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The
Plotting
In
May 1978, Michener and I began the plotting of The Covenant
sitting down for two four-day sessions with an intervening
weekend during which I typed a draft outline. A year later on April
15, 1979, Jim wrote the first of two memos about those meetings
suggesting that what I brought to the table was “an exciting adventure
story about diamonds,” while he'd already outlined a South African
novel based on a “Dutch family, a Zulu component and a conflict
with the British.”
| 15
April, 1979
Long
before he met me, Errol Uys devised what could have been an
exciting adventure story about diamonds, Arabian emirs, prospectors
and some rattling good South African and American characters.
He outlined his proposed novel in extensive detail, featuring
intricate plot relationships among a considerable collection
of characters, but did no writing.
Long
before I met Uys I had outlined a South African novel based
on a Dutch family, a Zulu component and a conflict with the
British. I stressed a Cape Town-to-Zimbabwe axis and ruthlessly
excluded Natal, Southwest Africa and Kimberley, as I did not
want to get involved in British settlements, Namibia or diamonds.
But because of other pressures, and my inability as I saw
it to get back to South Africa, I put this novel on the back
burner and let it stay there for about eight years.
Then
Tony Oursler of the Reader's Digest called one day
to see if he could talk with me about his idea for a novel,
and he told me of Uys's work, but more important, of Uys's
presence in the United States and his eagerness to work with
me on some South African materials. He
outlined Uys's diamond novel briefly, and I said I'd not be
interested in that line of development at all, but that I
had long had my own thoughts on the matter and that if Uys
and the South African arm of the Digest wanted to
help with research material, I'd be interested. Especially,
it was Oursler and Uys who proposed the diamond as the continuing
factor in the story, and this appealed to me, but again, not
as they supposed. In my version the diamond would never surface.
Then
Uys and I met, most congenially, and I outlined my concept
of the novel that I thought would make a contribution, and
I rarely said one word but Uys immediately envisioned what
I had in mind, and he rarely made a suggestion but what I
could instantly see its applicability. (sic) We spent some
four days with my outlining what was necessary, and he returned
home to draft this document, using my ideas as a base line,
adding his own inventive suggestions. We then met for another
four days, after which he revised our outline along the lines
my thoughts had been going. I then laid the whole aside and
started to write from a fresh start, as it were, keeping basic
structures in mind but allowing the story to develop itself.
I write this memorandum as I finish Chapter VII, aware of
how far I've strayed from our a priori ideas, but
also aware of how valuable the preplanning has been. Until
a story gets a life of its own, one never know where it is
going to lead, and that's always the best way. |
The
memo of April 15, 1979 is typed on a frontispiece of the outline
I drafted and titled “Covenant.” The following day Jim returned
to the same subject of plotting the book in a new and more polished
statement that again references my “diamond” novel in more graceful
and generous terms.
| 16
April 1979
This
is the beautifully worked-out plot that Errol Uys had in his
possession when we first met to discuss whether or not he
could find it congenial to work with me, and I with him. It
should be studied carefully to see the points at which he
had anticipated some of my own ideas, where he paralleled
some, and where he introduced lines that I found quite extraneous.
Examples
of the latter are the Iranians in whom I could show no interest
whatever, (Green); the American line (Black) although after
having composed my last chapter with an Australian I diverted
to an American as more fruitful; most of the English line
(Green also) which seemed too melodramatic for me; and much
of the Bantu (Blue and Brown) which again seemed too dramatic.
There were, of course, elements in all the lines which had
no attraction.
Examples
of the first, in which Uys anticipated me beautifully, were
the background materials on the creation of the diamond (that
is the geology, which has always been a preoccupation with
me and not specifically the diamond itself); the man-apes;
Australopithecus, although I could express no interest in
Pithecanthropus for the good reason that I know nothing whatever
about him; the Bushmen; the fleeting allusion to Zimbabwe,
which had always been of major importance to me. Indeed, it
was Uys's interest in these pre-historical materials which
attracted me to him, for without an understanding of how my
mind works on such themes he would have been unable to keep
pace... Click
to read more
|
I
first saw these memos in 2000 when Dr.
Barbara Helly brought them to my attention. A post-graduate
student at the University of Rennes, France, Helly was in the U.S.
researching The Covenant as basis for her English doctoral
thesis. Something about the two memos nagged at me: Why after we
worked together for a year did Michener suddenly feel compelled
to offer this explanation of the genesis of The Covenant?
Why did he go to the trouble of analyzing a schema I'd drawn up
following my initial talks with Oursler, a plan that was thrown
out of the door the moment Michener and I sat down to serious discussion
at Maryland?
Then
the penny dropped and I saw what may have triggered Michener's concern.
In my files, I have a letter written on March 30, 1979, two weeks
before Jim made his comments on our plotting sessions.
| 30
March, 1979
Several
well-intentioned people have written to me recommending that
I read the books of Wilbur Smith, especially The Sun Bird
and Gold.
For
that reason it's important that I not read his books.
As you know I've tried to steer completely clear of any novels,
not wanting to run even the slightest risk of borrowing from
them. The only novel I've read, so far as I can recall, is
Prinsloo (Prinsloo of Prinsloo's Dorp),
and I think it is out of copyright. (I've also read, years
ago, Jock of the Bushveld, and I suppose
it's out of copyright too.)
Please
do not in any of your work, cite material from novels or short
stories, as I have always tried to avoid such work. I adopted
this policy long ago and I believe I spoke to Philip about
my attitude, but the recent court cases involving Alex Haley's
Roots, in which he borrowed bluntly and without good
judgment, have alerted us anew to this problem. |
The
memos of April 15 and April 16, 1979 would not be Jim's last word
on my role in the plotting of his novel. For example, Michener's
archival notes for The Covenant materials report:
|
2.
This novel had an unusual genesis. I planned it first in 1970
or thereabouts, prior to my first visit to South Africa. At
that time I knew the surrounding countries well, having made
several extended trips into the area. But I needed to see
the land at first hand, so during that first trip I plotted
a series of major short stories, connected into novel form,
and some of these exists in the finished novel. But I felt
I didn't know enough, so that idea perished and I would certainly
not have gone ahead had not Tony Oursler of the Reader's
Digest called me on the phone to tell me that his organization
had two highly skilled editors*
free at the moment, and they had been thinking about a book
on South Africa and were free to work with me if I ever planned
to do such a book. Item #2 shows the planning that Errol Uys,
the principal editor, had completed long before he ever heard
of me. My note pasted to the front indicates the relationship
of Uys and his material to the plan that I had devised much
earlier.
3.
This represents Uys' reporting and summary of the heavy planning
we did over several extended meetings covering many days.
There was little of Uys' super-dramatic outline I could use
– his original, that is – and his excellent concept of the
diamond as a continuing thread, while it worked well for me,
was ultimately discarded by the editors, to my deep regret,
I must say. But the book was over-long and something had to
go. The four families were my idea, from far in the past,
and the book would be built around that, but Uys's clever
extensions and interlockings mark every chapter. |
(*
Note: I was the only editor involved at this stage. I subsequently
engaged Philip Bateman as an assistant in South Africa. See Research.)
A
final commentary on The Covenant's genesis appears in a 1980
message to members of The Literary Guild for the book club edition.
Jim describes his five-week visit to South Africa in 1971 and writes:
I
came home all steamed up about writing a novel on the South
African experience. I framed it around four basic themes: (1)
The Bushman moving south across the desert. (2) The coming of
the Huguenots. (3) The Great Trek north of the Dutch. (4) The
Mfecane, that amazing eruption of the Zulu in the 1820s. These
stepping stones would bring me down to the present, where I
would deal with several incidents in contemporary life which
had stunned me. In no way would I be able to write about South
Africa without speaking of apartheid, the system whereby the
races are kept completely separated.
But
when I came to draft my novel – which dealt with all these matters
from the outside, as seen by a visitor – I realized this was
not a satisfactory approach. The novel had to be written from
the inside, and I did not at that time know enough to write
in that fashion.
So
I dropped the subject and wrote instead Centennial,
which dealt with a land I knew well, the sugar-beet fields along
the South Platte River in Colorado, and then Chesapeake,
which dealt with waters I knew well. I supposed I would never
know enough to go back to the South African subject.
Then
a pair of wonderful accidents revived the topic. The Reader's
Digest had two editors with spare time on their hands,
one working in the United States, one in South Africa. Each
was a citizen of South Africa. Each was a fine writer. Each
knew a lot about editing and researching. And they were eager
to help on exactly the kind of project I had visualized. Within
four days an arrangement was concluded, and I was off to South
Africa to resume my education. |
This
is, of course, a promotional piece for the Literary Guild prepared with
benefit of hindsight. The statement about four basic themes going back
to 1971 is interesting, if compared with what Michener says in his letter
of April 22, 1978 with his initial response to my outline and notes
sent to Maryland after the meeting with Oursler at the University Club,
especially his disinterest in the Bushmen (San) and intention to bypass
Shaka and the Mfecane. At that time, he wrote... (excerpts only, click
to read the full letter:)
|
...
Basically, the only difference between Uys's outline and mine
is that as always I want to take things slowly, avoid the big
central occurrences, avoid the big cities that others can write
about better than I, avoid the super-dramatic confrontations,
lay emphasis upon the physical settings which enclose all of
us wherever we might be, and allow the story to unfold with
its symbolism implied rather than stated, and its high moral
instinct in the yarn rather than spelled out in chapter headings.
These are devices and principles which I have worked out over
several decades, and they fit my personality and skills, and
to abandon them now would be perilous. (Also, they work!)
...
I am impressed by Uys's belief that there out to be two
interpositions between Australopithecus and Zimbabwe; the Bushmen
and the putative Phoenicians, Arabians and Ophirites. I have
done no work on the Bushmen and had planned to play them down
in comparison with the Hottentots, whom I want to make a strong
feature as those present when the Dutch arrived.
...
Naturally I would not want to attempt this important and difficult
book if I did not do ample justice to the great black tribes,
and I have always had this in mind from the time years ago when
I studied the Zulus intensely, visiting their new lands, their
old battlefields, their university and their present-day homes.
But I'm damned if I see clearly how best to handle this. I had
thought I would focus on the Xhosa as the people who were forced
south and west by Shaka, and this still appeals. But I belatedly
see that the story is only half told if full emphasis is not
given to Shaka, his antecedents and his followers in addition
to Dingaan. But every instinct tells me to wait on this till
after the Dutch have been established. It makes for a better
book, I am convinced. I am, however, open for suggestions as
how best to introduce the material.
.
. . Like Uys I want to stress
the Huguenot strain, but as of now I have no clear plan for
accomplishing this. I deem the French influence to be rather
stronger than the average writer indicates; many of the profound
strains of the Dutch-Boer-Afrikaans character show a clear Huguenot
component. But this can be easily worked out as the characters
move across the pages.
...
My Chapter V, assuming that the French do not merit a chapter
to themselves but an ancillary treatment, would leap directly
to the Xhosa Wars and the coming of the English as a kind of
afterthought. This could be a very solid and focal chapter,
stressing the confrontation of Xhosa-Dutch and Dutch-English.
But I have never done much work on the Xhosa, except as they
were caught in Zulu history, and would need a lot of specific
work to make myself competent. I much prefer the Zulus and the
Matabele, but the more I think about Afrikaner history, the
more significant the Xhosa become, a fact I did not appreciate
some years ago.
Then
the trek, on which I am fairly well informed. I have always
thought it ought to be done as the South African version of
the American trek to the west, and the Russian trek to the east,
and I want to place it in its proper physical setting, comparing
it with those other great treks which were so much more significant
in terms of numbers of people involved and miles covered, and
so much less important psychologically.
I had always intended, as you know from what I told you, to
bypass Natal, which meant also bypassing Dingaan, because I
have always been much more interested in the trekkers who did
just that. I felt that I could get all the values I wanted from
the Xhosa, but what Uys said at our meeting made a deep impression
on me and I have restudied this issue. Blood River is too important
to be ignored, even though all my antecedents as a writer warn
me to do so, and I am beginning to see how I can digress
to that tragic scene and then get back on what is for me my
main line. In fact, this can be done with certain advantages
and should be, primarily for two reasons: Blood River is too
deeply ingrained in Afrikaner memory to be ignored and is too
good a phrase to be wasted; and I now think that the blacks
I want to follow in the powerful later chapters ought to be
Zulus.
And
there my specific planning comes to a halt. (In my earlier notes
I leapfrogged almost directly to the workings of the pass laws,
which is too enormous a leap for a book of the kind I now visualize.)
I want of course to establish the diamond theme, but not too
heavily. I do not want to make much if anything of the Rhodes-Kruger
confrontation, for others have done this commendably. Nor am
I concerned about the Uitlanders or the fracases between the
two Republics.
Whatever
I decide upon this lacuna must lead to the Boer War, which I
have fairly well structured. But I am not making any firm decisions
because I want to see what happens to our characters in the
preceding episodes: Boer heroes; English actors: Black majority.
As
they move into the Twentieth Century their obligations become
clearer, and I have always had this fairly well in mind: much
emphasis on 1938-1945; great stress on the intellectual conflicts
of the 1948-1960 period; and in the final chapter a focus on
perhaps only three central figures, each of which grows out
of the preceding periods.
I
have already given some thought to Oursler's idea that an American
enter the final scenes, and now I see that Uys had the same
idea. There may be some value in this: a fresh figure, a new
view, a premonition of the 1990s. I don't want to use the diamond
melodramatically, but if it is well handled in the opening chapter,
and then again prior to the Boer War, there could be a way of
utilizing it within the limitations I set myself. At any rate,
I'm think about this and have so far come up with nothing. But
the idea does persist, so maybe it's a good one.
Now
you know all I know and the next move is yours.
|
Ten
days later in May 1978, I was sitting with Jim Michener at a table in
the small kitchen of the St. Michaels studio, as we began our long journey
together with the Van Doorns, the Afrikaner family in The Covenant;
the Saltwoods, the English family (originally called “Stanworth”;)
and the Nxumalos, the African family of predominantly Zulu origin. Alongside
these major groups and often inter-related were scores of lesser fictional
and historical figures with a role to play in the novel.
While
I quickly ditched my “diamond adventure,” an accompanying backgrounder
for The Star of Man written that January comprised a) Chronology
b) Major historical events involved in the story and c) Suggestions
on fictional characters interwoven into a) and b).
"Diamond
Adventure" schema
Click
to enlarge
This
early research with notes and articles from my library provided pointers
to core themes that could be exploited in the proposed novel. For example,
these are my notes culled from various sources about Australopithecus
and other early denizens of the South African veld:
|
2,000,000
BC (could revise to 3.5M BC)…Australopithecus. About five foot
tall, walked upright and in his hand carried a crude weapon.
Lived along Vaal River valley and probably roamed vast tracts
of the Transvaal veld. He was crafty. As a scavenger he learnt
to stalk animals and butcher them with his weapons. He was ugly;
virtually no nose, massive jaws and a coarse and heavy face.
About ninety pounds when full grown, their brain cavities suggest
limited intelligence. It's been said of them – they knew enough
to get into trouble but not enough to get out of it.
1,000,000
BC…Yet Australopithecus knew something of co-operating with
the environment. They survived for over one million years and
were supplanted only by a superior species, Pithecanthropus
or man ape. Pithecanthropus, in turn, displaced by Neanderthal
types and they by earlier and middle stone age men. Thus, dawn
man lived at one time or another in almost every square mile
of South Africa….Paleontologists are agreed on 1) in this part
of the world, art of stone-working followed an evolution parallel
to but not similar with that of Europe. 2) Southern Africa served
as a refuge where peoples who have disappeared from all other
part of the world have often survived, even to the present day.
There was no Neolithic age in South Africa; there the Paleolithic
age was prolonged by Bushman (San) civilization.
500,000
BC… Earlier stone age spanned some 500,000 years and saw little
development in stone tool manufacture. Tools consisted of relatively
large and heavy cleavers and almond-shaped hand-axes. Probably
used for splitting open the long bones and skulls of animals,
for cutting up meat and for digging pits in which to trap game.
12,000
BC…Later stone age, still represented in culture of living Bushman
(San). Last of stone ages in South Africa was period during
which man began to show skill as an artist. From rock paintings
and engravings we have learned a great deal about his customs
and ceremonies, the animals he hunted and feared, clothing he
wore and his various hunting methods. |
In
my notes on the “discovery” period, I included the story of the wreck
of the Dutch East Indiaman, Haerlem, and Fort Zandeburgh, a
refuge built by the survivors who landed on the shores of Table Bay
in 1647, five years before the Dutch settlement led by Jan van Riebeeck.
In the Outline prepared from the
initial brainstorming sessions held at St. Michaels, I wrote under Chapter
Five:
|
The
chapter introduces the first line of our major Dutch/Afrikaner
family: The Van Doorns. Opens with the wreck of the Haerlem,
a Dutch East Indiaman bound from Batavia for Holland which ran
aground in Table Bay. Departing Batavia, Dec 22, 1646, in company
of Olifant and Schiedam, Haerlem
was wrecked on March 25, 1647. On April 12, the Schiedam
sailed for Holland. On April 1, 1648, the Coninck
van Poolen arrived from Batavia to pick up those survivors
left behind to guard the cargo salvaged from Haerlem:
Aboard this ship was Jan van Riebeeck returning to Holland somewhat
in the company's disgrace for having traded privately at Batavia.
Exonerated, in 1652, van Riebeeck, a doctor, would head the
first Dutch settlement at the Cape. The two Van Doorns we're
interested in are:
Paulus
van Doorn, born
Holland, 1615. In 1637, Paulus joined the Dutch East India
Company, working for them in Amsterdam before being sent to
Batavia…which he leaves aboard the Haerlem.
Karel
van Doorn, born
Holland, 1625. Unable to obtain a post with the company, Karel
goes to sea, getting a berth aboard the Haerlem.
After
the wreck, Paulus van Doorn returns to Holland aboard the Schiedam.
Karel stays behind with sixty or so men left with the
salvage. Not only does he develop a keen attachment to the Cape,
but will be recommended to the company for his loyal service
during that year ashore. Records show that the senior officers
left at the Cape had considerable difficulty in controlling
the men under them. Sailing back aboard the Coninck van
Poolen. Karel van Doorn meets Van Riebeeck who will assist
him in joining the Company. |
A
second example of core plotting that can be traced back to my Star
of Man notes concerns the French Huguenot refugees who arrived
at the Cape in 1688: “Six of seven ships took the usual 3 to
4 months,” I wrote, “the seventh,China, took 137 days. About
150 French arrived, then about one-fifth of the population. It has been
said that they arrived ‘with a vine in one hand, and a Bible in the
other.' They contributed in large measure to the development of that
spiritual toughness which was to ensure the survival of the Boers. They
can also be seen as the ancestors of Afrikaner nationalism. They had
cut themselves off from all links with their native land and, to an
even greater degree than the Dutch, they came to regard South Africa
as their country, their only country.”
In
the Outline, I summarized our thinking
for the Huguenots:
Chapter
Six
The
arrival of the Huguenots and Mal(Eccentric/Unconventional) Adriaan's
story.
1688:
The chapter opens with description of voyage bringing a group
of French Refugees to the Cape. Among them is the family of
Paul du Pré (later du Preez) from Lille originally
but later in Holland…(Again, if necessary, offers early connection
to Van Doors through Paulus.) The voyage description will be
detailed offering graphic account of the rigors, terrors etc.
that had to be endured. It will suffice for all later-comers
such as the 1820 settlers. In the group with the du Pré
family is Jordain, a “visitor to the sick/lay preacher/teacher.”
An interesting aspect of the French Huguenot arrival – at the
onset they comprised 25 per cent of the white population – is
that within 35 years the French language had all but died out.
Jordain will be used to reflect on this development.
The
du Pré's settle in the Drakenstein valley as neighbors
to Karel van Doorn and his family.
Note:
Although there were but 187 Huguenots, it's accepted that they
had an important influence in building the character of the
Boer/Afrikaner, This will be examined, as also the background
of the whole Huguenot persecution, probably in flashback style
during the 1688 voyage.
1690:
Villages of Paarl and Franschoek founded.
1693:
Karel van Doorn dies.
1709:
First land grant beyond the Hottentot-Hollands mountains…the
first stirrings of the trek lust.
1711:
Hendrik van Doorn marries Marie du Pré
1712:
Adriaan van Doorn, born. (Hendrik/Marie)
1713:
Smallpox epidemic
1723:
Last church service held in French
1728:
At 16, Adriaan van Doorn accompanies a Swedish naturalist on
a trip to the interior. At this early developmental stage, Adriaan
establishes himself as a strong character with a “vision,” especially
of the North. With the Swede, he will go as far inland as Vrymeer
… he finds Bush paintings etc. and so graphic are his descriptions
of the valley that they will be buried in the mind – and “legend”
– of the Van Doorn descendants.” |
A
final example of the outgrowth of ideas from my original "diamond"
notes concerns the crucial sections on the Great Trek of the Voortrekker-Boers
and the story of the Zulus. (As noted above, these research notes were
culled from various sources.)
| “If
one-fifth of the population of a country were to leave its national
territory, sociologists would not be able to find enough words
to describe the exodus's motivations… Around 1835, the colony
numbered some 60,000 whites of whom 14,000 emigrated within
ten years…The Great Trek.
“Religion
of Boers: They expressed themselves in Biblical terms, calling
the natives ‘Children of Ham and Canaanites. The King of England
was Pharaoh: because of his oppression they had been forced
to leave Cape Colony. They were on their way to the Promised
Land. The Afrikaners had been called by Divine Providence to
go from place to place as pioneers of civilization. To them
had fallen the awesome task of conquering Africa for King Jesus.
“First
leader, Piet Retief, 54, Huguenot stock, the Thomas Jefferson
of the Great Trek. Declaration published before setting off:
“As we desire to stand high in the estimation of our Brethren,
the Boers would wherever they found themselves ‘uphold the principles
of Liberty.' There was one reservation: ‘Whilst we will take
care that no one shall be held in a state of slavery, it is
our determination to maintain such regulations as may suppress
crime and preserve proper relations between master and servant.'
“In
1838 Retief was slaughtered by Zulu king, Dingane. On 16 December,
Battle of Blood River…Boers/Zulus…10-15,000 Zulus defeated by
500….
“Not
many years passed before it became apparent that the Great Trek
had resulted in the juxtaposition of two white South Africas:
one still permeated with colonialism but priding itself in its
humanitarian pre-occupations; the other, obsessed with republicanism
and unconcerned with equality.” |
Alongside
my notes on the Voortrekkers were references to the Zulus: “At beginning
of the 19th century, Zulu nation wielded little power. In 1818, Shaka
proclaimed chief. At this time he had 500 warriors at his command. On
his death in 1828, his regiments numbered 50,000 and his sway extended
over whole of present day Natal. From Kei River to Zambezi and from
Indian Ocean to Botswana. The training of the young Zulu has been compared
to that of the Spartans and Shaka's impis to the Roman legions. The
tribes spent some fifteen years killing each other with such passion
that experts put casualties at two million.
Eyewitness
account of one battle: "At four spears throw, the deep, majestic
Zulu war chant rolled like thunder across the valley…With the beginning
of the chant, the speed of the warriors slowed down to the rhythmic,
measured jog trot of a death dance and at every tenth step there was
a shaking step of the right foot carried out in perfect unison. At one
spear's throw, the chant ceased abruptly. There was a deadly silence
for the time required to take a deep breath. Then the fearful Zulu war
cry crashed out…SI-JI-DI and the Zulu charged.”
Chapter
Eight of the Outline deals with
The Rise of the Zulu Nation…
| Chapter
Eight
Seen
through the story of a young man who is friend, fellow-warrior
and later bodyguard to Shaka. (Dingane, the Zulu despot defeated
by the Voortrekkers at Blood river is handled in Chapter Nine.)
1787:
Shake born
1788:
Nxumalo, young Amazulu friend of Shaka, meets with him in 1806.
Nxumalo is forefather of main black characters in book.
1797:
Nxumalo's father executed in savage way…e.g. for whistling in
presence of tribal chief. Nxumalo witnesses this incident which
opens the chapter.
1809:
Shaka and Nxumalo join Dingiswayo's iziCwe regiment…Shaka increasingly
active remains in Dingiswayo's regiments for six years. So does
Nxumalo.
1818:
Dingiswayo executed after capture by enemy tribe.
1820:
Shaka has risen to power until, by now, he is in control of
most of Zululand…
During
the consolidation period, thousands of enemy warriors are put
to death. Known as the Mfecane, estimates have gone as high
as two million, a figure added to by a final period of tyranny
surpassing all:
1827,
Oct 10: Death of Nandi, “female elephant” (title of honor)…Shaka's
mother. Shaka orders a year of mourning and murders thousand
who fail to comply.
(In
Chapter Nine, The Great Trek, the Van Doorns forsake the Cape
Colony for the north and the inevitable clash with the Zulus:)
1836:
December. Tjaart van Doorn and family trek to present-day Orange
Free State. Tjaart has established a reputation as frontier
“scout.” Richard (Saltwood) buys Tjaart's farm.
1837:
Voortrekker punitive raids against the Matabele. (In October
previous year, the Trekkers had defeated the Matabele at Vegkop
in the OFS)
1837:
Trekker leader Piet Retief, one of moist outstanding, arrives
at Winburg where 1,000 wagons are assembled.
1837:
Retief, who sees Natal as the Promised Land, arrives at Port
Natal (Durban)
1837:
Nov: Punitive raids against the Matabele…driven to the Matopo
hills near present-day Bulawayo.
1837:
Tjaart van Doorn decides to go to Natal and moves his family
over the Drakensberg; Jenny and the children, Boy/Two girls,
aged 14, 8, 4.
1838:
Tjaart leaves them in encampment to go to Drakensberg to assist
a new party of Trekkers over the mountains. (Drakensberg = Mountains
of the Dragon)
1838
Feb 6: Retief party murdered by Dingaan at his Royal Kraal
1838
Zulus attack Trekker settlements: Jenny van Doorn and the three
children butchered at Blaauwkrantz.
1838
Nov: Commandos raised by Andries Pretorius.
1838
Dec 16: Battle of Blood River. Tjaart is present in the laager.
1839:
To dull his grief and anger, Tjaart takes off alone on a trip
north. In many ways, he is the reincarnation of Adriaan, the
rebel/adventurer. Tjaart reaches Zimbabwe…offering connections
to the past…to the meaning of the fall of the Rozwi empire etc.
1840:
Tjaart van Doorn remarries…Aletta Naude, 18 year old survivor
of Blaauwkrantz.
1841:
On his trip to Zimbabwe, Tjaart had “found” Vrymeer: With Aletta,
he now settles there, making friends with the Nxumalo group
who live in a section of the valley. Tjaart, of course, does
not know that this is Adriaan's Eden. (Perhaps …discourse on
symbolic attraction of the Diamond.) |
In
his second reflection
on our plotting sessions in May 1978, Jim gives a good account of the
lively banter between us as we searched for the myriad leads and connections
between our characters and the traits of the leading players themselves:
…
Uys showed such a mastery and predilection for plotting
that again and again he came up with dazzling ideas that again and
again attracted my attention. I am no good at plotting, hold it
to be almost an excrescence, and pay far too little attention to
it, so that Uys's bold suggestions were often appreciated. It was
he who suggested most of the coincidences, most of the confrontations,
most of the wild occurrences and it was I who rejected a vast majority
of them but I was deeply indebted to him for certain plot lines.
As one can see, I accepted almost none from his own outline, but
when we talked he was so quick to catch ideas that we bounced large
concepts about with ease. He really was a remarkable man in his
ability to visualize instantly and I rarely had to waste a moment
explaining anything. Also, he had the capacity and willingness to
catch an idea and run with it in his own direction, often proposing
something so far from my intention that I was bedazzled. I judge
he could plot six novels a year with intricate beauties; he should
have been in G-2 in some complicated war situation.”
Michener brought a notebook to the table; I had a ruled scribbling
block in front of me. I'd arrived with a carload of books from my
library that offered a broad, popular and objective background to
historical and contemporary figures and issues, as well as a ready
reference for the many topics we would cover. Thus armed, we went
to work…
Map
from Outline
One
of the first keys we sought was the locale and “movement” of the
story, essentially on an axis from Cape Town to Zimbabwe. We mapped
out twelve stages along that imaginary route coinciding with the
periodicity of South African history, essentially the unfolding
of the frontier as settlers penetrated north. A movement that would,
of course, come up against a counter migration of Xhosa and Zulu
flowing down toward the south. – Before these “hard” dates, there
would be scenes set on the living veld eons before man's arrival
at Vrymeer (Lake of Freedom,) home to Australopithecus
and later Bush people (San) remembered in rock paintings in the
hill caves of Vrymeer and its lovely lake, where Mal Adriaan van
Doorn is first of his line to behold a promised land.
With
this big picture in our sights, we could get down to the essentials:
This we did chronologically, literally working our way through the
decades of three centuries-plus of South Africa's recorded history,
making stops in years and at events where we saw a role for our
Van Doorns, Saltwoods and Nxumalos and those around them.
I
have pages from my original scribbling block with penciled notes
I made as Jim and I sat talking. – Names, dates, lines, squiggles,
scratches and scrawls, which were subsequently transferred to a
second and tidier pencil draft, then a third “yellow page” draft,
a fourth revision of this, and finally the draft “Outline” to which
Michener specifically refers.
Uys
"scribbling block" plot notes
Click
to enlarge
Those
early scratchings bring crystal memories of our plotting sessions.
I see names of characters jotted down and recall the thinking behind
a particular moniker. The surname “Van Doorn” was Michener's pick
and a good one for in translation, “doorn” is “thorn,” and surely
there would be Van Doorns meriting the description.
Our
Huguenot family of de Pré was prompted by a family manuscript
I have that begins: “This is my true and real life story. My name
is Leonora Du Pre. I was born in the year 1892 on a farm in the
Cape province (sic)…”  My
mother, Joey Uys, was author of this fifteen thousand word manuscript
written at my urging years earlier. Joey felt more comfortable with
a nom-de-plume, though it's also worth noting that her mother's
ancestors were actually Huguenot “Jordains,” a name I suggested
for Visitor Jordain who comes to the Cape with Paul de Pré
and the other refugees.
 As
any writer knows, names can be critical in shaping a character in
one's mind. So, for example, in the talk that led to “Mal ("Crazy")
Adriaan,” I named “Adriaan,” for a whacky Afrikaner cousin, and
similarly, Lodevicus “the Hammer” for an erstwhile colleague with
a violent nature, the fictional Lodevicus becoming the scourge of
the frontier Xhosa. There's a Marius van Doorn in the apartheid
era, a good man whose image was derived from another Marius I knew
in Cape Town, an enlightened Afrikaner surgeon who saw the writing
on the wall long before others did. If I look at the Saltwoods,
I see Anthony and Susan and Clara, Roger and Timothy, Michael and
Craig, and Marius Van Doorn and Clare Howard, all with a very familiar
ring in my circle – names I jotted down on a check book deposit
slip used as scrap paper amid the plottings!
Among
the scribbling block pages that I kept are three pertaining to the
earliest planning of the Apartheid chapter in The Covenant.
It was my idea to show the effect of apartheid on South Africans
of all races with six vignettes of segregation and personal laws
that affected citizens from birth to death. All elements that would
finally appear in the novel are noted here:
Uys
"scribbling block" plot notes
Click
to enlarge and see pages
(Rough
notes from above)
1)(Born)
Immorality Act – Craig Stanworth (“Saltwood”), 20, first year
varsity, Witwatersrand, holiday x Shamilah Jacobs, builder's
daughter, Malay, university student, Flying Squad, Canada
2)
Race Classification – Coloured child… “She was trying to be
what she wasn't” + 1972 (Jotted down is a rough genealogical
table that shows linkage between Van Doorns and the descendant
of a black slave)
3)Group
Areas – Sophiatown x Vrymeer? = MAP = coffee table = spill
scene
4)Migratory
Labor – Part of Vrymeer x Uncle of Daniel (Nxumalo) x Stanworth
(Saltwood) woman involved.
5)BOSS
(Bureau of State Security) x reporter probes situation x Stanworth
(Saltwood) x Interrogation x Dominee's son = BOSS officer
x Daniel Nxumalo students at U Zululand x SASO activities
6)Death
– Marius? Comes on accident scene…Man knocked down. White
ambulance refuses to take him x Consequences: wife x pass
laws x residence x move to Bantustan x Mrs. Stanworth (Saltwood)
efforts x Black Sash. |
Of
course, these jottings, even the more detailed plotlines in the
typed-up synopses, can only offer a glimpse into the hours of talk
between Michener and me. Easily twelve and closer to fifteen hours
a day, sweeping back and forth across the centuries, chasing down
ghosts of the past to bring back to life in the pages of the novel.
If there was one thing that drew us to each other immediately, it
was this indefatigable staying power and drive, the ability to totally
immerse ourselves in our subject and the lives of our characters
and to block out the rest of the world. As Jim would later recall:
Never
once did I say, ‘So now we have this Englishman at the mission station
in 1819. How does he get to the Orange River?' without Uys having
nine or eleven possibilities, all good, all logical, all beautifully
coordinated. Often I would say, ‘too complicated for our boy,' or
‘I doubt our boy would go so far,' but just as often I would say,
‘That might be just what he'd do.'
At
the end of the first week, I moved out of the studio to spend the
weekend in a hotel at St. Michaels, Jim and Mari having guests who
were staying over. Over the three days, I wrote what I call the
“yellow draft,” my first outline for the book that incorporated
the broad ideas from our initial exhaustive sessions, plus additions
of my own that occurred to me as I worked with the notes I'd jotted
down.
The
plotline is chronological with dates of characters' births/deaths/
marriages and significant events touching their lives, both historical
and personal. The first family trees for the Van Doorns, Saltwoods
(Stanworths) and Nxumalo's appear here, as well as my first notation
for a possible title: Covenant.
The
clean-typed yellow pages provided the basis for our second four-day
brainstorming. Once again, we began at the very beginning, as I
note in this synopsis's “Chapter One:”
“Creation:
The Diamond, the land, from dawn of time... to the arrival of Early
Man. Emphasis on the mystical/almost supernatural value of the Diamond.
Site: Present-day Blinkfontein – “sparkling fountain” – farm.”
I've
crossed out “Blinkfontein” and replaced it with a new name for the
farm: Vrymeer, an Afrikaans word meaning “Lake of Freedom.”
This was a far more meaningful title for the property of the Van
Doorns given the irony of a land where the struggle for freedom
had been and was then still so bitter a battle.
Uys
"yellow outline" plot notes
Click
to enlarge and read pages
Glancing
over the yellow draft today, I get echoes of Michener and me shaping
core themes that stayed the course of the novel: The Bush people
(San) on the living veld at Vrymeer, their connection with Zimbabwe
and the Cape; Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator's vision of
the “land beyond the darkness;” the “gold rush” of great
and ancient Zimbabwe; the timing of the southward “trek”
of the Nguni (Bantu)and its importance in debunking the empty land
myth; the Hedge of Bitter Almond at the Cape and heavy symbolism
of “separatism;” the total break between Mal Adrian and the Cape
van Doorns in 1728, “presaging later divisions in the ranks of Afrikaners
and the split between a “liberal” south and “verkrampte”
north (literally, cramped or narrow-minded;) Adrian's tremendous
vision of Southern Africa stretching to the Zambesi, and from ocean
to ocean; the black “Boers” of the South African War; Detleef van
Doorn's “education,” his rise through the ranks of Afrikanerdom
and work as architect of apartheid; Moses and Daniel Nxumalo from
1948 to Soweto 1976, with Moses as servant of the Saltwoods…among
other steps on an epic road.
And
our thoughts on the conclusion: “Probably around Vrymeer... Nearby
a splendid diamond is found. Not the one in the creation. The reader
knows that it exists but it will not be found. It is symbolic of
the notion that Africa herself is Master of all destinies here...
The American to be introduced at a later stage. A geologist who
makes the discovery of the diamond...He has been working in an African
state for a company with ties to South Africa's Anglo American.
About to return to U.S., he is offered a geology post in South Africa
for one year. Provides opportunity for “outsider” view, desperately
seeking answers to the race questions that plague him... and the
threads that must lead to the diamond pipe on Vrymeer.
Here,
too, I expanded my thoughts for the Apartheid chapter scratched
out on the scribbling block:
Apartheid
(Uys - Yellow Draft)
After
death of Detleef content that he has protected South Africa
…What did Detleef's Grand Design mean in the lives of citizens:
•
BORN...
Immorality Act…Case history… 1950 Act: Colored/White, see
English family…Craig, age 20, student at University of Witwatersrand
to Cape Town for December vacation. At Clifton Beach meets
Shamilah Boordien, daughter of Cape Malay builder and wife.
Summer holiday affair, meets parents, house Signal Hill
etc. She is at UCT (before University of Western Cape.)
She has been involved (with white) once before. On Clifton
Beach does not “play white” but flaunts Apartheid. Craig
takes her to Radnor-style hotel (*ELU=
hotel where I stayed while living in Cape Town in 1964.)
Housekeeper blows whistle on them. Arrested under Immorality
Act. He gets suspended sentence; she is jailed. After her
sentence to Canada—family there.
•
WHO ARE YOU...
Race Classification 1950 Act: Case of young girl…
PETRONELLA
van Doorn (daughter of Marthinus van Doorn, married ADAM,
son of salve woman and Dutchman)
+S
(1) Adrian
+S
(2) Lodevicus
+S
(3) Johannes
+D
(4) Tjaart
+S
(5) Jakobus x Coloured woman x Bywoner (sharecropper)
Mother + White Afrikaner
+D (6) girl aged 9 = PETRA
At
time of inquiry = 1 Coloured grandparent
Newcomers from Transvaal,see 9 year old at school, start
inquiry
Child
reclassified Coloured + mother Coloured
Farm
bought by inquiry instigator
To
District 6 x razed to ground, 1970-72 + move + girl 13/14,
raped
•
WHERE YOU ARE...
Group Areas mass removal..1950 Act… Mass removal of
Indians from Johannesburg
Sophiatown witness, Barney Desai, Patel, ‘46
Repatriation offer (to India)
Diagonal Street story
Lenasia, 22 miles from city
Pageview
Home: Fordsburg/Diagonal Street
•
YOUR WORK...
Migratory Labor Laws…black case.
Gold
mine, migratory labor, compound, from Transvaal x NE, Zimbabwe
connection, tribal man x life and times on Mine Compound
•
YOUR THOUGHTS...
BOSS operation (Bureau of State Security)
The
Interrogation
Reporter
probes story x parallel
Dominee's
son x verkrampte x boss officer
Classic
Boss interrogation
Black
= Nxumalo student/University of Zululand
•
YOUR DEATH...
Ambulance service apartheid anecdotes/separate cemeteries
etc.
Starts
with ambulance apartheid
Man,
black, knocked down and ambulance, whites-only, refuses
to pick up
Consequences:
wife, pass laws, residence, moved to plot in a Bantustan
Jane
Stanworth's (Saltwood) efforts, age 66
|
I
went back to New York after the St. Michaels plotting sessions,
cleaned up our notes and typed a Rough outline prepared with
James Michener – May, 1978. On the frontispiece, I used
the title COVENANT with this note:
“COVENANT”
is ELU working title. It comes from The Day of the Covenant, a religious
holiday in South Africa commemorating the Vow to God the Voortrekkers
took on the eve of the Battle of Blood River in 1838.
Click
here to read page 7 and 8 of the Outline
This
thirty-three page outline is, of course, a concise summation of
countless ideas Jim and I tossed around over those two weeks. For
both of us, it was a route map to the many twists and turns the
story would take as our thinking developed.
Though
Michener's April 1979 comments specifically
refer to the outline as I drafted it in May 1978, the pages he comments
on are interlaced with plot revisions made by me as we went along.
So, for example, the development of the Saltwood story, which gives
a very good idea of our ongoing “brainstorming:”
On
May 25, 1978 Jim wrote to me from Honolulu:
|
Honolulu, Hawaii
May
25, 1978
...
I think one of the best things I could have done in preparation
for my research is to visit Hawaii to see a rather fine society,
no better than Johannesburg, nor worse than Marseilles, but
just a good functioning agglomeration in which a large number
of people are finding happiness and self-government, and consumer
goods; and to realize that in south Africa everyone of these
people would be proscribed to a terribly limited life, and
that all their creative energies would've been diminished
if not destroyed. What an incalculable loss! It makes me think
of the mainland and how much poorer we would be without the
contributions of our Cape Coloured: O.J.Simpson, Lena Horne,
Ralph Bunche, Diahann Carroll, Sidney Poitier, and the rest.
How we would have cheated ourselves! It seems to me that someone
advised the Afrikaners poorly when the decision was made to
divorce this reservoir of talent from the mainstream.
The
more I study and think, the more heavily inclined I am to
make at least one of the Englishmen a missionary, perhaps
the very first although I haven't clarified that. I find myself
driven in this direction for a variety of reasons: (1) In
whatever I read I find the Dutch really despising the missionaries,
their own as well as the English, so the symbol must have
vitality; 2) I find the missionaries insufferable, which always
makes for a good character; and 3) I find them with startling
frequency to have been right or on the verge of rightness.
I do not (Michener's underscore) know how to resolve
this conflict, but let's give it the most serious thought.
Such deep feelings on my part usually turn out to be right. |
In
my response on June 2, 1978 I began…”The idea of having one of the
Stanworth (Saltwood) clan as a missionary is excellent. Even today,
the conflict between their insufferability and the loathing of them
by the Afrikaner – and their being right, still exists. You have
only to look through a couple of issues of SA Outlook
to see that pattern…
| Pleasantville,
New York
June
2, 1978
...
Our missionary could well be Vera Stanworth's brother – a
likelihood in that someone would have had to accompany her
out to the Cape or we get an over-heroic figure doing the
long voyage etc. It could tie in well and offer an ‘insufferable'
young man who would be at his peak when slavery ends. He could
be cranked into that 1813-1833 period without difficulty –
and could be a valuable link to the Xhosas. Perhaps, shift
him over to Natal after that, have him in Port Natal when
Piet Retief gets there. Just rubbing salt in old wounds and
strongly underlining the Boers' irritation at the English
presence.
...
I have the rough notes from our meeting all typed up and pretty
well organized. As a ‘working title,' I came up with one word
that my interest you. It certainly covers the Afrikaans element
and if one thinks of the spiritual, the creative process,
the ‘covenant' that all men have with Mother Africa,
it comes up as a strong label for black or white: COVENANT.
How
I agree with your comments about the terrible loss to South
African society by the failure to use so many talents there!
It's a point that could well be worked in through the experiences
of Daniel Nxumalo during his time as teacher at the Vrymeer
mission school…turning bright, talented youngsters into bright,
talented farm laborers etc. It could also be an observation
Craig (Saltwood) makes through his contact with Shamilah's
friends.
|
From
London two weeks later, Jim reacted to my title suggestion and shared
his thoughts on the English family:
London
15 June, 1978
...
The suggestion that the novel be titled Covenant
is a sturdy one. I had already planned that the most important
paragraph of the book come at the conclusion of Blood River,
something like this:
“What
they did not realize was that men and women are always free
to enter into a covenant with God, but this does not mean
that He is obligated to enter into a covenant with them,
and especially when they have determined unilaterally the
terms of the covenant.”
You
can see that this concept, properly handled, will lend itself
to excellent elaboration, and covers, indeed many of the
strands of the proposed book. But I would not like, at this
time, to fix upon a title, for I've never done so until
the manuscript was finished, and even then have usually
left the final decision in the hands of Random House. I
am not good at titles and feel that naming a book too soon
during the gestation stage is a sure way to put a curse
on it. But I see much merit in Covenant; it's better
than anything I might have had in mind, and I will keep
it strongly on file.
I
find myself quite uneasy with the English name Stanworth,
and the fact that I cannot remember it when I am working
through ideas gives me not only considerable worry but also
a premonition that it will not serve. It lacks character,
and since I am now working on English materials in an English
setting I am most desirous of implying strong character.
For the present I am thinking in terms of something like
Saltwood, which I like very much, or Stamp,
which is good except that in my last novel I used
the name Steed to excellent effect and would fear
repeating myself with another one-syllable name beginning
with St-.
Working
here has clarified many gray points. I spent two days at
Three Bridges and found it horribly unsatisfactory. If my
Saltwoods came from there I wouldn't want to have much to
do with them. Had they been total exiles, Three Bridges
might have explained their flight, but since I want the
English home to remain a magnet, I knew that I had to find
something better. I have done so in the Cathedral town of
Salisbury, some 75 miles west of London. It is a place that
one might remember in exile and it has three virtues for
me: (1) It is near to Old Sarum, about which I once did
a lot of work and which will work well into the novel as
I see it, most tellingly in fact. (2) It is also close to
Netherhanpton where Sir John Newbolt lived, who wrote the
great poem about cricket, and since I want one of our Saltwoods
to cast the deciding vote not to send a black or coloured
cricketer to England back in the 1880s, thus establishing
the pattern that would prevail (a good account of this in
They Were Also South Africans) there could be a good
relationship. (3) Most important, Stonehenge is at hand
and the Saltwoods would know it intimately, which can become
important vis-à-vis Zimbabwe. I am visiting all these
sites tomorrow for the third time to see if they seem as
productive in review as they have gone in prospect. But
I think Salisbury is our locale.
I
am bewildered on a point which may seem trivial but which
looms as most important in my story-telling. Should the
Saltwood boys attend Oxford, which is rather nearby, or
Cambridge, which is distant? I go round and round on this.
If Oxford, we have Oriel which Rhodes attends, and also
the Oxford Players performing at Stonehenge. If Cambridge
we have that glorious Cam, and King's Chapel with the Rubens,
and a kind of daring educational policy that Oxford did
not have. We should think about this, and I shall be visiting
both universities again shortly to strengthen old impressions.
As of now I incline slightly toward Cambridge.
The
work here has settled one problem. The visitor in the last
charter must be an American, one of the Saltwood line who
emigrated to America when the others went to South Africa.
We do not hear of him for 180 years, but he comes as an
engineer with all the virtues of the Swede I had proposed
and many plus reverberations. This plotting is quite clear
and increasingly promising, so we may consider it settled.
I
am at a total loss about the missionary; I liked your suggestion
about the brother-escort but now feel it has got to be a
Saltwood. The more I work with this material the more convinced
I become that that is the way to go. (We shall have so many
characters as it is, that the closer we weave the net the
better; keeping the name Saltwood before the reader will
be an asset, and the more varied the performers under that
name the better.) But I am not doctrinaire on the matter'.
Please continue to give this your most careful thought,
as mine produces little except a conviction that we need
the character and can u | |
