Bitter Eden

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO A WAR STORY FOR 21st CENTURY ONE WHICH PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN IGNORED 70 YEARS AGO

An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

A passable oxymoron like a bitter Eden is always a great eye catcher for a story title although we don't know what service personnel 70 years ago, would make of the book today if truth be told because social attitudes have changed so much (which is to be welcomed). There is a debate if Eden is or was ever bitter because, of course, originally, it wasn't but we all know who caused it to become that way later, don't we, if we believe the stories!

"Bitter Eden" is a courageous war story, a prisoner of war "memoir" with a difference, and was published originally in 2002 by the writer using the name "Tatamkhulu Afrika". His real name was Ismail Joubert [1920-2002]. He revisited his experiences as an allied POW in the Second World War in "Bitter Eden" which is being published by Blue Mark as a novel although this work is clearly autobiographical, as they nearly always are.

In his story, Afrika lays bare the terrible cruelties endured and "strange loyalties and deep bonds the men know will never be replicated after the war". For many, of course, "Bitter Eden" will be an unnerving and difficult read but it is a further contribution to the modern war story with the last undiscussed area: same sex relationships in war.

"Bitter Eden" has been described as "a tender, bitter, powerful story of lives inexorably changed, of a war whose ending does not bring peace". Thus, it's classified as "modern and contemporary fiction". The book describes the complex rituals of camp life and the diversion of the POW theatre. More than simply 'war' or 'gay' literature, it's a deeply moving, human work about the meaning of love and what it is to be a man. And a lot of people won't like it but will keep quiet because they couldn't possibly admit to having such emotions themselves.

It's a change from accepted war books of the past but not a story for some including most of the people I served with who had fought in the Second War, or more recent conflicts, and would not countenance "this sort of story for a minute". But times have changed.

Afrika was born Mogamed Fu'ad Nasif in Egypt to an Egyptian father and Turkish mother, arriving in South Africa as a very young child. Both parents died of flu, and Afrika was fostered by family friends under the name of "John Charlton".

Afrika fought in the Second War in the North African Campaign. He was captured at Tobruk and imprisoned. After the war he left his foster family and went to Namibia where he was fostered by an Afrikaans family, taking his third legal name of "Jozua Joubert". He converted to Islam in 1964, legally becoming known as Ismail Joubert and lived in Cape Town's District 6, a mixed race inner-city community. District 6 was declared a "whites only" area in the 1960s and the community was destroyed.

With an Arab father and a Turkish mother, Afrika could have been classified as a "white", but refused as a matter of principle. He founded Al-Jihaad to oppose the destruction of District Six and apartheid in general, and when this affiliated with the African National Congress' armed wing, he was given a praise name of Tatamkhulu Afrika, which he adopted until he died, hence the name used for the novel. In 1987 he was arrested for terrorism and banned from speaking or writing in public for five years, although he continued writing as Afrika. He was imprisoned for 11 years in the same prison as Mandela being released in 1992.

Afrika died on 23 December 2002, shortly after his 82nd birthday, from injuries received when he was run over by a car two weeks before, just after the publication of his final novel, "Bitter Eden", now being republished. He left us this important memoir plus his autobiography, two novels, four short novels, two plays and poetry and unpublished works which we hope sets the scene behind the book.

With the above background to assist we feel the reader will have some understand of the struggles within the novelist as he puts his important points across. Same sex relationships were simply not discussed during Afrika's early life with many having no understanding of what such a physical relationship was about. How things have changed- "Bitter Eden" sets some of the last records straight and we are the better for it.

The publication date is given as 2002.