Time To Say: No! -, PHILO IKONYA E HELMUTH A. NIEDERLE - P.E.N. CLUB - ÁUSTRIA
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Rosemund J. Handler
(South Africa)
Epupa Falls, Namibia
the air is swollen with the scent of animal fat
on her side on a springbok hide
the queen exquisitely adorned
displays her proud Himba bloodlines
in carved profile
long graceful limbs
glowing ebony skin
the princess kneels beside her mother
smiles with mother-of-pearl teeth
holds up eight fingers
beauty already mythical
future ordained
her classroom the home
and the tending of cattle and goats
beside the great Kunene
when she is ripe
her royal parents will choose
then she will tend her husband’s home and herds
Rosemund J. Handler, has published short stories in South Africa and in the USA. Madlands, which was published
by Penguin in 2006, was her first novel; it was followed by Katy’s Kid in 2007, Tsamma Season was in 2009 and
shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Prize, Africa region. Rosemund Handler’s latest book, Us and Them, has
superbly captured the internal terrorism of a family unit dealing with issues for which it is both underequipped
and bereft of knowledge. „It is Handler’s fourth novel and is, I think, her best yet. There is a confidence in her narrative
which is unflinching in its directness – startlingly so.“ Beverley Roos-Muller, Cape Argus, 21 October, 2012
