An Aid to Reading Shades by Marguerite Poland
The Novel: shades by Marguerite Poland
Shades is a South African novel by the award-winning author, Marguerite Poland. Her academic credentials are impressive, as she has degrees from Rhodes and Stellenbosch Universities and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has studied Xhosa, Social Anthropology and Comparative African Languages, with a special focus on Zulu Literature.
She has written for both children and adults, which is an unusual achievement. Of her eleven children’s books, The Mantis of the Moon is probably the most famous. She received the Percy Fitzpatrick Award for it, and also for another children’s book, Woodash Stars. Her books have been translated into a number of languages, including French and Japanese. She has written four adult novels. including The Train to Doringbult and Shades. She is married to the attorney Martin Oosthuizen, and has two daughters and three grandchildren.
The Setting
Marguerite Poland was descended from missionary folk who served at Keiskamma Hoek, and has said that this book was prompted in part by family records, so that it is among other things a tribute to the “shades” of her ancestors.
The novel is set in the Eastern Cape before the South African War of 1899-1902, but to understand it we need to go further back in history. Between 1779-1878 a series of frontier wars were fought in this region as the trekboere moved inland with their guns and gradually dispossessed the Xhosa, Khoi and San people. The eastern boundary of the Cape was pushed further and further from Cape Town.
[To read more about these wars (no fewer than nine in total) visit this site: http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/conquest-eastern-cape-1779-1878.]
Some skirmishes were small but others were significant battles, after which the bodies of soldiers were strewn across the battlefield with no one to bury them.
In the novel, Poland makes it clear that when no one returns the bones of those who have died to their ancestral places,
Shades is a South African novel by the award-winning author, Marguerite Poland. Her academic credentials are impressive, as she has degrees from Rhodes and Stellenbosch Universities and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has studied Xhosa, Social Anthropology and Comparative African Languages, with a special focus on Zulu Literature.
She has written for both children and adults, which is an unusual achievement. Of her eleven children’s books, The Mantis of the Moon is probably the most famous. She received the Percy Fitzpatrick Award for it, and also for another children’s book, Woodash Stars. Her books have been translated into a number of languages, including French and Japanese. She has written four adult novels. including The Train to Doringbult and Shades. She is married to the attorney Martin Oosthuizen, and has two daughters and three grandchildren.
The Setting
Marguerite Poland was descended from missionary folk who served at Keiskamma Hoek, and has said that this book was prompted in part by family records, so that it is among other things a tribute to the “shades” of her ancestors.
The novel is set in the Eastern Cape before the South African War of 1899-1902, but to understand it we need to go further back in history. Between 1779-1878 a series of frontier wars were fought in this region as the trekboere moved inland with their guns and gradually dispossessed the Xhosa, Khoi and San people. The eastern boundary of the Cape was pushed further and further from Cape Town.
[To read more about these wars (no fewer than nine in total) visit this site: http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/conquest-eastern-cape-1779-1878.]
Some skirmishes were small but others were significant battles, after which the bodies of soldiers were strewn across the battlefield with no one to bury them.
In the novel, Poland makes it clear that when no one returns the bones of those who have died to their ancestral places,
Bibliography: Anon. n.d. History of Animal Diseases. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries. http://www.nda.agric.za/vetweb/History/H_Diseases/H_Animal_Diseases_in%20SA8.htm [Accessed 19 April 2013]. Anon. n.d. The Conquest of the Eastern Cape. South Africa History Online: Towards a People’s History.http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/conquest-eastern-cape-1779-1878. [Accessed 19 April 2013]. Anon. 29 April 2013. Anglo- Boer War. Tourism Northwest. http://www.tourismnorthwest.co.za/history/anglo_boer_war.html. [Accessed 29 Appril 2013]