About the Book
A boy leaves his village in eastern Northern Rhodesia under dramatic circumstances. He first gets to learn skills of survival in the modern world in Lusaka, the capital city of modern day Zambia. Then he ends up in apartheid South Africa as a prospective mineworker in Johannesburg. From here his life changes forever in a totally unexpected way, taking a whole new direction. He eventually goes on to turn South African big business upside-down in his mission to have the workers' work and living conditions improved. Raised to go out in the world to find a new home for his people, he is guided and protected by his people's ancestral spirits. The latter manifesting themselves in both human and animal forms. His is a world of magic, witchcraft, and wonder striving to triumph over evil; the latter coming out through racism, tribalism, and xenophobia. As a grown-up family man in South Africa, he encounters the normal challenges of being a husband and parent. But his challenges are compounded by the fact that he is a foreigner more resourceful than many a local man. This is a source of jealousy and awe. When one of his teenage children gets into an illicit business line, he is confronted with the nightmare of every parent raising children. As if that weren't enough, the teenager's health and wellbeing are compromised in the process. This is a story of an emigrant's defiance against ignorance, backwardness, poverty, and exploitation. It's a story of making, and living with hard choices in the diaspora. It addresses aspects of religion, faith, God, and history with respect to power relations between the races, and tribes. It is a story of aspects of ancient African culture colonialism tried in vain to suppress and eliminate. Although dismissed as superstition and flights of fancy by the so-called modern and civilized, African witchcraft and mysticism are today as real and as important to people's lives as the Pope is to the Catholics. These special attributes are played out with much sensitivity in this story. Enjoy!
About the Author: This is my second novel. Thank you for reading it. I am a Norwegian citizen originally from South Africa, where I was born in 1960. Growing up in exile in Zambia from the mid-teens to the late twenties, I would become a man in Norway in later adulthood years. I hold a Bachelor of Arts (BA), Humanities and Social Sciences [African Development Studies (ADS), Economics] degree from The University of Zambia (UNZA), Lusaka. A holder of a 6th Dan Black Belt Karate Master Degree, I am an internationally acclaimed Martial Arts teacher and pioneer in three countries, namely, Norway, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Professionally, I am also internationally acclaimed as skilled and experienced Therapeutic Massage Therapist, Reflexologist, and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner Life/ Executive Coach. The ideas of reading and writing were first introduced to me by Catholic nuns at a primary school in Lesotho. My grandmother gave me my first ever newspaper to read, Lesotho Times, as a six-seven year old. My mother would later encourage reading as a hobby through passing onto me South African women's weekly magazines in the early- mid 1970s. My father's inclusion of The Gideon's Bible in my reading list took my appreciation of the English language to the next level. Introduction to the concept of a library was first introduced to me at my uncle, Mr OB Chilembo's home in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1975. At Kamwala Secondary School, Lusaka, Mrs Gail Armstrong, English Literature teacher, would inspire in me the idea and thrill of creative writing. While at UNZA, Mr Owen Sichone, now PhD, taught me how to write and think, my Karate teacher and mentor of more than thirty-five years, Professor Stephen Chan, OBE, has continually inspired me to think and write. This work is also dedicated to all these people, as well as the many, many writers and thinkers across the board whose works I've had the honour and privilege to read, both for pleasure and, most importantly, knowledge and understanding of how humanity both keeps it together and messes it up on planet earth, as well as the universe. I always aspire to demonstrate and maintain the highest levels of intellectual, academic, and thought expressions, as well as language integrity in my writings. Any emergent falsities, internal fallacies, and contradictions in my works I alone shall take full responsibility for. I'm on a sabbatical in South Africa at the time of publication.