The Scattering

by Lauri Kubuitsile

'I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this letter to the Hereros... Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare neither women nor children. I shall give the order to drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words to the Herero people.' South-West Africa, 1904: When German colonial authorities issue an extermination order, the Herero are forced to flee into the desert and seek safety in British Bechuanaland. Tjipuka, a young Herero mother, escapes the massacre with her baby, but is captured and put to work in the death camps in Luderitz. There she has to find the courage - and the will - to survive against all odds. The Transvaal, 1899: Riette's nursing ambitions are crushed when she is forced into marriage with an older neighbour. When he is taken captive and their farm is set ablaze during the Second Anglo-Boer War, she and his daughters must face the horrors of the British concentration camps. Against the backdrop of southern Africa's colonial wars at the dawn of the twentieth century, The Scattering traces the fates of two remarkable women whose paths cross after each has suffered the devastation and dislocation of war. Moving and intimate, Kubuitsile's novel provides a fascinating glimpse into the indomitability of the human spirit."

Genres: Botswana

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2016

About the author

Lauri Is a full time, award winning writer living in Botswana. She writes for children, teens and adults. She writes romance, detective, literary and humourous books.

Lauri has won or been shortlisted for numerous writing awards including: The Caine Prize, The Golden Baobab, MER Award for Best Youth Novel, The Sanlam Prize, Anglo Platinum Short Story Award and the Orange Botswerere Prize for Creative Writing.

She blogs at http://thoughtsfrombotswana.blogspot....

Her books include:
Signed, Hoplessly in Love (YA)
The Curse of the Gold Coins (children)
Mmele and the Magic Bones (children)
Lorato and her Wire Car (children)

In her Detective Kate Gomolemo series:
The Fatal Payout
Murder for Profit
Anything for Money
Claws of a Killer

Romance:
Kwaito Love
Can He Be The One?
Mr Not Quite Good Enough
Love in the Shadows

Short Stories:
In The Spririt of McPhineas Lata

Reviews

[Friederike Knabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! One of those books that grabbed me completely. The heart-wrenching and heartwarming story of a young Herero girl/woman who is caught up, totally unprepared in the brutal realities of war in Southwest Africa (now Namibia) then under German colonial rule. Lauri Kubuitsile convincingly sets the personal experiences of Tjipuka's innocent happy youth to her harrowing struggle for survival against the historical realities of the growing tensions between indigenous populations and occupying settlers. By the turn of the 20th century the war had spread through the region and only few managed to save themselves. Tjipuka's story is complemented by that of Ruhapo, her childhood friend and loving husband. War's brutality, however, reaches everybody.

The Herero War was not the only conflict in the region at that time. Riette, growing up in the farmlands of South Africa becomes a witness to civil war and the resulting destruction. Since childhood she had to overcome the strict rules of her family to follow her own path. It is different from Tjipuka's struggle but not less difficult. It is easy to guess early on that the lives of the two women will eventually connect or overlap. It is quite a dramatic journey for both.

Lauri Kubuitsile has in my opinion written an outstanding novel that achieves two not always easily combined components: a deeply moving, intimate story of love, loss, betrayal and resilience of the human spirit and an in depth portrait of a historical time the events of which are not sufficiently known and/or understood beyond the indigenous population of the country but that have marked the region until today. Kubuitsile does this with a deep understanding of the complexities and in a perceptive language that does not let the readers escape from the human story.

[Margie Jeursen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a winner for me. It tells the story of two women with completely different lives and their struggles through the colonization of Namibia previously South West Africa and Boer War. It was heart wrenching in places but very engaging, showing the strength of the human spirit through awful circumstances. Will read this author again if she writes more historical fiction.

[Tiah]

– She isn't sure she can love a man with these bits of a stranger about him. But how can she tell him, stop being you? Stop being this man who you are now? –

– How could the stars not be changed by all this evil they had witnessed? –

–They were alive. Their systems ran. Their hearts beat. Their blood moved through their veins. But something shifts in a person when the only hope they have is to live and nothing more. –

– Touch now only meant sex. And sex did not mean love. Sex was a search for lost things. –

– War is for men. It's always for men. They have a dark place where war grows. –

[Megan Kelosiwang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my favourite kind of novel - where I learn something new about history while being totally engrossed in characters and emotions. I knew little detail about the story of the baHerero but the history of an invaded, oppressed and colonised people rings sadly similar. Being able to see these events through the eyes of women is a humbling experience, bringing a new depth to histories written by men. The power, compassion, empathy and resilience of women in the worst of times is inspiring and empowering for all of us. A wonderful read made more poignant by my love for my adopted home Botswana.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

My family and I spent two weeks this summer in Namibia, one of the most fascinating and unique places I have seen on Earth. I have had a fascination about this huge desolate country (bigger than France, but only about 2,5 mio citizens) with its two deserts - Namib bordering the Atlantic’s ice cold Benguela waters and Kalahari bordering the equally desolate Botswana and South Africa - its tribes of short, weathered hardy bushmen with the unique click-sound languages and not least its bleak past of brutal German colonization and its subsequent South African deadlock until the very late independence in 1990. As usual in preparation for the slightly short (the price one has to pay to get teenage children to join such a vacation!) trip, I was looking for local fiction preferably taking place in Namibia and ChatGPT was most helpful in recommending Laura Kubuitsile’s “The Scattering”. It turned out to be impossible to get hold of it in finite time in Denmark, but in the NamCraft craft market on Sam Nujoma Street in Windhoek I found it - and did not open a page in it until I sat on the plane home two weeks later (camping in Namibia is a highly recommendable experience, but it is also hard work at times…)!
So, safely seated with the movie screen out of order on monkey class in the Airbus A380 for a nine hour flight to London, I finally started what turned out to be a most gripping and exciting tale! The setting is in northern Namibia in the highland where pastures are reasonable and the Bantu-origin Herero tribe herd their cattle and live a life that is under pressure from the German colonists. Bismarck had finally succumbed to the pressure from opportunistic traders, ventured into the “Kolonialtummel” and landed troops in what was to become the wind-swept coastal town of Lüderitz in 1884 and the colonization then took off the way it did across the big continent during the Scramble for Africa with fortune hunters, opportunists and people of dubious background in their home countries seeing possibilities in grabbing land from ignorant or equally opportunistic tribal leaders and leaving the multitude of tribes - a cross-cross of Bantu tribes and bushmen tribes and pastoralist, herders and hunters/gatherers - to face the inevitable consequences.
Tjipuka is a girl of noble background that marries Ruhapo, a solid, capable, sensible and proud man, but their happiness is destroyed when Lothar von Trotha’s extermination order - the order to annihilate the Herero tribe for their bloody uprising against German farmers - hit their community full force with a brutality that Kubuitsile paints enough of a picture off to leave you wondering whether the sand of the Kalahari was indeed red before the Herero genocide! The storyline is reasonably simple: Tjipuka and Ruhapo become separated when they flee into the desert - The Scattering of the people becomes very concrete and relatable - and they spend the majority of the rest of the story on finding each other again amidst the heartless and efficient German brutality (the Germans put guards on all wells bordering the Kalahari and any Herero approaching one of these wells would be killed on sight; shot, hung, knifed, whatever); one really gets a feel for how the mindset of the master race did not originate in the Third Reich; it was there already, but was never called out by its right name; Namibia was just too far away and who cared about “a few” dead negroes back then!? The Scattering tells us what war does to families, married couples and individuals when they are forced to flee their homes and homeland and are left to live on survival instincts and a meager hope of finding the loved ones again. Scattering rhymes on Shattering. The scattering of people leads to the shattering of hearts and dreams and only the strong, like Tjipuka manages to live through that fueled only by hope that things will eventually be good again; but just like The Great Gatsby learnt then time’s arrow moves forward relentlessly and she and Rahupo are left to deal with the reality of choices made and losses faced. The fine quality of the story is that Kubuitsile never resorts to stereotypes; she is indeed a humanist able to show humans for what they are. Some are generally good, some are generally bad, some are generally ugly, but no-one is pure. This along with a superb eye for human relations and dynamics gives the story huge credibility. To me the page-turning quality of The Scattering grows from this coupled with the bloody, but also very interesting historical backdrop.

If I was to point a finger at anything, it would be the role of Riette., the boer woman that amidst the boer war manages to escape the iron-grip of a feudal Boer community. I understand, thanks to Riette’s story, the parallel scattering of the boers as the Boer war unfolds, and the interweaving of Riette and Tjipuka’s lives could have been a great element enhancing the story even further, but it comes too late in the story and there is too little relation-building between the two women. Opposed to this is the magnificent unfolding of the relation between Ludwig and Tjipuka; this is literature at its best!

I absolutely recommend The Scattering to anyone going to Namibia with just a fraction of interest in knowing more about the background of this beautiful and demanding country. I ate half the book on that plane ride home and I finished it around midnight under the full moon on the couch feeling sad about the ending…

[Andy – And The Plot Thickens · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Scattering is a love story set against the genocide of the Herero by the Germans in South-West Africa, what is known today as Namibia. In 1904 an extermination order is issued, forcing the Herero into the desert - the scattering referred to in the title - where they die of thirst, starve or are hunted down. Some of the Herero are taken as prisoners and a few lucky ones make it to British Bechuanaland - today's Botswana, where they resettle, mostly as labourers.

Tjipuka and Ruhapo are a young couple, very much in love. Ruhapo, over-confident, leads a force to dispel the Germans from Herero land and in the bloodshed the two lose sight of one another. Tjipuka flees with her baby, firmly believing her husband has been killed. Ruhapo, however, searches for his family across the desert for months, eventually giving them up for dead.

Intertwined with this is another story, that of Riette, a young South African woman who is thrust into the Anglo-Boer War in Transvaal along with her two step-daughters.

Both Tjipuka and Riette are women thrown into war because of the ambitions of men. But they are not without agency. Both make do with what they have and try to patch together what they can to make a life.

The Scattering contrasts the hope of love with the futility and horror of war. Some of what Kubuitsile describes will make your stomach churn. At the same time, the author uses rich descriptions of nature to articulate people's connection to land and landscape. Tjipuka likes to observe the sunrise, "to sit and watch the world reveal itself from black to grey and slowly to yellow and orange. She likes to sit near the cattle and hear their mooing and contented grunts."

Dispossession is a strong theme, of land and of self. The two are intertwined, for if you've lost your home, livelihood and those you love - what are you?

[Roenel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may not have been the best choice of reading material amid a pandemic, but oh man, it put things into perspective. There's still a lot to be thankful for, even in these uncertain times. The Scattering is a heart wrenching read that tells the gruelling story of two women, one Herero and one Afrikaans. It's set against the backdrop of the German-Herero war of 1904 - 1908. Germany was responsible for this first genocide of the 20th century. Nearly 100,000 Herero, Nama and San people died. It only took Germany 105 years to acknowledge it... I've been to Shark Island. There's almost nothing left of the concentration camp there, not that there could've been much to start with. The landscape is made up of sharp, barren rocks on the verge of the sea. Freezing cold Atlantic winds blow constantly and icy mist clouds envelope this harsh climate. I've seen the Herero mass graves in Swakopmund. Little heaps of sand. A reminder, an eyesore. German casualties neatly lined up side by side on the next plot. The silence speaks. No wonder the wounds of the proud Herero people are still bleeding. If I were in their shoes, I would not forget either. This book is a stark reminder that "War does not determine who is right. Only who is left." Thank you Mrs. Kubuitsile for bringing Tjipuka and Riëtte's stories to life. Their echoes remain with me.

[Jayne Bauling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some tragedies and atrocities are on such an overwhelmingly massive scale that I think we sometimes shrink from even giving thought to them. One of the things fiction can do is to present the experiences of individual humans, whether imagined or based on real people, and in caring about these characters we can come a little closer to grasping the suffering of all.
This is a story of genocide, of the appalling decimation of the Herero people by the German colonial authorities in the early 1900s, in what was South-West Africa. The extermination campaign in itself, and the heartlessness and treachery of the brutal authorities, are shocking in the extreme.
A young woman, Tjipuka, her husband Ruhapo, and their other loved ones endure betrayal, cruelty, and unimaginable loss. The novel is beautifully written, and while intimate, it also has an epic feel. I almost never cry over books, but this had me on the edge of tears not once but several times.
Something else that fiction can do: lately especially, it seems to me, that it has been bringing huge, neglected parts of history – and especially African history - to our attention, and this is good.

[Rox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ooh, this book is a little too relevent to everything going on in the world today, specifically the genocide, as the story follows the first genocide of the 20th century – the Herero and Nama genocide carried out by Germany.
This book is devastating. I reminds me why people are angry, and why they should be. It is 2024, and discussions about reparations are still ongioing. Why? How can you almost wipe out an enitre ethnic group, but then do the same thing in WW2, continue to deny certain events, and then support the currecnt on-going genocide? Yes, this book will have you furious.
For a less angry review, you can check out this one at https://www.namibian.com.na/the-human....

[Tumelo Moleleki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books about the persecution of black people and the burdens it places on women when men think they know better and start wars or want what doesn't belong to them. Tjipuka was far too harsh on herself and far too kind and forgiving with Ruhapo. Of all the characters, I disliked Ruhapo from almost when I first met him as his arrogance told me that he was dangerous and it only got worse as the story progressed. Perhaps how the story starts is what informs my instinct about him.

I do like books that expand my knowledge about the world around me and drop historical knowledge without purporting to do so directly.

[Jule · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Handlung spielt zur Zeit des Genozides an den Herero im heutigen Namibia. Es geht um zwei Frauen, die von der Gewalt gezwungen werden, zu fliehen. Auf der Flucht und in den Jahren danach erfahren sie noch mehr Gewalt.
Lauri Kubuitsile schreibt aus weiblicher Perspektive über die Schrecken des Krieges und lässt dabei nichts aus. Ihr gelingt es, den Charakteren Tiefe zu verleihen und sie überrascht mit dem Ende des Romans.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a heart-wrenching depiction of the German genocide of the Herero! This book is beautifully written in an extremely readable style. I found it difficult to put it down, even though the subject matter is a tough one. It is a story of love, loss and the resilience of the human spirit. I highly recommend it.

[Jonathan Laverick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found it difficult to put down. A good insight into the suffering in Southern Africa, and especially Namibia under German rule, it tells the story of the survival of two strong women characters. A slight warning - it is not a happy book, but it is so well written that it keeps you gripped until the end.

[Marion Roux · Rating 4 out of 5]

The extermination and exile of Hereros by Germans, from what is now Namibia, during the time frame of 1904 to 1908. the long, arduous trek into Bechaunaland is recounted.
The absolute sadness and indignity of it all.

[Helga Schaberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insider perspective on the shocking trauma of the Herero extermination in German South West Africa, coupled with insights on the Anglo-Boer war. Intimate. Not comfortable. Multi-faceted characters.

[Magda Swanepoel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a period in namibian history that most would rather not talk about.. one of those incidents in the dark past that makes you realy wonder at how cruel can life be. Excellent story about a dark period. Must read!

[Elizabeth Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Leonie Swanepoel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Afascinating read with well researched history. A true story of things passed but not forgotten

[Penny de Vries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, heart-wrenching tragic depiction of the German genocide of the Herero.

[Nils Klinghammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up The Scattering almost on a whim, not expecting much when I found it in a tiny bookshop in Swakopmund. But the novel turned out to be one of those rare reading experiences that quietly draws you in and then stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Lauri Kubuitsile weaves a powerful, emotionally rich story set against the backdrop of the Herero and Nama genocide in German South West Africa. Despite the historical weight of the subject, her writing feels both accessible and deeply human. Through the lives of Tjipuka and Riette—two women whose worlds are violently upended—Kubuitsile paints a vivid picture of resilience, loss, and the unexpected ways people find strength when everything around them collapses.

The book’s great strength lies in its intimacy. Instead of giving a distant historical overview, it pulls you directly into personal experiences: the terror of displacement, the slow process of healing, and the small, fragile acts of hope. The pacing is gentle but deliberate, and Kubuitsile’s writing is elegant without ever feeling overwrought. She gives each character enough space to breathe, to be flawed, and to feel real.

I liked the book a lot—more than I anticipated. The Scattering is one of those novels that makes you grateful you stumbled upon it by chance. A quietly powerful and beautifully crafted read. Highly recommended.

[Kathe Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Scattering by Lauri Kubuitsile
The story follows the fate of two remarkable young women whose paths cross during the Boer War. It is 1904 in South Africa and the Germans have issued an extermination order and the Hereros are forced to safety in Bechuanland. Ruhapo and Tjipuka are young Hereros adults who were recently married. Ruhapo was a high spirited but unexperienced warrior and left to fight the Germans leaving Tjipuka behind promising to return for her. Unfortunately, she is quickly captured and forced to work in the German death camps in Luderitz.
Riette’s, daughter of angry Boer farmer, had a dream had been to become a nurse and leave the harsh family and surroundings she had lived all her life. Excited about being accepted in a nursing position, her happiness was dashed by her physically abusive father insisting that she marry the neighbor who was considerably older with two young daughters.
The story tells of the unimaginable suffering, both at the hands of the British and Germany Tough to read but I could not put it down
A story that must be told. 5 stars