Reap the Savage Whirlwind ~ Sowing the Seeds ~ 1897 to 1900

I have now published my latest  book ~ Reap the Savage Whirlwind ~ Sowing the Seed 1897 to 1900 which is the first in a series that chronicles the lives of four men and their families, firstly in Rhodesia and latterly in Zimbabwe, the country that it was destined to become.

The book is available from Ralpapajan's Spotlight Storefront  in both Paperback and PDF versions. An Amazon Kindle Edition has also been published and is available at Amazon Worldwide. The book is set in South Africa and Rhodesia during the period 1897 to 1900.

Reap the Savage Whirlwind is, principally, the story of a Remittance Man who was sent in disgrace to South Africa.

This happened often during the formative years of British East Africa and Central and Southern Africa and quite a few such young men were sent away from England.  These men came from old and often titled families. A monthly or periodic stipend was sent to them provided that they were returned to the shores of Britain. To ensure their acceptance a sum of money was remitted to a chosen bank in the country selected. This periodic payment gave rise to the term 'Remittance Man”. 

The book starts in England and Canada and then progresses through to South Africa during the Boer War.  Three of the friends meet at Robert Moffat's Mission Station at Kuruman.  They travel through the Bechuanaland Protectorate aided by Xhoi-San (also spelt Khoi-San) people who guide them to the Shashe River near Fort Tuli on the Border of the Country occupied by the British under the guise of the British South Africa Company Chartered by Queen Victoria.  Here they meet the fourth member of their small family and their future wives.

They meet after the principal character decides to make his fortune in the Diamond Fields of Kimberley.  The sojurn in a city under siege is eventful and he starts what will eventually become his future career. He moves with his new found friends to the new country that is being settled and which lies between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. The country that has just been named Rhodesia after Cecil John Rhodes, the British Mining Magnate and adventurer.

Before crossing the border out of Bechuanaland, he befriends two other men, one a stranger in Southern Africa and the other who was born there. One is a Canadian and the other a Zulu. 

Together they journey into the unknown. They meet with a Rosvi youth near Belingwe in Rhodesia and then meet their future wives near the Zimbabwe Ruins.  This is just after the Matabeleland and Mashona Rebellions, called by the dispossessed local people the First Chimurenga, and they need to deal with the aftermath of those rebellions. 

Eventually, with their family, the basis of a new and unique clan they make their way to their future home in Northern Mashonaland still occupied by the Makaranga Tribe.

 They all become firm and life-long friends.