Sirkusboere

About This Book

Condition & Size

Sirkusboere

Sonja Loots

Medium Paperback

 

It is the year 1903. St. Louis in the American state of Missouri is a city full of noise and smoke, wedged into the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi. Here the Wild West, the Midwest and the sugar plantations of the South flow together. A wilder, more colourful mixture is difficult to imagine. Yet in the year 1903 the boundaries of imagination are being shifted. Spectators marvel at the world exhibition at the show grounds in the city centre during the day; in the evenings they flow to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the Boer War Circus. It is the year after the Anglo-Boer War. In the middle of a circus arena in the American heartland stands a man attired in what in later years would be recognised as the typical dress of the Boer warrior: broad-rimmed hat, waistcoat, bandolier and gaiters. He has a drooping moustache, a goatee and between keen eyes a long, straight nose. In a parade-ground voice he announces the show: 'Ladies and gentlemen, the Battle of Paardeberg!' Behind the scene the ringmaster gives the signal. Sudden thunder flashes make the audience clutch their ears while the arena fills with smoke, screams and the popping of gunfire. The man in the middle of the arena is Ben Viljoen, General Ben Viljoen. Barely a year ago he was one of the Boer forces' finest commanders. The ringmaster behind the scene is one Frank Fillis, a world-class impresario. Sonja Loots's novel tells the tale of how former Boer fighters participated in Fillis's circus - on the one hand the story of a people who turned their worst trauma into a circus, on the other hand the story of someone who knew how to exploit the human appetite for spectacular violence. With much originality she develops this material to deliver not only a gripping historical novel, but also a commentary on current life in South Africa.

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