Names like
Caab
,
Helshoogde
and others are written to conform with spelling conventions of the time.
The brief reappearance of some characters from the Bokkeveld uprising of 1825, on which my novel
A Chain of Voices
(1983) was based, is effected, not only because it
was
historically probable, but because the structure of
Philida
is a conscious corollary of the earlier novel, in order to highlight both the similarities and the differences between the two. And the fact that Daniel Fredrik Berrangé, whose daughter married Francois Brink in due course (after a delay which had to be accounted for in narrative terms), was indeed the secretary of the court that tried the Bokkeveld rebels provides further motivation for such a link.
It was impossible to keep Cupido Cockroach of
Praying Mantis
(2005) from making a reappearance in this novel. In many respects his story paved the way for this book.
The scene in the
voorhuis
of the Berrangés’, with the slave boy chasing the flies, is based on an illustration from Sir John Barrow’s
An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa
(1801–04). The extravagant size of Lady Anne’s chameleon was enough motivation for reincorporating the familiar Khoe myth about death and the chameleon so prominently.
For the cosmology of the Khoekhoen and other early inhabitants of Africa I am once again indebted to L. Schapera’s
The Khoisan Peoples of Southern Africa
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1930) and, obviously, to the Bleek-Lloyd collection at the University of Cape Town, as well as to Lady Ademola’s three-part
African Proverbs
(Ibadan: Bookcraft, 2008), while much of our human existence between the natural and the supernatural has been inspired by the Occitan writer Max Rouquette, whose beautiful
Vert Paradis
(Paris: Le Chemin vert, 1980) has accompanied me on many a voyage, geographically and in the mind.
The writing of this book is, in itself, an acknowledgement and an expression of deep gratitude, to Jan Rabie and Marjorie Wallace, for a friendship of nearly fifty years.
In a very special way, and like so often before, my editor and dear friend Geoff Mulligan was indispensable in shaping the final version of this book.
Cape Town, February 2012
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