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Against These Three - A Biography of Paul Kruger, Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula
A detailed look at three of the most important men of 19th Century Southern Africa.
- GenresHistory
Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
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About the author
Stuart Cloete
66 books9 followersStuart Cloete was born in France in 1897 to a Scottish mother and South African father. (His ancestors had come from Holland with Jan Van Riebeck to establish a settlement for the Dutch East India Company).
He remembered his early years in Paris with nostalgia, but the ideal was shattered when he began his schooling in France and England. He never excelled academically and - in his own words - ‘learnt almost nothing'.
At the age of 17 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant (at the beginning of the First World War in 1914) into the Ninth King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, before later transferring to the Coldstream Guards. While nearly all of his early fellow officers and friends died, he survived four years of fighting in France and, for a while, was treated like a living lucky charm by the troops. He was seriously injured twice, and experienced amnesia induced by ‘shell-shock' which was largely left untreated. In a mental hospital in London, he met his first wife, a volunteer nurse, Eileen Horsman, and fell in love, even inducing a second breakdown with aspirin and whisky so he could see her again.
After recuperating in France, Cloete acted on his compulsion to identify with the land of his ancestors. He became a successful farmer in the Transvaal in South Africa. But as soon as he had established himself and achieved his aims he became restless again and began pondering a life as a writer. His eighteen year marriage floundered through growing incompatibility and Cloete's infidelity.
He sold up and left for England to become an author, leaving Eileen behind in South Africa. He recalled the decision to become a writer as the biggest gamble of his life. But, as it turned out, he hit the jackpot with his first novel, Turning Wheels, published in 1937. It sold more than two million copies, although it was banned in South Africa where it scandalized the authorities with its commentary on the Great Trek and a mixed-race relationship. Cloete was a prolific writer and went on to complete 14 novels and at least eight volumes of short stories.
On the way to America to promote Turning Wheels, Cloete met Tiny ( Mildred Elizabeth West) who later became his second wife. It was not love at first sight but eventually he realized he had found a soul mate. Tiny enjoyed the fruits of his success as a highly acclaimed writer and was his faithful companion until his death in Cape Town in 1976.
Cloete lived through a period of unprecedented upheavals and in his autobiography, published in the early 70s, he pondered whether ‘progress' was in fact a misnomer; it had ushered in colorless uniformity and even the threat of nuclear war. He also reflected on the chapters of his vagabond, eventful and, in his view, incredibly lucky life. He left behind no children.
He remembered his early years in Paris with nostalgia, but the ideal was shattered when he began his schooling in France and England. He never excelled academically and - in his own words - ‘learnt almost nothing'.
At the age of 17 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant (at the beginning of the First World War in 1914) into the Ninth King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, before later transferring to the Coldstream Guards. While nearly all of his early fellow officers and friends died, he survived four years of fighting in France and, for a while, was treated like a living lucky charm by the troops. He was seriously injured twice, and experienced amnesia induced by ‘shell-shock' which was largely left untreated. In a mental hospital in London, he met his first wife, a volunteer nurse, Eileen Horsman, and fell in love, even inducing a second breakdown with aspirin and whisky so he could see her again.
After recuperating in France, Cloete acted on his compulsion to identify with the land of his ancestors. He became a successful farmer in the Transvaal in South Africa. But as soon as he had established himself and achieved his aims he became restless again and began pondering a life as a writer. His eighteen year marriage floundered through growing incompatibility and Cloete's infidelity.
He sold up and left for England to become an author, leaving Eileen behind in South Africa. He recalled the decision to become a writer as the biggest gamble of his life. But, as it turned out, he hit the jackpot with his first novel, Turning Wheels, published in 1937. It sold more than two million copies, although it was banned in South Africa where it scandalized the authorities with its commentary on the Great Trek and a mixed-race relationship. Cloete was a prolific writer and went on to complete 14 novels and at least eight volumes of short stories.
On the way to America to promote Turning Wheels, Cloete met Tiny ( Mildred Elizabeth West) who later became his second wife. It was not love at first sight but eventually he realized he had found a soul mate. Tiny enjoyed the fruits of his success as a highly acclaimed writer and was his faithful companion until his death in Cape Town in 1976.
Cloete lived through a period of unprecedented upheavals and in his autobiography, published in the early 70s, he pondered whether ‘progress' was in fact a misnomer; it had ushered in colorless uniformity and even the threat of nuclear war. He also reflected on the chapters of his vagabond, eventful and, in his view, incredibly lucky life. He left behind no children.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 15, 2015
An intriguing look at three of the main characters behind the forming of modern southern Africa. Paul Kruger, a Dutch Boer farmer, seeks to maintain his world and the culture that he and other Boers have established in South Africa. Cecil Rhodes (for whom Rhodesia was named and Rhodes scholarships) seeks to build the British Empire from Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope. Lobengula and other native Africans war with each other and the Dutch, British, Germans, and other Europeans who are taking away their empires that they might build their own.
Cloete does a masterful job of both presenting all three of these men in their culture and time without judgment yet at the same time subtly communicating timeless moral, at times spiritual evaluations of all three. Each worldview is allowed to stand on its own, clash with the others, and be presented so that the reader may judge for himself the quality or lack found in how and why each leader did as he did.
Written just shortly after the end of WWII, Stuart Cloete also ties together strands of Kruger and Rhodes' experiences and choices and how they played out in what had become the British Commonwealth, setting the stage for a "sequel" that could track the next generation of influencers.
For those who enjoy history, Cloete shows the audacity, brutality, simplicity, heroism, and loneliness that comes with leadership and that which makes history. His writing style is entertaining, factual, honest, yet veiled so that one can comprehend the harshness of what is being discussed without feeling raw and violated after reading it.
Cloete does a masterful job of both presenting all three of these men in their culture and time without judgment yet at the same time subtly communicating timeless moral, at times spiritual evaluations of all three. Each worldview is allowed to stand on its own, clash with the others, and be presented so that the reader may judge for himself the quality or lack found in how and why each leader did as he did.
Written just shortly after the end of WWII, Stuart Cloete also ties together strands of Kruger and Rhodes' experiences and choices and how they played out in what had become the British Commonwealth, setting the stage for a "sequel" that could track the next generation of influencers.
For those who enjoy history, Cloete shows the audacity, brutality, simplicity, heroism, and loneliness that comes with leadership and that which makes history. His writing style is entertaining, factual, honest, yet veiled so that one can comprehend the harshness of what is being discussed without feeling raw and violated after reading it.
April 12, 2020
Read as part of my independent study curriculum with Dr. Robert Gregory in Summer, 1986.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews