Cry, The Beloved Country [antikvár]

AUTHOR'S NOTE It is true that there is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. It is true that it runs to Carisbrooke, and that from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest scenes of Africa, the valley of the Umzimkulu. But there is no Ndotsheni there, and no farm called High Place. No persons in this book are intended to be actual persons, except two, the late Professor Hoernli and Sir Ernest Oppenheimer; but nothing that is said about these two could be considered offensive. Professor Hoernld was Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand, and a great and courageous fighter for justice; in fact he was the prince of Kafferboeties. Sir Ernest Oppenheimer is the head of a very important mining group, a man of great influence, and able to do as much as any one man to arrest the process of deterioration described in this book. That does not mean of course that he can do everything. Various persons are mentioned, not by name, but as the holders of this or that position. In no case is reference intended to any actual holder of any of these positions. Nor in any related event is reference intended to any actual event; except that the accounts of the boycott of the buses, the erection of Shanty Town, the finding of gold at Odendaalsrust, and the miners' strike, are a compound of truth and fiction. In these respects therefore the story is not true, but considered as a social record it is the plain and simple truth. For the benefit of readers I have appended a list of words at the end of the book, which includes by no means all the strange names and words that are used. But it contains those, a knowledge of the meaning and approximately correct pronunciation of which should add to the reader's enjoyment. I add too for this same purpose the information that the population of South Africa is about eleven millions. Of these about two and a half million are white, of whom roughly three-fifths are Afrikaans-speaking and two-fifths English-speaking. The rest, except for one million coloured people, by which we mean of mixed white and other blood, are the black people of the African tribes. Johannesburg is referred to as the 'great city'; this is judged by South African standards. Its population is about 700,000, but it is a fine modern city, with some tragic slums. The Umzimkulu is called the 'great river', but it is in fact a small river in a great valley.