two patrons to death. However, Jean-Jacques is not, as everyone thought, an Algerian but a South African named Pitso Motaung. His story is told by a friend to a reporter.
This is an excellent and often moving portrayal of the life of Pitso Motaung, a man straddling two worlds. His father, Cornelius de La Ray was a deserter from a Boer Commando during the Anglo-Boer War and his black mother is from the tribe that takes him in when he rides away. Born of this union and falling into the coloured racial division, Pitso isn't at home with either race—higher in status than the Blacks but lower than the Whites. Being of mixed race does have some benefits and Pitso gets a decent education and develops his affinity for languages which will stand him in good stead later. For reasons vague even to him at the time, Pitso volunteers for the South African Native Labour Contingent (SANLC) and heads to France on a troop ship to support the Allies during World War One. The SS Mendi transporting Pitso and over 800 of his fellow soldiers sinks in the British Channel after a collision and Pitso is one of the few survivors. The sinking occurs occurs slightly more than half way through the book and bridges the two parts of the narrative. During the struggle of the survivors, Pitso observes something that will drive later parts of the narrative. His intelligence and language skills have Pitso thriving when he finally joins his unit in France. Another tragic event in the course of his duties as a translator changes Pitso's life forever and, many years later, has him on trial for murder.
The books has a stirring and affirmative ending though, I confess, I would have liked a few more chapters.
The author beautifully builds a nuanced life for Pitso beginning before his birth with the unlikely pairing and doomed love between Boer and a young native woman. As a coloured, Pitso exists between two worlds and Khumalo shows what it must have been like, not really accepted by anyone. Some black Africans see him as uppity, others wonder why he doesn't move away and pass as white. He even has his own doomed love affair.
Most of the story takes place after the end of the Anglo-Boer war in 1902 and you can see the seeds being planted that will later emerge in apartheid. Africans volunteered for the SANLC for various reasons: the pay was good, they needed to escape the legal system. But for many, it held out the hope that service would lead to freedom. If they went to war, they would be rewarded with freedom and the vote. This optimism is especially moving because we know how it turns out.
The SANLC and the sinking of the SS Mendi are historical facts (see links below) and I really like how the author worked history into the story in a nuanced fashion. The story itself emerged because the Mendi sinking had long obsessed the author. It was a story that wasn't well known and the sacrifice of the black troops not recognized. No black troops were rewarded for their valor during the sinking or service in the SANLC. It would have been awkward to South African Government.
For the black troops there were many revelations. The SS Mendi stopped in Sierra Leone and the troops were escorted into town. they were amazed to see other blacks well dressed, educated, and going about daily business in stark contrast to what they experience back in South Africa. When they arrive in France, they find that the French people don't particularly care that they are black and accept their presence. The South African government recognized that this would be a problem and required that all black troops be accompanied by a white soldier. they had to be kept "away from the white women".
The B.P. Willan academic article linked below isn't listed as one of Fred's sources but if you read it you will see how well Fred researched the SANLC and worked its history into his story. A part that I find especially moving is the optimism among the native troups that their service will change things back in South Africa after the war. Their enthusiasm after a speech by King George V is enough to make you cry.
OK, I'm a retired academic librarian and I can't resist looking up the background material behind a work that included historical events. Below are some links I found informative and interesting.
The author beautifully builds a nuanced life for Pitso beginning before his birth with the unlikely pairing and doomed love between Boer and a young native woman. As a coloured, Pitso exists between two worlds and Khumalo shows what it must have been like, not really accepted by anyone. Some black Africans see him as uppity, others wonder why he doesn't move away and pass as white. He even has his own doomed love affair.
Most of the story takes place after the end of the Anglo-Boer war in 1902 and you can see the seeds being planted that will later emerge in apartheid. Africans volunteered for the SANLC for various reasons: the pay was good, they needed to escape the legal system. But for many, it held out the hope that service would lead to freedom. If they went to war, they would be rewarded with freedom and the vote. This optimism is especially moving because we know how it turns out.
The SANLC and the sinking of the SS Mendi are historical facts (see links below) and I really like how the author worked history into the story in a nuanced fashion. The story itself emerged because the Mendi sinking had long obsessed the author. It was a story that wasn't well known and the sacrifice of the black troops not recognized. No black troops were rewarded for their valor during the sinking or service in the SANLC. It would have been awkward to South African Government.
For the black troops there were many revelations. The SS Mendi stopped in Sierra Leone and the troops were escorted into town. they were amazed to see other blacks well dressed, educated, and going about daily business in stark contrast to what they experience back in South Africa. When they arrive in France, they find that the French people don't particularly care that they are black and accept their presence. The South African government recognized that this would be a problem and required that all black troops be accompanied by a white soldier. they had to be kept "away from the white women".
The B.P. Willan academic article linked below isn't listed as one of Fred's sources but if you read it you will see how well Fred researched the SANLC and worked its history into his story. A part that I find especially moving is the optimism among the native troups that their service will change things back in South Africa after the war. Their enthusiasm after a speech by King George V is enough to make you cry.
OK, I'm a retired academic librarian and I can't resist looking up the background material behind a work that included historical events. Below are some links I found informative and interesting.
Links
Interview with Fred Khumalo (youtube)
Interview of the author of We Die Like Brothers, an historical and archeological account of the sinking of the Mendi.
Interview with Fred Khumalo (youtube)
Interview of the author of We Die Like Brothers, an historical and archeological account of the sinking of the Mendi.
BBC article, Dancing the Death Drill
The South African Labour Contingent, 1916-1918 by B. P. Willan
World War I and the South African Labour Contingent
Fred Khumolo was born in 1966 in KwaZulu-Natal and is an award winning novelist as well as journalist, columnist, reporter, and short story writer. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Wits University and is the recipient of the Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University.
The South African Labour Contingent, 1916-1918 by B. P. Willan
World War I and the South African Labour Contingent
Fred Khumolo was born in 1966 in KwaZulu-Natal and is an award winning novelist as well as journalist, columnist, reporter, and short story writer. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Wits University and is the recipient of the Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University.
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