Commendation: Njeng manong fa ke sule!
Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature 2000: Silver
 
Njeng manong fa ke sule! (Devour me, vultures, when I’m dead!)

The setting of the story is a farm in the district of Tswaing. The main characters are the owner of the farm, nicknamed Ramabole (Mr Boxer), his daughter, Maria, and a farmhand, Senatla (Strongman). Senatla's father transports Maria to school daily. When Senatla is old enough, he takes over his father's task. Maria takes it upon herself to teach Senatla to read and write. In the process they fall in love and she is later impregnated by Senatla. When Maria's father sees them kissing, all hell breaks loose.

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Maria and Senatla run away into the bush, but some way from home Maria decides to let Senatla flee to Botswana while she returns home to face the music alone.After many trials and tribulations, Senatla meets an old man, Tshesebe, living in a cave. Senatla discovers that they are somehow related, and Tshesebe teaches him the Bakwena praises, as well as their lineage. When the old man dies, Senatla buries him and moves on to Lobatse. In Botswana he is received by the Bakwena tribe who bear the same clan name as he does.

When he is advised to marry, he tells the tribe he has already promised to marry Maria. This is unacceptable to the Bakwena and Senatla has to flee once more. On his way he hears that a white woman is looking for him. Before long Maria arrives, the two meet and all is well. Together they go to Klerksdorp to collect their son, who has been adopted by a coloured family.

Once they get there, things go awry and they are jailed for life for being political activists. After the elections in 1994 Maria is released. During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, Senatia is also released and the two go back to live on the farm where they grew up.

The hardships and cruelties meted out to the farm labourers during the apartheid era by some of the farmers are well depicted by the author. The nicknames given to them fit their deeds: Ramabole (Mr Boxer), Poogadigangwe (Mr Bulls-are-not-to-be-milked), Mokwepa (Mamba). These characters assaulted and killed their workers and fed them on poor food and baboon meat. The old man Senatla had met at the cave was driven away in his old age from the farm where he had grown up and had to leave behind some of his stock.

The oppressive laws, such as the Mixed Marriages Act, which forms the base of our story, are sketched in a balanced and convincing fashion: Senatla had to flee to save his life while his and Maria's illegitimate son had to be adopted by a coloured family to avoid the scandal that was attached to such an incident. These oppressive laws did not apply to mixed marriages only. In the traditional setting, a boy or girl could not marry a person of his or her choice. The parents and family members chose one for him or her. When Senatla told the family members that he wanted to marry Maria, this was met with great disapproval.

The role and behaviour of the African police and some farmhands, such as the foremen, are also properly depicted in the story. They were used by their white masters to harass their fellow Africans.

It gives me pleasure to recommend that the Silver Sanlam Prize be awarded to Kabelo Duncan Kgatea for his novel Njeng Manong Fa Ke Sule!

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