A Ride On the Whirlwind

This is a very readable thriller. It is a story depicting the mood of black people towards the oppressive apartheid government in South Africa in 1976. The demonstration started by school children in Soweto, sparked by the introduction of Afrikaans in black schools and a Bantu education policy, roused the black population and old freedom-fighters alike.

During the heat of the crisis, Mzi enters the country from Tanzania where he received military training on exile, with a mission to eliminate Batata, a vicious black cop in Soweto. He is introduced to Mandla, leader of the student demonstrators. Together they bomb Batata’s police station as an act of revenge for the children killed during the demonstrations as well as rebellion against white rule. They miss Batata however and henceforth it became their resolve to get the man.

Through a careless act by one of the members of Mandla’s group there was an explosion in the house they used as a hide-out. An informer gave the police the details and the place was under siege by the police, who arrested everyone they found. Their prime suspect Mandla remained elusive. Later he fled the country, leaving Mzi to eliminate Batata. Mzi accomplished this mission but then was forced on the run to Swaziland to escape arrest.

As well as following the activities of the student group there are insights into the torture and manipulation in the prisons of everyone detained. One of the student demonstrators was killed in cold blood by the police interrogators when they couldn’t get him to talk, and this they recorded as an act of suicide! The story also showed the feelings of both races toward each other: The black people in Soweto called their white oppressors dogs in contempt, while the whites felt it would take a thousand years for blacks to catch up with them.

June 19, 2015. Review initially written in 1993. Novel first published in 1981. Picture source: Yahoo (Images).