Book description
The whole of A Far- Off Place is charged with the power and
magic and beauty of Africa. Driven with appalling violence from his
home by "freedom fighters" François Joubert, a boy about to
become a man, who is deeply learned in the life and ways of the bush,
embarks on a long and terrible journey. He is accompanied by Nonnie,
the young daughter of a retired colonial governor, murdered by the
terrorists, Xhabbo, a dearly beloved Bushman whom François had once
saved from death, and Xhabbo's wife, Nuin-Tara.
Every effort is made by the attackers, swarming everywhere in the
bush, to prevent the little foursome, sole survivors and witnesses of
the brutal massacre of Europeans and their Matabele partners, from
reaching the outside world. The sustained ferocity of the pursuit
appears only too likely to overwhelm them, for François and Nonnie
have only their own aristocratic spirit and faith in each other, the
native skill of Xhabbo and Nuin- Tara and the courage and intelligence
of the noble hunting dog, Hintza, to help them against the most
fearful odds.
Not only the bush but also a great desert of a thousand miles of
sand and scrub lies between them and any hope of safety. Yet the
manner in which this little band and one dog take on this great
adventure, turns it into something of a pilgrimage.
Through their physical suffering and almost unbearable agony of
heart and mind, they achieve both an unimagined knowledge of the
resources of their bodies, and far more important still, find an inner
way to an understanding of man's proper place in the natural universe
- an acceptance of the right of every living creature to exist
alongside him. As a result, whatever the tragedy and disaster of the
story, the travail and traffic of their young lives reach out beyond
fear and darkness towards an intimation of concord and light.
In contrast to the profound understanding of the land and its birds
and animals implicit in the characters of each of the imperiled
foursome, the "freedom fighters", promising life, bring only
death and in the name of liberty do mortal injury to the innermost
spirit of Africa.
A Far-Off Place, though complete in itself, accomplishes with
A Story Like the Wind, a unique voyage of discovery into a
hidden and hitherto unrecorded core of Africa. Not least of its
by-products is an insight into what is committed in that vast
continent in the name of liberation and independence.
