The Dark Stream

Book excerpt: The Dark Stream not only offers a fascinating insight into one of the most complex and outstanding Afrikaners who ever lived but is at the same time a panorama of South African history. Rousseau's account of the life of Marais begins in the early days of Pretoria (1871) and ends three years after Hitler's rise to power. Between these two dates are sandwiched the great events of Afrikaner and South African history : the British occupation of Pretoria, the beginning of the Afrikaans language movement, the Jameson raid, 'the naughty nineties' (when Marais was in London), the Boer War and its aftermath, the First World war, the Rebellion and the rise of Afrikaner nationalism.