I’m busy editing my historical novel, The Buried Chameleon, to send to a literary agent –if I can find one. The milieu in South Africa has changed since I wrote the novel. A year ago we faced corruption and a million problems, but now, since the President of the United States weighed in on a domestic issue, the mood is different.

For those who don’t know he gave an executive order to stop all funding to South Africa for 90 days until the perceived persecution of white farmers is investigated. He invited them to immigrate to America.

My daughter works with those infected by HIV/Aids and she said they only had funding till the end of January to continue their work.

In the current climate my novel about slavery set in the Cape of Good Hope (17th century) may not find a soul brave enough to publish it.

As I was editing my novel I came upon this line: They sold their children yet Kaatje, when given a choice, opted to remain a slave.

That got me thinking, why? And the strongest reason I could come up with was fear of the unknown. As a slave life was uncertain, you never knew when you may be sold, leaving behind family and friends. Your destiny was beyond your control.

So to be faced with a choice (for the first time in your life) must have been extremely stressful. Leaving a familiar life on the slave master’s farm to venture beyond its borders, which was forbidden before, was terrifying.

To choose the familiar was easier. It meant giving up your newfound freedom which, having never tasted it wasn’t difficult. Choosing the devil you know and all that.

But that mind-set was then transferred to future generations.

More than three hundred and fifty years later, when given a choice for a new democracy, the inhabitants of Cape Town – which was built on the foundations of the Cape of Good Hope – still voted for the off-spring of the slave master after being cynically courted by their political leaders.

Now these offspring want to declare the Cape as an independent state, co-opting the slaves’ descendants. Familiar? Yep. Fair? I’ll leave that for you to decide.