Below is information on 3 semi-historical novels of South Africa, each completely different.
These hardy, rustic Boers (pronounced boo-ers, meaning "farmers"; the German name Bower being related to the Dutch Boer) were not unlike the American Amish and Mennonites, and hard-working, godly Southerners, according to the Puritan Work Ethic, who just wanted to be left alone, to grow their crops, raise their livestock and families, ply their trade, and live a moral life of wholesomeness and hard work to honor God and provide a needed service to their kinsmen—but others with alien mindsets or evil hearts always try to interfere, dominate, steal, oppress, destroy.
I spent many months on each of these (and each was a rewarding experience); they are all fantastic, transport you to another time, are insightful, entertaining, gripping novels, based largely on historical fact, interwoven with a romanticized story line. Each of these would be an incredible movie or miniseries... that is, if any movie producer could be found that cared about historical truth and a wholesome story line.
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- Bulala: A True Story of South Africa (2009) Cuan Elgin, [Robert Alan Balaicius, Editor, contributor] 392 pages (including 3 maps), paperback, 18.38 + P&H;
[1838 was the Day of the Covenant, the most special day in Afrikaner history.]
Bulala is Zulu for “kill the wizard!” (wizard being what they first called the whites). The gripping tale of the beginnings of a small, brave, Christian nation born of both ends of the spectrum: conflict, turmoil, and tragedy as well as love, dedication, and hard work—this exciting historical account of the history of South Africa (from earliest times to the end of the 2nd Anglo-Boer War) is woven as a rich tapestry into the form of a novel. Dutch, English, French Huguenot, German, Indian, Irish, Koi, Malay, Portuguese, Scots, Xhosa, Zulu, and other peoples struggle with and against each other in this factual account, which depicts the events as they happened, as well as the beliefs in the hearts and the thoughts in the minds of those people during those times—yet while this moving saga reveals how and why things were done as they were, it does so without condemning or condoning behavior. The reader is free to draw his own conclusions and do his own moralizing. Deeply researched, the Scottish-Irish-descended South African-born author travelled over 15,500 miles [25,000 km.] across South Africa to every historical site mentioned in the narrative, in his first-hand investigative research. You will learn, laugh, and cry—but more importantly, understand the actual events which transpired in this controversial, southern-most African nation, without the bias of the media or the pressured slant of special-interest groups. Apart from being so highly entertaining that you will find it hard to put this book down, the historically accurate presentation will allow the non-South African reader to understand South Africa as well as it can possibly be understood by an outsider. Further, modern nations may possibly learn some lessons and avoid similar pitfalls which may threaten their domestic tranquility. An exciting book: sort of a cross between Shaka Zulu and Little House on the Prairie.
Eustace Mullins read it through several times and remarked,
“This is great, they ought to make a movie out of this one!”
Here is the glowing review by Ilana Mercer [Jewish] author of Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa (Hb., 319pp., available from STM for 20.00 (reg. 25.00) + P&H.
“Cuan Elgin is a rare breed: a born-and-bred South African man; an English-speaking Afrikaner, a Caucasian African, married to a tenth-generation descendant of hardy Trek-Boer pioneers; the dour indefatigable people whom Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described as “one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon earth.” Except that Cuan’s “Bulala” is never dour. Uneven, maybe—like the events it describes. Infuriating perhaps too—in part because it pulsates with conspiracy and pooh-poohs politically correct conventions. Nevertheless, Cuan writes with a great heart; his “Bulala” throbs with a passion for the South-Africa landscape and people. In the true tradition of the African storyteller, he lives and breathes Africa. And—also in the true tradition of the same storyteller—his voice is raw and real. Men and authentic Boer women will delight in the action-packed, intertwined story of Boer, Briton and Bantu. (The man knows his firearms!) Decades of emasculation—legal and cultural—have created a hunger among modern men for heroic, historic narrative, fiction and non-fiction. The story of the South African settlers is every bit as epic as that of the American settlers. Despite their comparable foibles and frailties, the last haven’t been blackened by historians as much as the first.”
[The Sequel to Bulala is mostly completed in its writing stage; but Cuan has been preoccupied with more-mundate pursuits such as trying to put food on the table while avoiding becoming the next casuality statistic of white genocide in a nation that has been returned to the law of the jungle in which only the jungle animals have any rights. What most people do not realize—due to being brainwashed with propaganda—the Dutch South Africans never owned the blacks or colored as slaves...! They only hired them as hired hands, and treated them well, just like most American slave owners treated their slaves well, building houses for them, providing food for them, etc. Also, the Dutch did not steal the land from the blacks. Part of it was uninhabited, part of it was purchased from the blacks and the whites built a prosperous civilization out of the wild—to which blacks later thronged. But before the Boers' arrival the blacks had not migrated that far south. When they did, the blacks nearly exterminated the smaller Khoi-Khoi / Khoi-San (Hottentots and Bushmen) and then undertook wars of rape, theft, arson, and extermination (not unlike the American Indians) against a peaceful people. Read these books to learn the truth, not propaganda.]
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- Just One More Chance (2014) Lorne J. Shields / Robert Alan Balaicius, 564pp., pb., 25.00 + P&H.
The story begins in Ireland and progresses like a whirlwind, which, to explain more would give away the suspense of the story. A gripping read you will not be able to put down and one of those rare books that you wish would never end. · One rash decision, a regrettable mistake, can snowball and cause a chain-reaction like an avalanche; so-far reaching one may wonder if it can be outrun even if he flees to the other side of the world. When such a brief mistake is made, as Tom McCauley finds out, it can carry you about like a beach-ball in the ocean, and all you can do is hang on for dear life and pray to God that you land safely, somewhere, eventually. · Here begins a touching story of down-to-earth people (well... most of them) often real life stories from an earlier era. A story of love and romance interwoven with cultures spanning several nations of a bye-gone era, hard work, drama, intrigue, foul-play, good versus evil, faithfulness, respect, devotion, desperation, and hope combined with real historical events. The epic story of all creation is presented in a whirl: a momentary fall from grace followed by repeated attempts at restoration, while battling a myriad of unforeseen obstacles to that goal which creep out of the past into the present like vipers from a pit that just won’t die. You will not be the same after reading this book; you may become a part of the drama itself: your heart knit with those of this story, as if they were family or dear friends. At least, that is how it affected me. Step back into the 1800s and enjoy an amazing story. . . · I cannot help but think of a paragraph penned by the eminent Charles Dickens, which shares similar sentiments with this moving, gripping, lively, fascinating story: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” (A Tale of Two Cities) —Editor, Adapter, Publisher, R.A.B. must read. could be next Hallmark movie / miniseries
Lorne (Lawrence) Shields, born in South Africa and an Irish citizen, was as a young man set to become one of the greatest hits in Nashville, but due to contract licensing, was not released from his South African contract, and thus, sadly, "missed that train".
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- A Rhino Crying a Nation Dying (2015) Jans Rautenbach (South Africa) edited by RAB, 606pp., 6.75” x 9.75”, pb., 32.00 + P&H.
A gripping historical novel similar in plot to “The Turner Diaries” and “The Hunter”; though set in South Africa and much more elaborate; hard to put down; very limited edition of 200 copies printed; which may become valuable collector’s items as a major actor/publisher in South Africa was interested in the book for a movie.
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See also this title (I have reprinted about a dozen and a half in this superb series; inquire for the others)