Mapela’s Mountain – Dennis Winchester-Gould

Description

Mapela’s Mountain – Dennis Winchester-Gould

MAPELA’S MOUNTAIN – Mapeleng

Waggons rolled across the never-ending veld, drawn by great teams of hardy oxen – taking them, men and women and their children, and all they possessed in the world, to brave new frontiers, to where life would once again be free … the GREAT TREK opened up a new chapter for what had not yet become a country.

COURAGE…

going into the vast unknown, a wild hinterland; warring primitive tribes that fled before the great chieftains, Mzilikaze and Dingane, who ravaged all before them. Wild animals in their teeming millions.

Far from anywhere, conditions so primitive, so harsh – beyond today’s comprehension; the women who fought beside their men; brave people, all of them, putting their faith in their own home-made remedies, and in their muzzle-loaders, and above all in Almighty God.

Loving, and loved, they valued freedom above all else – willing to fight, if need be die, for it.

Boer, English, Zulu, Sotho, Tswana, Xhosa, Matabele, Hottentot, the little yellow Bushmen; their loves, their fears, their comings together, their clashes: these were the crucible out of which emerged in time the mineral-richest country the world has ever known – a young giant of a country, SOUTH AFRICA.