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84 pages

English

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A novel written in cameos, interlinking encounters between people of very different backgrounds whose determination and love of life leads to adventures of the heart in ironic and compelling ways. Narrated by one voice, that of Robert, a sensitive man with a generous spirit and a very keen appreciation of different cultures, traditions and expectations of life. How is it, he wonders, that people from such different backgrounds can meet and form relationships and enter diverse trusts and challenges and find respect and love?Set mainly in Namibia and Canada, countries familiar to the author, it is essentially a journey to reach and understand people who are willing to risk everything, the challenges when faith and beauty and health fail, and how the human heart and mind seek new places and a desire to be challenged. One of the stories is about a quest to rescue children from the tragedy and genocide of Darfur. Some of the book is set in South Africa and Namibia at the time of devolution and the release of Nelson Mandela. The land grabbing issue motivates the story of a man who gives up his entire inheritance and farm. The second part of the novel is set mainly in Canada. Drugs in sport, the way we fill days and dreams is woven into a mosaic of strong and stimulating tales that appear to be totally distinct and yet there are common human factors.

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	12 septembre 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781848769861
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0300€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

RUNNING BEFORE THAT WIND
NEIL THOMPSON
Copyright 2010 Neil Thompson
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
Matador 5 Weir Road Kibworth Beauchamp Leicester LE8 0LQ, UK Tel: ( 44) 116 279 2299 Fax: ( 44) 116 279 2277 Email: books@troubador.co.uk Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador
ISBN 978 1848764 873
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset in 12pt Bembo by Troubador Publishing Ltd, Leicester, UK

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
To My Daughter Robyn and My writing companions Churchill and Rhys Unto the pure all things are pure
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
David Grubb - for his support, advice and approval.
Andrew Morrison - for his encouragement and artwork.
Running Before That Wind is a work of fiction. The chapters are however based on factual situations which I have either personally experienced or observed in others. Some events, places and dates may have been altered in order to achieve continuity.
MAP OF SUDAN

MAP OF NAMIBIA
CONTENTS
Glossary
Farmers Son
San (Bushman)
Finding the Silent Children
Running Before That Wind
Athlete
Physicist
Rock Climber
Ministers Wife
Teacher
Fleeting Touch
Expiation
Piano Tuner
GLOSSARY
Afrikaner - an Afrikaans speaking white person in South Africa
Afrikaans - an official language of South Africa
Baas - supervisor, sir (Afrikaans)
Baksheesh - a bribe, or tip (money)
Basie - little sir (affectionate)
Bedu - nomadic Arab of the desert - also known as the Bedouin
Black wildebeest - another term for gnu (Connochaetes gnou)
Bontebok - an antelope found in eastern South Africa (Damaliscus dorcas dorcas)
Dogwood - a tree with red stems and hard wood
Eastern Province - province in South Africa
Eland - the largest of the antelopes (Taurotragus oryx)
Gemsbok - large antelope (Oryx gazella)
Herero - people, tribe mainly from Namibia
Himba - people, tribe mainly from Namibia
Hottentots - refers to the Khoikhoi peoples
iKung - one of the Bushman tribes
Indaba - discussion, conference (South African)
Janjaweed - government milita group in Sudan, proven perpetrators of genocide
Kaokoland/veld - vast area, Kunene Region, Northern Namibia
Kaptein - captain, (sir)
Kaross - blanket made of skins
Khoisan - collective term for San and Khoikhoi peoples of Southern Africa
Kunene River - the river on north/western border dividing Namibia and Angola
Kaptein, daar is iets baie verkeerd - captain, there is something very wrong
Lobola - a bride price, traditionally paid with cattle
Luister - listen (Afrikaans)
Lynx (Caracal) - Felis caracal
Magog - like cannabis, marijuana
Masalit - tribe living in central/western Darfur, Sudan
Meme - respected mother , Ovambo language, Northern Namibia
Missie - Miss, Little Miss (affectionate)
Nationalist Party - ruling political party during the apartheid years in South Africa
Nkosi Sikele Afrika - National anthem of South Africa - Lord Bless Africa
Oubaas - sir or old master (affectionate - Afrikaans)
Plettenberg Bay - town/area, Eastern Province, South Africa
Port Elizabeth - town, Eastern province, South Africa
San - Bushmen group - Southern Africa
Skeleton Coast - north-western coast of Namibia
Sotho - group of people living mainly in Botswana,
Lesotho and South Africa
SWAPO - South West Africa People s Organisation
Swartbooisdrift - tiny settlement on Kunene River
Trinidad - town in Cuba
Tswana - people, tribe in Southern Africa
Veld -open, uncultivated country in Southern Africa
Xhosa - people, tribe in South Africa
Zaghawa - nomadic tribe living in northern Darfur, Sudan
Zulu - people, tribe in South Africa
PART 1
The funeral was held yesterday.
Now as I sat in the twilight, in my fathers study, it was time to sort through his papers; keeping the important, setting aside any accounts still to be paid, discarding the rest.
It was not an easy thing to do. His writing, the small mementos, a paper knife, his diary, kept on bringing him back to me; it was all I could do not to weep for him, let alone try to go through his possessions. His faint clean smell, the subtle aftershave ever present.
He had always been a hoarder and a scribbler. Jotting down reminder notes, lists of birds and animals seen on his travels, Christmas and birthday cards stacked in shoe boxes. Slowly, sadly lethargic I went on. In the bottom drawer of his old desk were four dog-eared manuscript books.
What have I found? Out loud to myself. Never seen these before.
Pausing, I almost didn t want to open them. Something wilful made me page through the first one. Then I was absorbed totally. Switching the desk light on, I saw that he had written what at first appeared to be short stories. It soon became clear that these were episodes from his life. Some anecdotes I knew of, others filled gaps in his younger years.
The years before he met my mother
FARMER S SON
Jim is an old friend of mine. We go a long way back to our junior school days in Canada. The scion in a wealthy, long established family, Jim had never really worked hard in his life. Big, bluff and good-humoured, he loved the outdoors; a practical, decent man with no airs and graces.
Inseparable as boys, we were in the same class at school, played football together, explored the forests around Vancouver and have always been close.
He was hunting in South Africa when he met Margaret, who was called Marge by all, a name she also insisted on. A feisty farmer s daughter brought up in the Sonora desert, down near Yuma in Arizona, she was a good looking blonde woman in a handsome, sunburnt way. Being an expert horsewoman, her legs were strong, large buttocks, muscular and firm.
To the surprise of many they married, settling on a large fifteen thousand hectare ranch in Namibia. They both loved Namibia; for its openness, pristine beauty and clean air. The contrasts of landscape and scenery; deserts, forests, savannah and scrub in a splendour untamed to the eye. They live there to this day and will never leave.
Shortly after they moved there, I went to visit them, taking the long flight from Vancouver to London, from London to Windhoek. The first time they met me at the airport, but in the years that followed I would make my own way to their farm, a six hour journey by road. Being a keen birdwatcher and especially fond of raptors, I spent many contented hours walking around their property. Any unusual sightings would be recorded in a little notebook; date, time and place carefully annotated. Sometimes Samuel, an old coloured man of Bushman origin, would accompany me. After a lifetime in the bush, he could imitate the bird sounds, attracting the birds toward him with his calls.
Pursing his lips to issue a harsh tic-tic-chaa-chaa. And a paradise flycatcher would scurry around the leafier thorn bushes repeating the sound. Or he would whistle. Coming back to him from a dry branch the scarlet chested sunbird would counter cheeup, chup, toop, toop, toop .
I saw more with him than I ever would have alone.
Every year I visited them, it became an annual pilgrimic holiday. The first five years saw the birth of their two sons, substantial improvements made to the buildings and a steady change in farming practices. Fences were removed and the paddocks opened up. Jim cut back the encroaching bush, reduced the cattle herd, slowly re-introduced game and now was talking of trying to buy the farm next door.
This all seemed in total contrast to some of their neighbours. Inherited farms in the main; overstocked, devoid of grass, with owners who little appreciated what they now possessed.
It was at this time they acquired the leopard. Samuel had found it near a rocky outcrop about a kilometre from the farmhouse. Being tiny, almost newborn, he claimed that it had been abandoned. Neither the mother nor any other cubs could be found. Some initial confusion also arose, because to him both cheetah and leopard were called luiperd, the Afrikaans for leopard. Samuel, unintentionally, led Jim and Marge to believe that it was a cheetah, a far more gentle creature.
In fact, Samuel named it Xui, a Bushman Xko name meaning leopard; a name given fruitlessly however, as it never ever responded to being called.
But the Afrikaner neighbour put them wise. Marge decided to keep it anyway and raise it as a pet. This worried me. Expressing my concern to Marge during a visit, she listened carefully saying, I want to let it grow before trying to release it back into the wild.
Why don t you take it to a sanctuary? I urged, they will know how to rear it.
But she remained dogmatically steadfast.
When next I visited it was nearly two years old. The leopard had grown quickly, a solitary, difficult animal with a mind and nature of its own. There was no softness or timidity about this cat; its eyes were glaring and baleful. But it did seem to be sullenly domesticated. Nevertheless everyone gave Xui a wide berth except Jim and Marge and their two sons. To me it was clear that the animal was maturing, needed to hunt, would soon look for a mate.
Mentioning this to Marge, she replied, the local veterinarian is helping us to re-introduce it back to the veld. He seems to know what he is doing.
The day had been a scorcher; the early evening was still very warm. Jim had taken the two boys back to boarding school, a journey of some six hundred kilometres. He was