The Covenant

by James A. Michener

James A. Michener’s masterly chronicle of South Africa is an epic tale of adventurers, scoundrels, and ministers, the best and worst of two continents who carve an empire out of a vast wilderness. From the Java-born Van Doorn family tree springs two great branches: one nurtures lush vineyards, the other settles the interior to become the first Trekboers and Afrikaners. The Nxumalos, inhabitants of a peaceful village unchanged for centuries, unite warrior tribes into the powerful Zulu nation. And the wealthy Saltwoods are missionaries and settlers who join the masses to influence the wars and politics that ravage a nation. Rivalries and passions spill across the land of The Covenant, a story of courage and heroism, love and loyalty, and cruelty and betrayal, as generations fight to forge a new world.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Africa, Historical, South Africa, Classics, Novels

1080 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

James Albert Michener is best known for his sweeping multi-generation historical fiction sagas, usually focusing on and titled after a particular geographical region. His first novel, Tales of the South Pacific , which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Toward the end of his life, he created the Journey Prize, awarded annually for the year's best short story published by an emerging Canadian writer; founded an MFA program now, named the Michener Center for Writers, at the University of Texas at Austin; and made substantial contributions to the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, best known for its permanent collection of Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings and a room containing Michener's own typewriter, books, and various memorabilia.

Michener's entry in Who's Who in America says he was born on Feb. 3, 1907. But he said in his 1992 memoirs that the circumstances of his birth remained cloudy and he did not know just when he was born or who his parents were.

Reviews

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never believed I could understand the complicated, bloody, perplexing history of South Africa. Leave it to Michener to prove me wrong. This was published in 1980. I wish Jimmy was still around to provide a follow-up from 1980 to the present.
1235 pages! And it only took me 8 1/2 weeks. This is my big accomplishment for the year. It may even be the longest book I've ever read. If I don't get through anything else on my 2011 challenge shelf, that will be okay.

[Brett C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great if you enjoy James Michener's books. His style reads and flows almost like a history textbook but is filled with characters and events that add to the overall narrative. This one was similar to 'Alaska' because the plot starts out in prehistoric South Africa and gradually moves into the 20th century. What makes it unique is the narrative has characters with dialogue, interaction, and continual transitions into the future. The books follows prehistoric man, the history of the various people of South Africa, gradual colonization of the Dutch, the Trekboers and Afrikaners, tensions and wars (the Zulu and the Bantu, the Boer Wars), and leads up to the Apartheid of the 1900s.

One aspect of the book I thought was neat was the title of the book, ‘The Covenant.’ The title comes from how a Dutch family took it upon themselves to keep a covenant with God. They viewed themselves as 'New Israelites' and were obligated to make a covenant the God in order to obtain redemption. The narrative is on page 190-1:
“God had led the Israelites through such dark periods and He would the Dutchmen.

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised...He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
- Genesis 17:11, 13

And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.
- Genesis 17:23
And our covenant is baptism!"

This book had a lot of information and I learned quite a bit. I would recommend it to someone who has interest in South Africa and wishes to learn more. Thanks!

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Michener. The story behind South Africa. And when I say behind, that is truly Michener's style. He starts with the beginning of time, how the earth was formed, the first people to populate the area, and on to the present day. An incredible amount of information, but entertaining to read as he masterfully follows several families whose lives cross again and again over centuries.

[Allison Corin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to review. As with all Michener books, it is well researched and written.

Anytime I recommend one of his books, I must verify that the intended reader loves history, loves reading, and is willing to hunker down and delve through slow stories to enjoy the incredible wealth of knowledge that can be gained from his stories. The covenant is no different. To read this story takes a level of patience and desire that most books, even most historical novels, do not require.

That being said, of all the Michener books I have read, I think this may be his finest, especially in terms of how he describes the mindset and motivations of the various groups.

Many of the characters are so unlikable or belligerent that you want to shake some 21st century sense into them, but that's easy to say from my couch in Miami.

This is certainly a study on how NOT to develop and run a diverse, fair society, but that's kind of the point.

It really is too bad that we don't get to see this story through to the end of apartheid; however, if this had been written in 2014 there would undoubtably be future history that readers a hundred years from now would lament not being being included.

[Daniel Villines · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read The Covenant nearly twenty years ago. The book was recommended to me by a South African associate when I mentioned that I was traveling to South Africa for an upcoming vacation. At the time, apartheid had already died a surprisingly peaceful death and Nelson Mandela had completed a relatively quiet and apparently successful five years in office as the first president of a new government. At the time, I took the book very superficially. After all, the entire content of The Covenant had happened in the past.

With this second reading, some twenty years later, my older mind was awed by the mountain of South African history that parallels that of the United States. Both nations overran and subjugated their native inhabitants, both nations established governments that placed power exclusively in the hands of their colonists, and both governments codified their beliefs in white supremacy.

The laws in effect in both nations were similar in their desire to repress those with non-white backgrounds. The difference was that South Africa needed to be more draconian. South Africa was repressing a majority of its people while the United States focused on a minority. In both cases, however, the beliefs that drove these injustices were fueled by greed, self-serving religious interpretations, and peer-based circular reasoning.

In 1994, more than a decade after the story in The Covenant ends, reality landed in the lap of the white South African government. And to its credit, their leaders cooperated with the majority of South Africans to bring about a peaceful end to their institutional racism. Some may argue that the US did the same thing much earlier. However, the reality is that freedoms in the US allowed for the circumvention of laws by pushing minority repression underground. Racially discriminatory laws were transformed into racially biased unwritten codes of conduct that still permeate US society today.

In continuing with the parallels between the two countries, the most alarming aspect of this book is the process that the South African minority used to enact their racial agenda. As white Americans slowly diminish into a new minority, their actions look very much like those of the South African minority of the past. They are using the constructs of government to secure power including gerrymandering control of state legislatures and congressional districts, passing laws aimed at disenfranchising non-white voters, and electing nationalists leaders who display a obvious racial favoritism towards the emerging white minority.

South Africa could serve as a tangible model for the new white minority in the US to gain control of the nation. And even more concerning is that the government of the United States still possesses a built in favoritism towards the rural states where most of the new minority reside; a favoritism that is not unlike the one that existed in South Africa prior to 1994.

The Covenant, as a work of historical fiction, is very long (like this review). However, the long detailed history imparted by Michener all leads up to the book’s ending at the zenith of apartheid and the beginnings of its downfall. The book gives the reader a true sense of the beliefs and fallacies that were fermented and reaffirmed over centuries in the minds of the Afrikaners who ended up governing the nation, and leaves no room for speculation as to why apartheid came into being.

[Johnny D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I promised myself when I considered writing a review of this gigantic tome ...

Woah there buddy, isn't it a little redundant to be calling a tome gigantic? If it's a tome it is gigantic by its very definition, or are you saying that it's especially large, even for a tome?

Alright, so when I was considering writing a review of this tome, I made a promise to myself not to use the word epic.

Newsflash, genius, you are writing a review and you just used the word epic. Mission failed, promise to self broken (you suck).

... Anyway, I did not want to use the word epic to describe this novel, but I realized that there isn't another word that would describe it adequately.

Oh look, I have a thesaurus. Check it out: Inflated, grandiose, gargantuan, monumental, towering, gigantic, Brobdingnagian ...

Sooo, this is a big book and if you're not interested in South African history, it might not be something you want to read.

Durrr, hey I'm not interested in reading about South African history, I think I'll read this monstrous (thank you, thesaurus) Michener book that focuses entirely on South Africa. IS ANYONE THAT STUPID?

Yes, as a matter of fact ...

But do you think that anyone reading your review is that stupid?

Of course not, they're obviously individuals of highly evolved taste and intelligence. I just thought that maybe they don't know what the book is about.

Do you honestly believe that someone interested in this book went to YOUR review first? Like, oh hey, I'm just going to read this random review by a dude I don't know rather than reading the BLURB THAT IS RIGHT BESIDE THE BLOODY BOOK.

You may have a point.

You're dern right I have a point, you soft-headed cheese eater.

Cheese eater?

You don't eat cheese?

I do, but it's a rather weak insult.

Whatever

Anyway, this book is a long read, but it's well worth the time invested. In my opinion, this is Michener's best.

Have you read every Michener book?

No.

Then how can you say that? What if his best book is "Mexico"?

It isn't.

Listen, you lumpy-headed simpleton, can you guarantee beyond all doubt that one of the many Michener books that you haven't read isn't his best?

No, but ...

Then your opinion isn't worth much, is it?

Fine. I just thought this was a really good book and, having read a sizable selection of Michener's works, I have a hard time imagining a better one.

Oh, so we're to be held hostage, as review readers, by the limits of your poverty-stricken imagination?

Fine. This is an excellent book, that's all I'm saying.

I think what the reviewer is trying to say, for any readers who have made it this far, is that you should probably read another review if you want any actual meaningful analysis of this book

Shut up.

[Jonathan Dunsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Michener's epic book on South-Africa. It tells the story of that land from the early settlements by the Dutch, through the expansion of it by English immigrants and others, to the South-Africa of the Apartheid age, shortly before it was eliminated.

The tumultuous and violent history of South-Africe is told with Michener's careful research and adherence to detail. The people and their struggles and the values that drove them enrich the story and add the personal touch to the sweeping changes around them.

It is a tragic story of slavery, struggles against elements, racism, war, and love. There are many characters in this novel, as it spans hundreds of years.

You will read about Cecil Rhodes, the rise of the Zulu Empire, the Boer wars and the concentration camps that the British erected during that war.

It also provides a good look at the evil of Apartheid, how it was established, and how many whites in the country knew it could not last.

As with many Michener books, you learn something as you enjoy the great story. This was a fantastic read.

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admit, I am a Michener fanatic! I read this book when it first came out and so much of it just stuck with me over the years that I decided to reread it. First of all, 1240 pages! Wow, wow, wow!!! Michener crams this book with outstanding usage of the history of the county and then blend his fictitious families to be part of those events. Did a ton of fact-checking as I went along and he was spot on with his history - having the internet made it easy for me to do this. He allows us to see Africa through the eyes of competing groups that live and settled there from the Hottentots to the Xhosa to the Dutch and English, and we get to understand some of the reasoning behind the Boer (Dutch farmer) War and eventual domination of the country. By the end, he ably points out the mistakes of the Boers and their use of Apartheid to control and dominate a group of people and a country. Obviously, the book was written before that institution was torn down, and I am certain that Michener would have loved to have been able to add a few chapters to help analyze how that happened and what has happened to South Africa since that time. But, this is one fantastic effort and was done in his most productive years when he was writing Chesapeake, Centennial, & Texas. Well worth the time and effort to read this wonderful historical fiction novel. He is the best of the genre without a doubt!

[Will Semin]

Essential.

[Jacques Bezuidenhout · Rating 4 out of 5]

tl;dr - Read the book, don't listen to the audio

I listened to the Audiobook (if you can even call it that).
It is actually a 1993 tape recording with a monotonous narrator that cannot pronounce a single word related to the Dutch, Afrikaners, Xhosa, Zulu.
Being about 60 hours of audio, it gets a bit tedious being told to reverse, or turn the tape around every 30 minutes.
And if the narrator wasn't bad enough on his own, you had this static (sea shell) type background throughout the whole book.
I truly cannot fathom why there was no effort made to re-record Michener's books.

With that out of the way. The book was so good, that I ended up ignoring all the narration complaints and spend a month listening to the history of South Africa.

I've never cared much for knowing my history very well.
But was recommended the author by a friend, and figured that if i'm going to engage in the history of any country, it might as well be my own.
And I'm not sorry at all.

At the back of this book, I'm actually quite angry that history doesn't get taught in this type of format at school level. I probably don't know a single person that enjoyed history at school. But being taught in a novel format with relatable characters, I couldn't stop listening and I can recall most of the history with relative accuracy of more or less which years that happened.

The book hit quite close to home. Being an Afrikaner, raised in the Dutch Reformed church, born at the time this book was written. It was in the time when things weren't going that well in South Africa, as the book accurately depicts. And only now do I have a full picture of what lead up was to the different phases of South Africa's evolution.

This book won't be for everyone. You either need to be a big lover of history, or have a direct correlation to the history of South Africa. Whether that is through the Dutch, the Afrikaner, the Coloureds, the Hottentots, the Huguenots, the English, the Xhosa, the Zulu (or even the German and Indian settlers sent from London).

The story is very much told from each culture's own perspective. Giving a solid understanding of what the differences/misunderstandings were and why. Having the full parallel history through the centuries to see why certain events happened. The main thread also makes the same families lives cross again and again over the centuries.

The second half of the book does slow down the pace quite a bit. And I suspect it might be due to the grim nature of the content. Going into the Zulu war, then the English war, then apartheid.

To summarize the major events/eras I got out of this book:
- Bushmen running into the blacks
- Merchants from Zimbabwe exploring Africa for Rhino horn and gold
- Blacks moving up in Africa to Zimbabwe whom were far advanced in the time
- Travel / Trade between Java, the Spice Islands and the Asian countries
- Dutch travel between Amsterdam and Java having to stop in Cape Town
- Settling in Cape Town to have food/drink for the Dutch travellers
- Dutch exploring/moving into Africa and encounters with the locals
- The start of wine making in South Africa
- The Trek Boers and their beliefs
- Xhosa war
- Zulu war
- British colonisation and war
- Cecil Rhodes and mining
- Jan Smuts with and then against all the other Generals (Piet Retief, de la Rey,
- Paul Kruger
- Apartheid
- Diamonds
- To the point of sending Mandela to Robben Island
- All of which highly centres around religious beliefs

There were certain fascinating facts:

The German influence coming to South Africa as part of the Dutch colonisation as free burghers forming part of the Calvinist Reformed Church of the Netherlands.

Like why there are Indians in Natal.
To quote some history:

Indian slaves from the Dutch colonies had been introduced into the Cape area of South Africa by the Dutch settlers in 1654. By 1860, with slavery having been abolished in 1834, and after the annexation of Natal as a British colony in 1843, the British colonialists in Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal) turned to India to resolve a labour shortage. Men of the local Zulu warrior nation were refusing to adopt the servile position of labourers. In that year, the SS Truro arrived in Durban harbour with over 300 Indians on board. Over the next 50 years, 150,000 more indentured Indian servants and labourers arrived, as well as numerous free "passenger Indians", building the base for what would become the largest Indian community outside India. By 1893, when the lawyer and social activist Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Durban, Indians outnumbered whites in Natal. The civil rights struggle of Gandhi's Natal Indian Congress failed; until the 1994 advent of democracy, Indians in South Africa were subject to most of the discriminatory laws that applied to all non-white inhabitants of the country.

It is pretty hard to summarize/review a book of such epic proportion.

I definitely want to read more Michener. I probably just need to give myself a year or so to attempt another audio version.

[Lys · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bible of a book - both in terms of size and contents - that retells the history of South Africa through the stories of both fictitous and historic characters. A truly ambitious endeavour in true Michener style, which had a profound effect on me when I read it at the age of 16 - and still does! The book ends in the 1980s, and I am still amazed at Michener´s insight into the shaping of post-apartheid South Africa.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very interesting to read this book which ended in 1980. As of 2009 we can now look back at what happened to South Africa and it is wonderful to see that of the 2 scenario's that Michener thought most likely the (relatively) bloodless one emerged. I especially enjoyed his section on South Africa under apartheid. It is a reminder to me of how stupid, brutal and ineffective it was a system. The whites now like to complain about Affirmative Action and BEE but looking at the system that we put the blacks under it is enough to make us ashamed. That is not to say that we shouldn't strive to make South Africa a better place for all, we should just realise where our young democracy comes from and gasp in horror and what we did menatlly, physically to the majority of our population. Not to say the least about our education and skills development of the black population. What a disgrace! One should read this book just to see what a frace Apartheid was..
The book as a whole kind of rambled on through 1000 pages of the history of South Africa. I obviously was interested in the subject matter, but on the whole the book is not that exciting. It is kind of a slow meander with highlights of our history and I enjoyed it as such..

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite Michener perhaps but there were still some really interesting stories. As with most of his books, the first half of the book was much stronger than this second half. In this book's case, the real issue for me was reading about all the racism and apartheid and general bigotry throughout the book. I never knew South Africa came from such a rough, racist background. This book taught me a lot but it was no picnic to read.

[Cole McKee · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an achievement. James Michener is a master of the historical epic, the amount of research and legwork involved here is incredible.

[Gary K Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What the Voortrekkers failed to realize in their moment of victory was that they had offered the covenant to God, not He to them.”

For seven years now I have spent nearly the entire last month of the year with what I have been tagging as “Michener December”. These books are exceptionally long (this one is 1250 pages) and I toss in at the end because I have already hit my GR book goal (and it helps me with my average page / book total too 😀 ). For those not familiar with Michener's stories they are historical fiction that span hundreds of years and blend actual events and people with variations of those events and characters he invents to help tell the story. The characters he introduces have families that their offspring show up later on as the story moves forward. In this one there are 9 generations of Van Doorns (not real) and 9 generations of de Groots (also not real). I've never seen this in an interview, but my theory is that he does this to bring some level of continuity and familiarity to the narrative... w/o it just being a dumping of facts and events. Usually he will switch characters to be protagonists in one generation and one or more down the line to antagonists... just to mix things up. I will say that for most of the generations in this story... it was hard to like any of the characters.

But what's this story about? In other 'Michener December's of days' past... it's hard not to guess what the story is about... titles like Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, Chesapeake... or to an extent even his most well known story Centennial. The Covenant wasn't something I could readily guess and had to read more of the GR description to see what it was about (something I rarely do as I like to know as little about the stories other than the genre when I jump into them). The Covenant is about the history of South Africa. For me, who knows little about Africa at all – this seemed like a good opportunity for me to learn a few things. Another common thing for me to do as I read Michener's stories is look up the various events to determine what things were based on actual events.. and this give me a chance to improve my history skills. Compared to some of the other Michener books I read this one actually had a lot of actual events form the framework of the story.. so I did a lot of “side research” as it were.

Note: There are minor spoilers below if you don't want to know anything about the book. I kept my commentary to an outline format, however w/o a great deal of detail. This is based on actual events in South Africa's history... so I don't consider those spoilers. I left out any details of specific characters and just stuck with the progression of the story.

One thing I thought was interesting was that Michener had an African animal listed alongside each actual chapter's name. This started off with the Prologue with the majestic Eland. I am sure I had seen Elands before when visiting various zoos, but I will pay more attention next time I visit one. (This is the same reviewer that was inspired from Michener's book “The Source” and searched all over a museum in Chicago looking for a “hoopoe” bird in the taxidermy section 🧐). In any case.. the lead in chapter was the only one that took place in ancient times (13,000 BPE... before present era). It followed a group of bushmen... and was full of conjecture and stereotypes – that I'm not so sure was based on facts. Given the lack of written language... up until the 1500's I guess it's hard to say if they were right or not. This is one of the only chapters that seems to belittle the African people that claimed based on some kind of scientific evidence. Michener is pretty sympathetic to the native South Africans.. and most of the prejudice throughout the book is based on 'stupid' rather than science.

The second chapter 'Zimbabwe (Rhinoceros)” jumps far forward in time... to 1453 and the Portuguese explorers. It also introduces another recurring true African character – sort of – via Nxumalo. While the Van Doorns and the de Groots had well defined characters... Nxumalo and his descendants just show up throughout the book for hundreds of years – and up until the last incarnation didn't have a first name... just Nxumalo. In any case this chapter covers the ancient civilization of Zimbabwe and was one of the ones I spent some time doing my 'side research' about. It was quite interesting really.

Chapter 3 introduces the Dutch to South Africa and has the real character Jan van Riebeeck alongside Michener's van Doorn family. This is where my limited understanding of Africa started kicking in... I had no idea how influential the Dutch were to the region. I had always assumed since it was a British colony for a while that it was mostly immigrants from England that made up the white population. Chapter 4 brings the Huguenots and Calvinists as well. No matter how many times I read about the Protestant splintering from the Catholic Church it never ceases to amaze me as to the hatred and violence that emanated from all sides of those events. When I read James Clavell's 'Shogun' (which took place around 1598) one of the Japanese put it pretty succinctly ”You hate each other, but you are both Christian... how can that be?” In any case this drove many French to the region as well. It wasn't their nationality however, but the strict religious beliefs that had such a profound impact on what was to come.

By chapter 5 we get to the Trekboers – or shortened to Boers... The Boers was another thing I knew nothing about and were essentially the descendants of the Dutch and Huguenots that were mostly farmers and retained the strictly religious Calvinist views. This takes us up to around 1700. It was at this time they started thinking of themselves as Afrikaners and felt much less connected to Dutch Holland. The Boers were pretty strict about disallowing mixed marriages. Anyone who was born of mixed race were seen as a blemish on society and not given any opportunity to rise up in social status. The myth was that anyone of mixed heritage was not a self respecting Afrikaner, but a result of foreign sailors who stayed at the Cape of Good Hope and just couldn't control themselves... Any other union was an affront to God as the true Africans were deemed as Children of Ham from the Old Testament. This belief was one of the foundations and justifications for racism throughout the book.

Chapter 6 – Mfecane (Lion) takes us up to the early 1800's and spends a lot of time on the rise of the great warrior Shaka of the Zulu. Mfecane means crushing, scattering, or destruction. Many of the tribes in the region warred with one another creating massive destruction of people, animals, crops... it was pretty crazy. I want to learn more about Shaka – I see there is a BBC multi-part documentary on him. I'm not sure all the representations in the book are accurate. Things like “he became so great because as a young warrior others made fun of his manhood”... from doing some web searches I see enough disparate references to this that maybe it is true... seems crazy. I suspect there is a case to be made than many presidents of the US may have had similar afflictions.

Chapter 8 – The Voortrekkers (Sable Antelope) – takes us to around 1830. The Afrikaners have become frustrated with English rules and decided to migrate away to preserve their ways of life and language. A Voortrekker can be thought of as a “Boer on Wheels”... as they migrated further North and West. Another driver of this migration was that the British came up with the crazy idea to abolish slavery in 1834... yeah... the Boers didn't like that. One of the provisions in the law was that you would be compensated for any slaves you freed. What was in the fine print was that to receive such compensation you would have to travel to England to plead your case in person along with a stiff legal fee... so basically no one had money to do that... so that further enraged the Boers. One of the locations they relocated to was Natal.. Wow – what an spectacular part of the world. Absolutely amazing. Some of my side research had me reading about and looking at lots of pictures.

Chapter 9 – The Englishman (Zebra) – talked about how many German's were brought to South Africa – with arranged marriages to boost the white work force (seems like they had plenty of non-whites that could have done the jobs just as well). The more interesting section in this chapter was about a teenage girl (Nongqause) of the Xhosa people that had 'a vision' that if they killed all the livestock and burned down the crops that on a particular day (her and her uncle specified the day of coming) that the dead rulers of the past would come back to life and liberate them from their white oppressors. Now there are lot's of 'end of the world' type folks to go around of all races... but this one had terrible consequences. 400 thousand cattle were killed and the resultant famine killed 40,000 people. This happened over 1856-57 and is quite a human tragedy.

The next few chapters take us up to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and focus on the Boer wars. This set of wars was the result of English rule over the Afrikaners coming to a head... and the latter trying to win independence. The British didn't like the way the Boers fought... because it was mostly hit and run skirmishes. They thought the proper way to war was all stand in a line and point weapons at each other and start shooting... so because of early losses they took a 'scorched earth' approach burning farms putting 100K or so civilians into concentration camps. The conditions were appalling and 10's of thousands died due to starvation and disease. A few interesting tidbits in these chapters was that two unlikely historically significant figures played a part in them. The first was Winston Churchill who as a young reporter covered the 2nd Boer war. The other was Mohandas Ghandi who encouraged Indian citizens to become ambulance runners in the war to prove their bravery. The Indians in South Africa were higher up on the social scale, but still mistreated and abused. My family was quick to “school me” that this was not THE Ghandi... that would have been Mahatma Ghandi... duh. Nope – same guy. Mohatma is an honorific title that means 'Great Soul” - his given name was Mohandas.

The next few chapters are the lead up to and the adoption of Apartheid which officially starting becoming laws after WWII. At one point... and I'm paraphrasing here one of the characters during the lead up to WWII said something like “That Hitler guy has the right idea about race separation – but is taking it a bit too far” uhhhh In any case, Apartheid was one of the few things I knew a little about South Africa or I thought I did. I knew that Apartheid was a set of laws to ensure white domination in the region and push down non-whites. What I learned from the book were the details behind this. I mentioned above the laws against the races mixing – that was but one component of the system. They also had very organized rules on who could get certain jobs... making it impossible for folks with talents to rise up and better themselves. The pecking order was to have pure whites at the top, then Indians, then mixed race, and at the bottom people of African descent. If they suspected you were not white and claiming to be so they put together trials to ensure racial purity. They also forcibly relocated non-whites from their homes and businesses to keep them away from the ruling parts of town. Where did this racial hatred and white supremacist beliefs come from? A lot of it stemmed from things in the Old Testament that I mentioned above... Sons of Ham and all that from the early Calvinist beliefs. It's really sad that people misuse certain aspects of a good religion and twist them to their ends – in this case white supremacy.

If you spoke out against the government or it's policies you ran the risk of being banned... which meant you were effectively forbidden from interacting in a normal way with the rest of your community. They managed who you could talk to and most of your activities. This lasted for several years and you couldn't appeal it really and it could be renewed again for more years without much legal recourse.

By the end of the book the character Nxumalo gets a first name – Daniel – and undergoes a trial about his speaking out against the government. I suspect this was pretty commonplace and many of the real people oppressed by these policies – like Nelson Mandela and Steven Biko – are but a small part of the many that suffered for their beliefs. At the time this was written in 1980, Apartheid was still the rule of law and didn't start to fall apart until a dozen years later. Going back to my quote at the beginning - the Boers had offered a covenant with God - but not sure God was behind what they were doing.

A very interesting book - I feel like I learned a lot. In my other Michener books I could understand what motivated the characters' behaviors and liked some folks and disliked others. There were few characters in this one I could get fully behind. While I admired the pioneering spirit and rugged individualism it all got swept aside when they cast themselves as superior to all other races – it was sad. 🌍🦁🐛🦒🦏

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarks:
Religion (destroy?) vs. Education (enlighten?)
Old and New Testament, Paganism - in evolution and civilization
Art and War - in remembrance, progression and humanity

I'm less a history buff than a fiction aficionado, not equipped to verify or criticize the historical facts and associated reasoning. I immersed in the ocean of millennial saga, surrender to his craft, not getting drowned but in fascination.
Less words given to blacks (and colored) than to whites, but they are the ones who left art (cave painting, architecture...) instead of war(fighting generals) memorial.

This is the first book by Michener I read, and I want to read more.

[Rachelle Seymore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a new book, but I'm glad I've found it as James Michener is a master storyteller. In history classes we were taught drips and drabs of our history, so it was interesting to see how it all fits together. This historical novel is obviously based on fact, but the author's own storyline is cleverly interwoven. It gives one a comprehensive account of how South Africa came into being, the different role players involved as well as the dynamics of this multi-cultural and multi-faceted country. A must for those who whish to understand this complex country.

[Janith Pathirage · Rating 4 out of 5]

An epic historical fiction novel about South Africa from 1300s to the 1970s. This whole story revolves around 3 families who represent the 3 significant races of the country. Black South Africans, the Dutch and the English. It was fascinating to see their clash throughout the centuries for the ownership of South Africa. Some characters of the book are fictional and some are real historical figures like King Shaka of the Zulu tribe. It was so interesting to read about this half mad, warmongering king. But I missed few things I used to experience in a Michener book like a sudden introduction to an animal of the region and taking the story through its perspective for a chapter or two. Love that stuff! Michener does it in a very swift manner without interrupting the flow of the story until a human character takes over. The book doesn't explore much on the wildlife of South Africa which surprised me a bit. But it's another highly entertaining and educational novel by James Michener.

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew. This book is huge—like 1,000+ pages huge—but if you’re into history, especially South African history, it’s worth the commitment. Michener takes you all the way from prehistoric hunters and early African tribes, through Dutch and British settlement, the rise of the Zulu under Shaka, the Great Trek, the Boer Wars, the diamond and gold rush, and finally into the harsh realities of apartheid.

It’s not an easy read—Michener loves long passages of history, and sometimes the characters feel more symbolic than personal. But the scope? Epic. By the end, you really feel like you’ve walked through the layers of South Africa’s complicated, painful, and fascinating past.

If you love sprawling historical sagas with real-world lessons, this is your book. If you prefer fast-paced plots, it might feel like a slog. For me, it was both educational and eye-opening, and I’ll be thinking about these families (and what they represent) for a long time.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really very good in places, but a bit uneven. As usual with a large Michener, the earlier chapters were better than the last few. The short chapter on prehistoric South Africa and chapters on the Trekboers, Mfecane, Shaka Zulu and the arrival of the English were really well written and worth plowing through such a long saga. The last three chapters on Apartheid were just plain tedious.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Average rating: 4.64

[Cliff Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

1200 highly researched pages concerning the whole history of South Africa. Dozens of in-depth historical events explained through the legacies of three families. One Dutch, one Zulu, and one English.
The Dutch arrived in 1562. People tend to think the Africanas as wholly Dutch descendants whereas infact they became a mix of 40% Dutch, 35% German, 20% French Huguenot, and 5% mix of Madagascar slave, Malay, and Hottentot.
The Zulu and Xhosa are descendants from the Bantu region in the 13th Century.
The English arrived in 1806 to make South Africa a protection of the Crown, but more directly to stop Napoleon gaining control of it.
The only original inhabitants of the land were the Khoisan hunter and gatherer tribes. They hunted the rhinoceros and painted their colour drawings inside caves 12,000 years ago.
A central theme of this book is how the Africanas fought for their freedom against the Dutch State, then the English State, against the Zulus and other tribes, in the Boer War, and then eventually only to take away the freedoms of all others later on.
Written in 1980 in the midst of Apartheid, Michener provides a detailed analysis of many different angles to the suffering and gives some very accurate predictions about the future.
Although Nelson Mandela is not mentioned in this book my own additional research gave me a fresh insight and respect for the man. It can be summed up in Mandela's famous quotation;
'No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.'

[Christine Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last time I read this book was about six years ago, and I remember thinking that Michener was overly sympathetic to the Afrikaners, and thus, to their cause - apartheid. Finding that morally repugnant, I decided I was done with this book and done with Michener.
Currently, I'm experiencing a Michener-revival, and after watching "Invictus", thought I'd give this book another try.
Like all Michener books, this is incredibly well-researched, and very involved, with characters that span hundreds of years. Some of those characters' descendants will turn up in the story later on; others do not. However, like most Michener books I've read, this is also a fascinating read - and, as I discovered this round, not necessarily sympathetic to the Afrikaners and their cause.
I think Michener demonstrates sympathies to all groups he writes about, and this book is no exception. It is true that much of this book is devoted to Afrikaner families, but that is to be expected of a book about South Africa. The reader should also take into consideration that this was written in 1979, and even if some characters espouse repugnant views, those are not necessarily the views of the author.
I don't think this is Michener's best novel - I'd say Hawaii, followed closely by The Source - are his best works, but this is certainly a book worth reading.
I'm glad I re-read this. If you like historical fiction, you probably will be too.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

BORING! My dad gave me this book before I left the U.S. to study in South Africa. I got a third of the way through before finally giving up. I love to read and rarely stop reading in the middle, but I found it very difficult to commit to The Covenant. The history is interesting and useful and has been a good companion to my travels in this country, but ultimately the characters are one-dimensional, and the stories seem forced, rather than developing in an organic way. The author seemed more interested in writing a history textbook than a novel, and only took a cursory stab at describing the characters making their ways through their social spheres. At no point did I emphasize with any character; instead I was forced by Michener to view them from a distance, which I think diffuses his whole purpose of making history accessible and immediate to a large audience. Overall, I would have rather read a history textbook; then I would at least know what I was getting into.

[Alida · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book for 50 Cents in one of the nicest book stores ever. Too bad it's in Gold Beach, Oregon.

[Sebastien · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly magnificent work. This should be required reading for anyone interested in South Africa.

[Everett F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

, written by American historian and novelist James A. Michener in 1979, is a lengthy epic using fiction to tell the history of South Africa from 13,000 B.C. to 1979 through a diverse, eclectic cast of characters. Primarily focused around the descendants of a young Dutch-Indonesian seaman named Willem van Doorn, the novel seeks to give its readers an understanding (however basic) of how South Africa came into existence as a nation, with a particular focus (through the van Doorns) on the origins of Afrikanerdom, apartheid, and what it means to be a part of a rapidly changing nation by the end of the twentieth century. Alongside the van Doorns are two other families—the Nxumalos and Saltwoods, who represent the black and English communities respectively. Over a period spanning fourteen thousand, nine-hundred and seventy-eight years, many changes have occurred serving to shape South Africa for generations. Beginning with the first hunter-gatherers in the prehistoric period, and ending with the ascendancy and internalized tumble of apartheid, the South African story has much to offer.


Below is a listing of some of the characters found in the novel.




1. Gumsto: A Khoisan hunter-gatherer, he is leader of his small clan and spends most of his days wandering the deserts of what would one day become South Africa. Of an advanced age (he is in his forties), he is a widower who has long desired the beautiful Naoka, aged just seventeen, to be his wife. Alongside his trusted confidante, the elder woman Kharu, they encamp at the lake that will eventually be called Vrijmeer (later, Vrymeer—it means "Lake of Freedom" in Dutch and Afrikaans) thousands of years in the future.

2. Gao: A gifted artist, he paints scenes of the many hunts and battles experienced by the clan. Years later, his work would be discovered by Phillip Saltwood, an American visiting South Africa on business for the Amalgamated Mine Company.

3. Naoka: The most beautiful woman in the clan, she is seventeen and a widow. Gumsto has long wanted to have her as his own.

4. Kharu: Like Gumsto, she is of an advanced age (in her middle thirties) and an elder in the clan. She is Gumsto's second-in-command. When his health fails, she leaves him by a tree near Vrymeer to die in peace.

THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF INTERLUDE, AFTER WHICH COME THESE


5. Nxumalo of Zimbabwe: A high-ranking young nobleman, he resides in the prosperous trading empire of Zimbabwe, famed for its wondrous works of stone. He gains his first contact with the outside world by means of Arab and Portuguese traders frequenting the area in search of spices and other materials. He is the patriarch of the family that eventually takes his name, and migrates southwards alongside his wife, Hlenga, to The Land of the White Waters (Witwatersrand). Three hundred years later, his descendant of the same name will join the Zulu people, and in time, become servants to generations of van Doorns.


6. Old Seeker: A wise witch doctor to whom Nxumalo looks toward for guidance. Gives the young prince a stern warning to never go on board ships with visiting Muslims, and to not trust them, even if they seem nice, as they are known throughout Africa to be in search of slaves to send across the world.

7. Hendrickje van Valkenborch de van Doorn: Already a successful businesswoman of forty-three when introduced, Hendrickje has long been a member of Java's small, but influential, white elite. With a plethora of slaves and other servants at her disposal, she and her husband have made names for themselves during their time in the East Indies as employees of the Dutch East India Company. Originally from Amsterdam, she moved to Java alongside her husband, Titus, for work. Along with her husband, she has two sons, Karel and Willem.

8. Titus van Doorn: Hendrickje's husband and father to Karel and Willem. He is a businessman.

9. Karel van Doorn: A strapping young man of twenty-three when introduced, he is older brother to Willem and keen on making a name for himself in the Dutch East India Company. Although born in Holland, he has spent much of his life on Java with his parents. As an older man he becomes a member of the coveted Lords Seventeen, the Company's semi-obscure board of directors responsible for overseeing general operations and trade. He and Willem have never seen eye-to-eye on much and are not very close. By the time he arrives at the Cape to superintend affairs therein, he and Willem have a final falling-out that seals their estrangement for good. He also does not take kindly to his brother's fraternizing with nonwhite women. Married to Kornelia Danckaerts, sister of Katje, Willem's wife.

10. Willem van Doorn: Patriarch of the South African van Doorn family, he is a fun-loving boy of thirteen when introduced. Of an inquisitive nature, Willem is naturally coolheaded and sincere, even when the things he does earn him the ire of those around him. Unlike his older brother, he was born on Java, and as such, seems more attuned to the mannerisms of the local population. In his later teens he becomes acquainted with Ateh, a young servant girl from the Arab world. After being offered a job with the Company by Jan van Riebeeck, he brings Ateh along with him to the Cape, where their son, Adam, is born, along with another child later on. Eventually, his descendants would play starring roles in some of the key events of Afrikaner history, from the Great Trek to the Boer War. His great-great-great-great-great grandson, Detlev, would become the (ironic) driving force behind the many draconian dictates of apartheid. After he is prohibited from marrying Ateh because of her race, he settles for Katje Danckaerts, one of the many "King's Daughters," girls sent from government-run orphanages to the colonies to increase the number of whites. He is also the first to call himself an Afrikaner—man of Africa.



11. Ateh (later, Deborah of Malacca): In her early teens when introduced, she is an indentured servant from the Middle East who works in the home of Hendrickje van Doorn as a maid. Willem soon becomes friends with her, and before long, they enter into a clandestine relationship that succeeds in producing two children, the oldest of which is a son named Adam, later a point of embarrassment for the van Doorns. Prohibited from marrying the white man she loves (Willem van Doorn), she settles for an Angolan slave named Jango. Through Adam van Doorn and his descendants spring the dreaded Colored relatives of the main family, which ironically becomes of mixed ancestry itself. Changes her name to Deborah after converting from Islam to Christianity.

12. Katje Danckaerts: One of the many King's Daughter's, she is sent to the Cape as a bride for Willem after he is denied Ateh's hand by Company superiors. All of the main van Doorns for the remainder of the novel trace their roots to her.

13. Nicholas Saltwood: Born to working-class parents in the Devonian port city of Plymouth in 1593, he was able to rise above his humble roots to become a successful spice merchant. His success in the spice trade enables him to purchase a large mansion in the village of Salisbury at New Sarum, which becomes the seat of the family on its ascendancy to the aristocracy. Patriarch of the Saltwood family of England and South Africa.

14. Marthinus van Doorn: Son of Willem and Katje, half-brother to Adam. Marries Annatjie and begins the genesis of what later becomes Trianon.

15. Petronella van Doorn de Muhammad: Granddaughter of Willem, she marries Bezel Muhammad, an Arab woodworker of great renown. Some of the most prominent Afrikaner families trace their roots to her and her Arab husband, embarrassing her later descendants. In 1695, she gives birth to a daughter, Fatima, who later grows up to marry longtime outlaw and convicted felon Rupertus "Rooi" van Valck, but not before having a child with him out of wedlock in 1717. Their daughter's name? Seena.


16.Bezel Muhammad: A renowned woodworker of Arab ancestry, he is the son of indentured servants who were brought to the Cape from the Middle East via Madagascar. His oldest child, a daughter, is named Fatima after his maternal grandmother. A common fixture at Trianon.

17. Paul de Pré: Patriarch of the later du Preez family of Cape Town, he is from the Huguenot village of Cais and a successful winemaker. After Marthinus dies in 1702 (the same year Hendrik leaves for a life on the open veld as a Trekboer), Annatjie van Doorn marries him. He leaves them wealthy.


18. Hendrik van Doorn: Son of Marthinus and Willem's grandson, he leaves the family seat at Trianon for a nomadic life on the veld as a wandering Trekboer. It is through him that all connections with Trianon are severed for many years. All van Doorns who see themselves as Afrikaners and maintain their distinctively fearsome culture are his descendants. Those who remain at Trianon will in time become members of the English-speaking, assimilated aristocracy in only a century or so.



19. Fatima Muhammad: Daughter of Petronella and Bezel Muhammad, she is of mixed Arab and Dutch descent. Sometime in the 1710s, the young woman met and developed a relationship with rough-and-tumble outlaw Trekboer Rupertus van Valck, known as "Rooi" because of his bright red hair. With Rooi she has a daughter, Seena, in addition to several other children. Despite being half-white, she bears a striking resemblance to her Arab father and has his swarthy skin color and Middle Eastern features. She will later be referred to as "the dark wife" during the hearing of one of her descendants, Petra Albertyn. She is Willem van Doorn's great-granddaughter.

20. "Mal [Crazy]" Adriaan van Doorn: A second-generation Trekboer nomad and great-grandson of Willem van Doorn, he is Hendrik's son. Unlike his father, he never learnt how to read, though he does carry around the tried-and-true family Bible. During one of his travels along the empty veld, he meets Seena van Valck, a strikingly gorgeous girl of fifteen with exotic Arab features and her father's trademark red hair. Unbeknownst to him, Seena is his cousin! Called crazy because he talks to a pet hyena, Swarts. He and Seena have a son, Lodevicus, who takes on much of his mother's and grandmother's Arabic features.

21. Rupertus "Rooi" van Valck: Descended from criminals shipped from Holland to the Cape as punishment, he continues his family's criminal history by wreaking havoc along the veld alongside a band of rough-and-ready ne'er-do-wells. Father of Seena and husband to Fatima, he has a sharp wit, fiery tongue, and vicious temper, a trait he passes on almost unchanged to his beautiful daughter, Seena.


22. Seena van Valck de van Doorn: Great-great granddaughter of Willem van Doorn, she is renowned in her younger years for her beauty and fiery temper. Like her father in so many ways, she wins the heart of her distant cousin, Adriaan, and together, they have a son, Lodevicus. In her later years she falls out with her son after he begins dating Rebecca Specx, the daughter of a circuit-riding Presbyterian preacher. Killed alongside her husband by the invading Xhosa.


23. Dikkop: Adriaan's friend with whom he discovers Vrijmeer (Vrymeer). He is a Khoi, and possibly a distant descendant of Gumsto. He is one of the reasons Adriaan and his wife fall out with their son and daughter-in-law, who see the friendship he has with the van Doorns as un-Christian due to his being a "Canaanite."

24. Lodevicus "the Hammer" van Doorn: Son of Adriaan and Seena and grandson of Hendrik, he is so called because of his vengeful thirst for Xhosa blood after the murder of his estranged parents, which he takes personally. He hates the "kaffirs" with a passion, and believes with his every being that their sole purpose in life is to serve the Boer people, just as God intended. He eventually becomes moderately wealthy and is able to establish a farm at a place he calls De Kraal (Dutch: "The Fortress"), purchasing a few slaves in the process. Originally married to Rev. Specx's daughter, he later marries Wilhelmina Heimstra after her death. Wilhelmina gives him a son, Tjaart. Considers himself to be fully Dutch in spite of his mixed-race ancestry. When the British take over in 1806, he devises plans to resist the takeover once and for all.

11. Emma van Doorn: Slave of Lodevicus, she is the daughter of Madagascans forcibly brought to South Africa by Muslim traders. When introduced, she is a mere girl of ten who is gifted with a wonderful singing voice that eventually wins the heart of a young English missionary named Hilary Saltwood, descendant of Nicholas. With Hilary she has three children, and is eventually murdered at the young age of twenty-eight by wandering brigands with a cut to the throat. During her time at Golan Mission, she assists Rev. Saltwood with the children's ministry and choir, among other things.


12. Hilary Saltwood: When he is introduced to readers, he is portrayed as a somewhat naïve young man of twenty-five who has just begun his tenure as a missionary in the recently-annexed Cape Colony. Earns the ire of the local Boers for suggesting that slavery is wrong and that nonwhites deserve better treatment. He also becomes the point of controversy at Slagter's Nek and within his own family when he introduces Emma to them. Naturally enough, the Saltwoods are shocked that one of their own would decide to marry a black woman, and this causes contention for the remainder of his marriage. On the return trip back to the Cape, the captain refuses to allow him to officiate Sunday services until the very end. He was supposed to marry a woman named Julie, who had arrived in South Africa as part of a group called the 1820 Settlers.

13. David Saltwood: Hilary's brother, he is the family renegade and eventual patriarch of the family's American branch. Spends his days as a frontiersman in the fledgling United States.

14. Richard Saltwood: Another brother of the good pastor's, he is the patriarch of the main South African branch and was a captain in the British army. Originally stationed in India, he is reassigned to the Cape and visits his brother there. Later becomes commander of Britain's South Africa regiments, and is the grandfather of Frank, who serves in the Boer War.


15. Tjaart van Doorn: Son of Lodevicus and Wilhelmina, he is Willem's great-great-great grandson (on one line; he's far more removed generationally on Bezel and Petronella's line). In middle age, he participates as a leader in the Great Trek of the early 1830s into the interior of South Africa from the Cape as a result of continued British incursions on their rights. Thrice married, he had a total of four children from three women. During the time he is on trek, his first grandchild, a girl called Sybilla, is born, and he later has a son, Jakob, with the lovely Aletta.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 1980.

FACTS FROM THIS BOOK:

B.P.E.--Before the present Era. Cave paintings in South Africa carbon dated at 13000 B.P.E.

Hottentots-the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen. The San people, more commonly known as Bushmen, are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of southern Africa. They have lived for 80,000 years as hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari Desert, and are well-known for their expert survival skills in a harsh environment. Their unique clicking languages and their astonishing method of healing through trance dancing have made them a source of worldwide fascination.. "Vanishing Cultures: Bushmen of the Kalahari" visits the troubled San community whose once thriving culture is now facing extinction.

Huguenots-followers of John Calvin, from France, ended up in South Africa in 1600's. Saint Bartholomews Day-massacre under orders of Catherine de Medici, protestanism was to be destroyed in France once and for all. Pope gregory XIII was exalted. As was Phillip of Spain. Later, in 1685, Louis XIV, again expelled any protestants from France.
Boers-farmers in South Africa of Dutch or Huguenot decent

Tsotsi-member of a street gang.

King's Nieces-young girls in orphanages in Holland

Afrikaners- Dutch Calvanists who settled in the Cape. It was the stopping point for dutch ships sailing to Java. They believed God had given them this land.. Adhered to the Old Testament and believed the blacks and coloureds were similar to the Cannanites (desendents of Ham who were expelled from the house of the Lord) Believed they had a special covenant with God. patterned themselves after the Israelites. Normal growth of South Africa was stunted because of the ruling Dutch Calvanists. when compared to growth in America at the same time. In 1806 South Africa had 26000 whites: Canada had 250,000 and Mexico had 885,000. Deficiency was worst in education. No printing presses, books or newspapers were allowed.

Sarah was 127 when she died and Abraham took a se4cond wife, Keturah.

Book of Acts written by the same unknown author as the Gospel of St Luke.
Golan was created as a safe hostage, a city of refuge.

Ophir- Country of uncertain location, possibly southern Arabia or the eastern coast of Africa, from which gold and precious stones and trees were brought for Solomon

1795-England won the war and the Cape was ceded to them by Willian V. Then England and Holland became allies in the fight against Napolean and the Cape was once more Dutch. 1806 Holland joined Napolean and once more the Cape was under the English. It became the stopping point for English ships sailing to India.

Shaka-chief of the Zulus.

Matabele-split from the Zulus

Cecil Rhodes- at one time the richest man in the world. Stalked by a Polish-Russian, Princess Radziwill. He died 1902, age 49. "So little done, so much to do." Rhodesia became Zimbabwe

Paulus Kruger- leader of the Afrikaners. he went into exile in Holland

The Boer Wars were two wars fought during 1880–1881 and 1899–1902 by the British Empire against the Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic. The First Anglo-Boer War (1880–1881), was a rebellion of Boers (farmers) against British rule in the Transvaal that re-established their independence. The Second War (1899–1902), by contrast, was a lengthy war—involving large numbers of troops from many British possessions, which ended with the conversion of the Boer republics into British colonies (with a promise of limited self-governance). These colonies later formed part of the Union of South Africa During the later stages of the Second Boer War, the British pursued the policy of rounding up and isolating the Boer civilian population in concentration camps, one of the earliest uses of this method by modern powers. The wives and children of Boer guerrillas were sent to these camps, which had poor hygiene and little food. Many of the children in these camps died, as did some of the adults.

Anglo-Boer war-1899. Winston Churchill fought in it. So did Ghandi (as an ambulance driver) Also, General Robert Baden-Powell. Rudyard Kipling and Conan Doyle came to write about this war.

When South Africa obtained dominion status in 1910, Louis Botha, an Afrikaner became the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.

Jan Christiaan Smuts, (24 May 1870 – 11 September 1950) was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948.

Bantu replaced the offensive name "Kaffir"

Trianon- first wine plantation in South Africa.
1948-Nationalists won over Jan Smuts.

Apartheid-reflected the Afrikaners belief that God willed the races to be kept separate.

Soweto-dormitory town outside of Johannesburg for blacks who worked in the city during the day. No commercial area, these people had to buy from the whites in the city and commute by train.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela born 18 July 1918) is a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the first black South African to hold the office, and the first elected in a fully representative, multiracial election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation.
A Xhosa born to the Thembu royal family, Mandela attended Fort Hare University and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law. After the Afrikaner nationalists of the National Party came to power in 1948 and began implementing the policy of apartheid, he rose to prominence. Working as a lawyer, he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and, with the ANC leadership, was prosecuted in the Treason Trial from 1956 to 1961 but was found not guilty. Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the South African Communist Party he lead a bombing campaign against government targets. In 1962 he was arrested, convicted of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mandela served 27 years in prison, first on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. An international campaign lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990 amid escalating civil strife. Becoming ANC President, Mandela published his autobiography and led negotiations with President F.W. de Klerk to abolish apartheid and establish multiracial elections in 1994, in which he led the ANC to victory. He was elected President and formed a Government of National Unity in an attempt to defuse ethnic tensions. As President, he established a new constitution and initiated the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. Continuing the former government's liberal economic policy, his administration introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and expand healthcare services. Internationally, he acted as mediator between Libya and the United Kingdom in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, and oversaw military intervention in Lesotho. He declined to run for a second term, and was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela subsequently became an elder statesman, focusing on charitable work in combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Mandela has been a controversial figure for much of his life. Right-wing critics denounced him as a terrorist and communist sympathiser. He nevertheless gained international acclaim for his anti-colonial and anti-apartheid stance, having received more than 250 honours, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Soviet Order of Lenin. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata ("Father"); he is often described as "the father of the nation".

Mandela has been married three times, has fathered six children, has 17 grandchildren and a growing number of great-grandchildren.Mandela's first marriage was to Evelyn Ntoko Mase, in October 1944.[54] The couple broke up in 1957 after 13 years, divorcing under the multiple strains of his adultery and constant absences, devotion to revolutionary agitation, and the fact that she was a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, a religion requiring political neutrality.The couple had two sons, Madiba "Thembi" Thembekile (1946–1969) and Makgatho Mandela (1950–2005), and two daughters, both named Makaziwe Mandela (known as Maki; born 1947 and 1953). Their first daughter died aged nine months, and they named their second daughter in her honour.[citation needed] Mase died in 2004, and Mandela attended her funeral. Makgatho's son, Mandla Mandela, became chief of the Mvezo tribal council in 2007.
Mandela's second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. She was the city's first black social worker.They had two daughters, Zenani (Zeni), born 4 February 1958, and Zindziswa (Zindzi) Mandela-Hlongwane, born 1960. Zindzi was only 18 months old when her father was sent to Robben island. Later, Winnie would be deeply torn by family discord which mirrored the country's political strife; whilearation (April 1992) and divorce (March 1996), fueled by political estrangement.
Mandela remarried on his 80th birthday in 1998, to his third wife, Graça Machel (née Simbine), widow of Samora Machel, the former Mozambican president and ANC ally who was killed in an air crash 12 years earlier.
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[Maarten Hoepel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een dergelijk gigantisch boek verdient enkele woorden als recensie.
In dit epische werk van 1150 pagina's weet Michener de complexiteit, nuance en schoonheid van de Zuid-Afrikaanse geschiedenis over te brengen aan de hand van de verweven geschiedenis van drie families. Alle spelers komen aan bod (Khoisan, Xhosa, Zulu, VOC-handelaren, Boers, Engelsen, Afrikaners, Coloureds) en laten zien hoe de geschiedenis van Zuid-Afrika niet kan worden gelezen in termen van goed en kwaad of zwart en wit. Als lezer kom je ontzettend veel te weten over deze geschiedenis, maar het gaat nooit ten koste van ontwikkelingen van het verhaal en de personages. Fictieve personages als Willem van Doorn, Nxumalo, generaal de Groot of Philip Saltwood zijn net zo reëel als Jan van Riebeeck, Paul Kruger of Shaka Zulu. Michener schreef dit boek in 1980, voordat de Apartheid eindelijk werd afgeschaft. Toch lees je in dit boek dat ook in 1980 hoop en verandering in de lucht hing. Dit boek is een aanrader voor iedereen die de complexiteit van Zuid-Afrika beter wil begrijpen en ondertussen ook vermaakt wil worden.
Enkele quotes die ik de moeite waard vond:

"It was a journey any young man would want to make, five hundred miles due north across the heart of Africs, crossing wide rivers, sharing the pathway with animals innumerable, and heading for a city known only in legend."

"There were in South African life two events that struck terror in the hearts of ordinary men: when two bull elephants raged in low scrub, knocking down trees in their feud; and when two Boers engaged in an business deal."

"But if we read the Old Testament too grimly, we miss the lovemaking, the adventure, the wild triumphs, the dancing and the sound of flutes."

"Detritus, that's the word. The awful accumulation of wrong decisions, improper turns. You scrape away the excrescenses of history [...] and maybe you get down to the bedrock of human society, where diamonds hide. God of my fathers, how I wish we could bring in the psychological drills and probe down to bedrock."

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A panoramic novel, spanning centuries, where the tragic heroine is Mother South Africa, whose children are unable to live together in peace. I wish my school history books had been written like this, with the insertion of fictional characters to bring story and life into what is normally a dull narrative.

After a preface on the early Bushman who inhabited the land since pre-historic times, the story follows the lineage of the Afrikaner Van Doorn, English Saltwood and Zulu Nxumalo families, from the arrival of the first Europeans in the mid 17th century to the end of the 1970’s. Dominant members of each of these families shape and are shaped by the history of the country. There are dozens of stories within this book, tragic, dramatic, humorous and downright inhuman, all extremely interesting and well rendered. The intent of the novel in its 1100 pages seems to be to capture the history South Africa and therefore we see characters enter and exit quickly along with their stories, with only a few like Tjaart and Detleef Van Doorn, Hillary and Laura Saltwood, Jonathan and Daniel Nxumalo and the timeless General Paulus De Groot leaving larger footprints than their relatives.

The clash of white and black cultures is evident from the beginning when the Europeans land in Cape Town in the mid 17th century and migrate north as far as the boundary with Zimbabwe over generations, while the blacks in the form of the resident Hottentots, the Xhosa from across the Great Fish River, and their northern Zulu cousins separated by the Drakensburg range, all drift south seeking boundless grazing land for their herds. The Dutch Afrikaner and his nomadic cousin, the Boer, are portrayed as fierce, independent individuals, willing to fight against insurmountable odds, who in their Calvinistic faith believe that this land was given to them, by God’s covenant and that like the different colours of jelly, the various colours of race shouldn’t mix. The English, who arrive in 1805, are more interested in empire and the abolition of slavery, while the blacks simply want their land back, and the Coloureds reflect the sin of miscegenation. Mixed in with the fictional characters are real life individuals, three in particular: Shaka of the Zulu, Cecil Rhodes and Lord Kichener, men who never married, wreak havoc in the country in their misguided intention of maintaining order.

Loyalties shift between the ethnic groups during each generation as they jockey for pole position. There is even a time when the Afrikaners throw in their lot with the Germans during the two world wars of the 20th century to be rid of the British, while the Xhosa starve themselves to death under the illusion that the Russians are coming to their aid after the Crimean War. The British are no better and open concentration camps at the end of the Boer War where many women and children die of typhoid, dysentery and other diseases.

All this evolution only leads to South Africa’s darkest phase, when the Afrikaner Nationalist Party gains control in 1948 and institutes a form of Nazism called Apartheid. Horrible things happen during this time: whites have to carry Life Books with them detailing every incident in their life to protect their racial purity, Coloureds are to be deprived of their vote, blacks are given “Bantustans” (segregated homelands), transgressors of any colour are “banned” from public life indefinitely, and suspicion rules the land – for instance, the lack of freckles could imply that you are Coloured. The irony is that when racial investigations are initiated, even the “purest of the pure” are found to have some miscegenation somewhere up their family tree, making the whole issue of racial purity, in a land where early European male settlers could not find wives easily, a bit of a joke.

It’s a pity that Michener ends his narrative in 1979, with Apartheid at its worst, with scores of the best and brightest fleeing the country for places like Canada and Australia, with blacks massing for revolution over in Mozambique, and with 400 years of evolution leading the country only to its worst boiling point. God’s Covenant, indeed - Calvin would be turning in his grave!

We all know that Apartheid ended in the 1990’s and South Africa still lurches trying to find its feet under its new balance of power, and therefore this story has no ending, yet. Michener shows hope however, when he parallels Phillip Saltwood’s tireless search for diamonds, which finally yields the possibility of a find, to the search for peace in the land by its various leaders who are mining for diamonds in their fellow citizens’ souls.

As for the fate of the panoramic novel, I think it has less hope than South Africa has, given the shrinking of attention spans these days. I took nearly a month to finish this book, engrossing though it was, and am unlikely to pick up another Michener tome for a long time to come. Mich would have to drastically alter his writing strategy were he still alive today.