Dikeledi

de Achmat Dangor

When a family tragedy drives a wedge between father and son, Patrick Tau turns his back on his home in rural Mahikeng and builds a life in the city of gold with Julia and their two children in the township of Newclare. As apartheid's cruel laws take hold and the threat of forced removals becomes a reality, Patrick makes a decision that will change the course of their lives and impact on each family member in wholly unanticipated ways. In attempting to understand the complex history of her famous father's family and country, Patrick's granddaughter, Dikeledi, an investigative journalist, reconstructs four generations of the Tau family, using in part the fragments of material newly available to her and filling in the blanks with creative imagination. She faces challenging questions that apply to her own life choices -- about identity, belonging, sacrifice and compromise. She discovers that when seen from different angles, things are not always as they seem and that the past has a way of leaking irretrievably into the present--Cover.