Wild Conquest

by Peter Abrahams

Cover tight but a bit soiled. /lh

Genres: Africa

383 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Peter Abrahams was a South African-born Jamaican novelist, journalist and political commentator.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Reviews

[Gerold Whittaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is set in South Africa in 1835 after slavery is abolished. The Boers refuse to live under British rule in the Cape and so begins the Great Trek up North, into the land of the Matabele. For their part, the Matabele have never seen white people or their weapons before and their soldiers and traditional weapons are hopelessly overpowered by the Boer guns and rifles.

Written in different parts with each part dedicated to a different aspect of the story, I found some of the parts difficult to read and I was tempted to skip certain chapters.

All in all an excellent book but I could have done without the witchcraft in some of the parts (specifically the part of the book dealing with traditional Matabele life).