Local author Bernadette Kiewiet presents a different viewpoint on apartheid, with the launch of her new book at the Athlone Library.
Her book, Life’s Soiled Red Earth, is her first book, following her first published short story in 2019.
“The book took more or less five years from first line to publication date. I always felt the need to record life during apartheid from another point of view, so this does not get lost because of academic’s historical accounts of this era.
“Also, the need to have the indigenous background, in my opinion, particularly the people of Cape Town, portrayed as it should be. I used a thesis done on Nama-Khoi people in the early 80s; a biography of a person who – and generations of his family – lived in the Northern Cape; as well as a diary of a Catholic Bishop, for the background settings of the story,” she says.
The book is published by Austin Macauley publishers. Her short story The Crash was published in the Write My City Short Story Anthology (2019). Born in Claremont, Kiewiet was raised in Bokmakierie, Athlone.
“Ironically, one of the seven wonders of the world, Table Mountain, displays its best views to the residents of Bokmakierie, as if in defiance. Because this township is situated where the 60s apartheid Group Areas Act evicted families to: the dry, windy, sandy area stretched out below. “Our street extended towards these blue peaks. Here, surrounded by its magnetic field, my love for writing blossomed. In our two-bedroomed council house, I wrote stories for my siblings. I also penned plays. Through school holidays, clad in newspaper costumes, these were held in our bedroom. One of my stories, written at this time, aired on the closed Springbok Radio,” she writes in her Goodreads biography.
The book is available in paperback at R285 and in eBook at R89 from Amazon, Goodreads, and the publisher, Austin Macauley. Reader’s reviews labels the book as a “page-turner” and “a must-read”.
The book launch will take place on Saturday 20 May at Athlone Library from 10:30 to 13:00. Entry is free of charge. Another launch on Tuesday 9 May will take place at Kuils River Library near where she now resides.
