Sears has lived in South Africa, Kenya, Australia, and the United States, but now resides in Knysna on the Cape south coast of South Africa. Trollip splits his time between Minneapolis, Cape Town, and Denmark. Learn more about these authors and their books by clicking here.)When we first visited the Shakawe area on the Kavango (or Okavango) River in northwestern Botswana many years ago, we were blown away by the multitude of birds and animals to be found there. The falling river had trapped thousands of fish, and water birds were there in abundance. We experienced “bird overload”—not knowing where to look next. The trees were packed with majestic fish eagles; the banks were lined with herons and egrets literally waiting their turn to move to the riverfront to help themselves to a juicy morsel. At night we spotted the iconic Pel’s fishing owl going after the same prey. It was a magnificent experience. When we started our Botswana mystery series, we knew that one day we’d want to set a book in the area.
The Kavango River rises in the sandy uplands of Angola and usually floods in January. Each year, after generous summer rains there, it flows down through Namibia, into Botswana, and eventually spreads out into the Okavango Delta in the middle of the Kalahari Desert during the dry winter months. The water never reaches a sea, but forms a mass of waterways and lush islands before soaking into the desert. Since the Okavango is a huge oasis in the desert, animals abound, attracted to the water and green vegetation from miles around, forming one of Botswana’s superstar tourist attractions.
However, water is a precious resource in southern Africa, and the Kavango crosses Namibian territory north of Botswana. At one stage, Windhoek, the growing capital city of Namibia, proposed a plan for a water pipeline from the river to supply the city’s residents hundreds of kilometers away. Tempers flared as Botswana accused its neighbor of endeavoring to steal its water. Fortunately, the idea seems to have been shelved—for the moment at least.
(Above) Sunset over the Kavango.The Kavango River not only floods the Okavango every year, but it is also the source of water for Batswana people living and farming along the river all the way from Shakawe until it spreads out into the Delta. What, we wondered, would be the result of a significant water project designed to open up the desert area further back from the river for cultivation? Could it be done without damaging the Okavango environment? How would people react? Water and water rights seemed a promising back story for a mystery.
Another theme which has featured in several of our Botswana mysteries (including the first, 2008’s A Carrion Death) is the history and culture of the Bushman peoples of the Kalahari. In fact, there were Bushman groups, the River Bushmen, who populated the region around the Kavango River and the Okavango. Their descendants still live in that area—there is even a tourist camp named Bushman Plains, owned and managed by the local Bushman people.
Not far from Shakawe is Tsodilo Hills, a World Heritage site with an amazing profusion of rock art. The Bushmen believe it is the birthplace of humankind, so the importance of the area to them is very clear.
Of course, there has been conflict over the years between these Bushmen and the Tswana people, who need the river for their livelihood. We wondered how that might play out in modern times. Suppose that in the midst of a controversy over water issues, evidence was found of a violent conflict from the past. Not the distant past, but rather 30 or 40 years earlier—recent enough that people would not want to talk about it, let alone be held accountable for it. Now we could see the first glimmer of an actual plot.
A leopard in a tree near the Kavango.A Deadly Covenant is the eighth mystery featuring Detective David Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department (CID). His nickname is Kubu, which means hippopotamus in the local language. This mainly refers to what he would describe as his generous size and healthy appetite, but he also shares the hippo’s determination to reach its goal, no matter what gets in its way.
In the series’ first six books, Kubu was portrayed as the senior detective in the Botswana Police Service CID and a close associate of its director, Jacob Mabaku. We then took a step back, realizing that Kubu’s history needed filling in, and that there had to be interesting stories from the time he was maturing into being an expert detective.
Facets of Death (2020) was a prequel covering his first big case—a massive heist from one of the world’s richest diamond mines, Botswana’s Jwaneng. Facets of Death seemed to suggest a new Kubu series, one which followed his growth as a young detective as he built a professional role and a personal life for himself.
So A Deadly Covenant is set at the end of the 20th century, a few months after Facets of Death. Kubu is still a new detective, cutting his teeth on police work.
While digging a trench for a controversial new project using water from the Kavango River, a backhoe operator unearths the skeleton of a long-dead Bushman. Kubu and Scottish pathologist Ian MacGregor are sent to sort out the formalities, but the
situation rapidly gets out of hand. MacGregor discovers eight more skeletons—a massacre of Bushmen including women and children. However, the locals deny any knowledge of such an event.(Left) Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip.
When an elder of the village is murdered at his home, the local police believe it was the result of a robbery gone wrong. Kubu thinks otherwise. So does an elderly woman who believes it was connected with Mami Wata, a powerful river spirit. After she dies in an apparent crocodile attack, suspicions rise.
Things become still more complicated when a mysterious Bushman appears at the massacre site, collapses, and then disappears again, but seems connected to the murders in some way.
Kubu’s superior, Assistant Superintendent Mabaku, joins them as accusations of corruption are leveled at the water project, and international anger builds over the massacre of the Bushman families. Do the recent murders link somehow to the long-deceased Bushmen? As Kubu and his colleagues investigate, they uncover a deadly covenant made many years before by an unknown group, and they begin to fear that their own lives may be at risk.
So the threads come together in what we hope is an enjoyable murder mystery, at the same time illustrating some features of Bushman culture and the idyllic setting of Shakawe, a gateway to the fabulous Okavango Delta.
(Photo credits: The two Kavango River shots come from Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. The photo of the authors was taken by Ali Karim at the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.)
No comments:
Post a Comment