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A Ride on the Whirlwind
Set during the 1976 June riots in Soweto, this book provides a moving account of the tensions and turbulence, intrigue and confusion which enveloped the township and rocked the nation.
244 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 12, 2017
Set in the 1970s, during the time of the "children's revolution" which rocked the city of Soweto. The central story is that of Mzi, a young fighter who has been out the country for a decade to receive training as a combatant for the resistance movement. He has returned with a mission: to assassinate Batata - a notorious black cop central to the state's efforts to track down and eliminate the resistance to apartheid.
He links up with Mandla's group - a bunch of teenagers who joined the street demonstrations which renewed mass opposition to the system and who have continued to resist through targeted actions against the regime. Living as waifs and strays, the centre of their lives is the home of Sis Ida, one of the older generation of apartheid's opponents.
Most in the group are amateurish in their approach to agitation and Mzi is alarmed by the risks they might pose to the job he has been given. His sole liaison is with Mandla himself, a charismatic youth with the potential to take a step up and become a fully-trained revolutionary like himself. They plot actions together, including the bombing of a police station which helps to build the legend of their activity in the city.
The action moves to the police unit that is charged with tracking them down. Led by Afrikaans officers leading a team of black constables and sergeants, they go about their work methodically, making use of informants and reports based on the lose talk that goes on in bars. We get an illustration of how this works in the case of one Noah Witbaatjie, a shebeen owner who extracts information at the cost of a free bottle of beer from one of his customers about a place where the children of the 'red army' congregate. Witbaatjie harbours the resentments of a petty bourgeois whose pattern of life is disrupted by the protests and boycotts which the youngsters are constantly organising. An important part of the communal life of the black township, they pose a constant threat to the agitators.
The action moves on through the parallel narratives of Mzi and Mandla's plotting to get to and kill Batata and the betrayal which ensnares the group of young people and their benefactor, Sis Ida. The story of their detention and interrogation sets up the sense of a race against time, as to whether the mission will be completed before the entire group falls into captivity.
This is a pacey story with moments of real tension. Less satisfactorily is makes a stab at delving into the psychology of the person planning a terrorist act and the crises of conscience that are imagined to ensue. From the outside perspective of the reader, equipped with the knowledge of the all-consuming evil of the apartheid regime, the sudden outburst of humanitarian concern for the violence that retribution exacts from members of the police force seems rather unconvincing. Whilst such self-questioning must have been a feature of the struggle it comes out here in an under-developed form which detracts from the main story.
He links up with Mandla's group - a bunch of teenagers who joined the street demonstrations which renewed mass opposition to the system and who have continued to resist through targeted actions against the regime. Living as waifs and strays, the centre of their lives is the home of Sis Ida, one of the older generation of apartheid's opponents.
Most in the group are amateurish in their approach to agitation and Mzi is alarmed by the risks they might pose to the job he has been given. His sole liaison is with Mandla himself, a charismatic youth with the potential to take a step up and become a fully-trained revolutionary like himself. They plot actions together, including the bombing of a police station which helps to build the legend of their activity in the city.
The action moves to the police unit that is charged with tracking them down. Led by Afrikaans officers leading a team of black constables and sergeants, they go about their work methodically, making use of informants and reports based on the lose talk that goes on in bars. We get an illustration of how this works in the case of one Noah Witbaatjie, a shebeen owner who extracts information at the cost of a free bottle of beer from one of his customers about a place where the children of the 'red army' congregate. Witbaatjie harbours the resentments of a petty bourgeois whose pattern of life is disrupted by the protests and boycotts which the youngsters are constantly organising. An important part of the communal life of the black township, they pose a constant threat to the agitators.
The action moves on through the parallel narratives of Mzi and Mandla's plotting to get to and kill Batata and the betrayal which ensnares the group of young people and their benefactor, Sis Ida. The story of their detention and interrogation sets up the sense of a race against time, as to whether the mission will be completed before the entire group falls into captivity.
This is a pacey story with moments of real tension. Less satisfactorily is makes a stab at delving into the psychology of the person planning a terrorist act and the crises of conscience that are imagined to ensue. From the outside perspective of the reader, equipped with the knowledge of the all-consuming evil of the apartheid regime, the sudden outburst of humanitarian concern for the violence that retribution exacts from members of the police force seems rather unconvincing. Whilst such self-questioning must have been a feature of the struggle it comes out here in an under-developed form which detracts from the main story.
April 12, 2023
Sepamla is a poet but wrote at least two novels, including this one about the Soweto uprising of 1976. It's important, and I'm glad I reread it, but it isn't successful as a work of art. The characters are one-dimensional, there's a lot of telling-not-showing, and the action is repetitive. I suspect he wrote it quickly to try to influence international opinion, so I don't feel great about giving it a low rating, but it was a slog to get through, even though it's not long.
May 24, 2020
This is a work of historical fiction set in Soweto, South Africa in 1976 following the June 16th youth uprising. Having personally lived in South Africa and worked in Soweto (albeit more recently) and known some of the real figures involved in the revolution to end apartheid, this book made me feel somewhat nostalgic.
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February 27, 2022A fictionalized retelling of the 'Children's Revolution' in Apartheid-era Soweto. Fascinating if uneven.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews