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Dromedary: Camelus
dromedarius — one-humped
camel.
Camels are commonly
regarded as carriers—of both
people and merchandise.
 In the context of Dromedaris,
the reference
is primarily to the ship of that name—one of the three vessels which
brought Jan van Riebeeck and his small group of people to South Africa,
from Holland, in 1652, in order to establish a refreshment station
on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. Their mandate was to
provide the ships plying between Europe and the East, with
commodities essential for the well-being of the souls on board. Out of
that handful of people grew a nation—as the French Huguenots arrived
to join the Dutch, followed by the German and, in 1820, the British
settlers.
Our mandate in the Dromedaris Concept was to try and bring a different
kind of fare, back from South Africa, to the rest of the world. … Our
books, which had not been available beyond the borders of the country.
These, we stipulated, would not necessarily be about South Africa
(although most would). All will have emanated from there and will
have been written by acclaimed, expatriate South African authors. Some
will have been previously published. Others will have been translated
for
us—preferably by the authors, themselves—from the original
Afrikaans; and it is still hoped, that in time, the Afrikaans versions
will also be readily obtainable in North America. Featured here is the
author of 21 books, all of which are now available.
South
Africa’s unofficial ambassador in Canada
Marie Warder—an unsung public relations officer for South Africa, the
country of her birth.
North Americans are now learning things about South Africa and Southern
Africa that they never knew before. For example, when Marie Warder
overheard a clerk at Veteran Affairs Canada, state that South Africa
was “never in the war!” loyalty to her husband’s South African squadron
immediately triggered the writing of “With no remorse…” set in Malta,
and complete with a photo of the South African Air Force band “The
Venturians”. Marie sets
another novel in a Johannesburg newspaper office during World War 2, so
that she can make mention, among others, of Jan Smuts, Dan Pienaar and
South Africans in POW camps. Saddened by widespread ignorance of South
African history, she tells the story of Van Riebeeck, the Dromedaris,
Paul Roux, the Huguenots—and the avaricious, unscrupulous governor,
Adriaan van der Stel.
It is not surprising therefore, that reviews on Amazon.com and
Chapters/Indigo.ca, as well as references on Google and other search
engines, reveal how many of Marie Warder’s readers, falling in love
with South Africa, now want to go there for themselves. She promotes
South African Airways, Castle Beer and such uniquely South African
delicacies as biltong, koeksusters, braaivleis, vetkoek and beskuit;
weaving them so skilfully into her tales, that is not unusual for
readers to write for more information, ask for recipes and express
surprise upon learning that the blooms they love in North America are
called Barberton daisies in South Africa, for good reason. Her obvious
love—for the Orange Free State, the Basotho people of her youth, as
well as her affection for Kempton Park, (where she founded a private
school), Parys (where everyone now wants to go fishing)—shines through
in every chapter of every novel she pens.
In ‘When you know that you know, that you know! (2005)—her most
successful novel to date—Nelspruit is her choice for the setting. From
there her readers are transported to the other end of the African
content, in the swashbuckling adventure: Dominic Verwey—SAMARITAN OF
THE SAHARA.
Marie Warder’s upcoming book “The Yardstick”—volume three of the
much-loved Beauclaire series, which is due for release soon—takes us to
a unique part of South Africa, the Kalahari
Desert, in the country’s
largest province, which is also the one with the smallest population
density. The book is set in three different places. To begin with there
is the remote farm, ‘Blouspruit’ which, to quote the book’s narrator,
was ‘invariably referred to as ‘Verlate Vlakte’ (which means something
like ‘forsaken’, or ‘deserted plain’) rather than by its real name,
which one could translate as ‘Blue Stream.’ However, after the tragedy,
Mark, my husband, used to refer to it as ‘Rooi Verdriet’ (Red Sorrow),
which I considered more appropriate, on account of the sorrow inside,
and the red sand outside of it; and, in any case the word, ‘vlakte’ was
hardly appropriate, because ‘Blouspruit’ lies among the dunes. Those
red, red dunes…’
From there we are taken to an upscale suburb of Johannesburg.
However
readers may also look forward to being re-united with Benjamin Ashton
and his family on ‘Beauclaire’, the now familiar citrus farm near
Nelspruit.
South Africans who have long had to resort to online purchase of our
books, or flock to book stores while on visits to Canada, will be
pleased to learn that all the novels in the Dromedaris ‘Stories from
South Africa’ series, as well as the non-fiction book, ‘The Bronze
Killer’, are now obtainable in South Africa. (Details on our ‘New
Releases’ Page.)
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Thanks for your visit!
Last updated on March 9, 2008
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