Tales from the Cape of Storms: Folk Tales of the European Colonial Peoples of Southern Africa, from the Cape to the Zambezi

Before the farms, before the forts, before the flags — there was the sea, and a giant at the end of the world. For five centuries the European peoples of Southern Africa — Portuguese sailors, Dutch and Boer farmers, British and German settlers, Scottish missionaries — filled the southern night with stories. Here they are gathered at last in one volume: twenty-three tales, faithfully retold from the oldest sources, spanning the whole subcontinent from the Cape of Storms to the Zambezi. Meet Adamastor, the grieving giant imprisoned in the rock of the Cape. Ride with Wolraad Woltemade into the killing surf, and with Dick King and Ndongeni through a hundred flooded rivers. Shudder at the Flying Dutchman, the ghosts of the Castle of Good Hope, and the lights that still move on Spioenkop. Hunt the Kruger Millions and the Lost City of the Kalahari. Watch the desert eat a champagne town at Kolmanskop — and stop, if you dare, for the hitchhiker on the Uniondale road. Each tale opens with its origins and closes with a note for the curious, honestly separating record from rumour. Written to be read aloud — to children by torchlight, and to grandparents who will recognise the stories of their own childhood — this is a rescue effort, a fireside, and a family treasury in one. A tale told is a tale saved. Begin tonight.