ann oosthuizen

Sarah’s Story is a controversial novel set in the Eastern Cape, South Africa during three decades, 1961-1986. It chronicles the history of two families who live on a small holding just outside the fictional town, Fort Bedford.

'Our people have decided that we cannot pay rent when nothing is done for us where we live. We want the rubbish taken away and the streets cleaned up properly, and they should be lit at night. We spend money in your shops, but nothing comes back to us. It all flows one way. This must change. The have-nots must have something too.'

During her lifetime, Sarah Khumalo changes radically from servant to revolutionary. Together with her family, and particularly her son James, she learns the meaning of apartheid and the price she will have to pay for liberation.