New Contrast 156

South Africa Literary Journal (Vol 39, No 4, Summer 2011)

Harsh brilliant light in Khorix as gives birth to dust in sunbeams at the BP diesel pump.

Tropicana Bar in Khorixas gives birth to mercenaries and evil African and prostitutes and guerrillas.

Gravel roads in Khorixas gives birth to

a white pick up truck swerves from side to side at 120 kms per hour two pieces of wood in the form of a cross on the side of the road shed tears

a dead flower nods its head

The Supreme Commander of the protection force in German South West Africa; 1904 – Lothar von Trotha: I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated, or, if this is not possible by tactical measures, have to be expelled from the country…  This will be possible if the water-holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied…..

THE SEA OF CARE WILL SURGE IN VAIN UPON A CARELESS SHORE

The constant movement of our troops will enable us to find the small groups who have moved backwards and destroy them gradually.

Shark Island: it would not be kind to compare this island to a concentration camp; it is a tourist attraction: death has a number, death is recorded, death is calculated.

1908 – 80% – dead.

Treaty:  My intimate knowledge of many central African tribes (Bantu and others) has everywhere convinced me of the necessity that the Negro does not respect treaties but only brute force.

Dead, brute force, dead women, dead men, brute force, dead, brute force, dead men, dead force, brute men, force, dead women, dead force, brute

And the black-faced impala (aepyceros melampus peters) is a subspecies of the common impala (Aaepyceros melampus).

Shoulder height – 91 cm Mass – 45-55 kg Gestation – 180 – 210 days

These antelopes are not difficult to tell it apart. The black faced impala has black facial markings. The black faced impala has come close to extinction. Between 1968 and 1971 ONLY 310 black faced impala were recorded.

every bit of this land is sacred …… africa is the only continent that I can love …… without me africa is doomed …… forty years have passed since I, my friend hermann and the dog otto sought the shelter of the desert in order to escape the madness of the second world war …… our bare feet traced two parallel paths in the red sand ……

Hello! What time is it? summer time, 12h00 in Khorixas, 12h00 in London, 12h00 in Berlin: winter time 11h00 in Khorixas, 13h00 in London, 13h00 in Berlin. But always at the same time on the same day two plum coloured starlings, one male and one female, sit on an evergreen shrub, dense clumps of green decussate leaves, pink berries rich in mustard oil, the female is hidden by contorted branches, yellow eyes, the fruit of the tree is Biblical, prickly, accusatory, exterminating.

The cliché is a sacred form of language because it is developed by a community not by an individual.

THE CRUELTIES OF THE GREAT WAR WERE BROUGHT BY THE RADIO INTO OUR DESERT EVENINGS, our thoughts and talks were much occupied with the riddles of the evolution of life and of man, his astonishing cultures, HIS FATEFUL FAILINGS; THE PRIMITIVE TRAITS OF HUMAN NATURE. So even after half a lifetime, the scenes of our desert existence are sharply etched into my memory, and every visit to the Namib feels like a return home…… the red dunes to the south of the                                            Kuiseb canyon.

…… nothing is more wicked than men who raise hymns of praise to heaven for those who have injured the human race: Leonardo da Vinci in 1498.