Roots of Outrage
South Africa – a land long run asunder by age-old struggles fro freedom. Now the apartheid era is brought vividly to life.Accused of treason following an illicit affair with activist Patti Ghandhi, journalist Luke Mahoney is forced to flee into exile. Only when South Africa finally moves into a new era is it safe for him to return – after long years of reporting on the racial oppression and the bloodshed from beyond its borders. It is a time of momentous change, uncertain optimism, fear and forgiveness. With unforeseeable speed, the ANC is unbanned, Nelson Mandela is released – and a ghost from Luke’s past returns. Suddenly his new life with Afrikaner academic Katrina de la Rey is thrown into turmoil, as the violence ravaged country braces itself for the first historic elections.
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JOHN GORDON DAVIS
ROOTS OF OUTRAGE
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1994
Copyright © John Gordon Davis 1994
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com
John Gordon Davis asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780007574391
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780008119294
Version: 2014-12-16
‘John Gordon Davis has hit the jackpot again. Highly recommended … this epic volume cries out to be filmed.’
Natal Mercury
‘Captures perfectly the emotions, hopes and fears of a very explosive yet exciting time. It is a story so well told you can smell and feel Africa on every page.’
African Panorama
‘A sweeping history, politically questioning and charged with passion.’
The Star
‘Great holiday reading. This is a huge saga of history, politics, romance and adventure set against the turbulent background of South Africa.’
Eastern Province Herald
‘North and South and Gone With the Wind wrapped into one. A great read.’
Sunday Tribune
This book is dedicated to my wife, Rosemary
The story of South Africa is real. The characters, with obvious exceptions, are fictitious.
CONTENTS
Southern Africa at the Time of the Great Trek
South Africa at the time of the Boer War, 1899
(Modern names of provinces/countries are underlined)
The gallows stood ready, silhouetted. These hard, rolling hills of the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony were soaked in the blood of the Kaffir Wars, and today more blood was to be spilt at the execution of the five ringleader Boers of the Slagter’s Nek rebellion – at the very place where they had taken the oath to drive the British into the sea.
The hangman, who had journeyed up from the coast, had brought only enough rope to hang one man at a time, so the magistrate had acquired more, but unbeknownst to everybody it was rotten. Now five nooses dangled, and gathered around were the relatives of the condemned, the other rebels who had been sentenced to imprisonment and the Dutch farmers from miles around who had been ordered to attend to witness how seriously the British took rebellion. And now, from the direction of the military post, came the beat of drums, and the wagon bearing the condemned.
The drummers slow-marched. Slowly they advanced up the rise to the gallows. The condemned men climbed down off the wagon and mounted the scaffold. One after the other, the hangman tied their ankles, slipped the nooses over their necks. When all was ready, the Reverend Harold led the assembly in prayer. The magistrate ordered the drums to roll: softly, then louder and louder. The plank was kicked away, the men plunged into their death-fall, there came the dreadful wrench on their necks, and four of the ropes snapped.
