The Vase with the Many Coloured Marbles

The working title of my book is... THE VASE WITH THE MANY COLOURS. It consists of two books.

BOOK 1. EMMY.
BOOK 2. MARLA.

BOOK 1. EMMY

Emmy was born Emily Kleintjies into the Coloured community of South Africa. Her parents lived in District Six, a suburb of Cape Town. The Coloured community was discriminated against by the racial apartheid laws that became stricter with the election of Hendrik Verwoerd as Prime Minister. Emily, as a young Coloured girl, looked more like a WHITE (European) than a Coloured. Growing up, she found that she could ignore the 'WHITES ONLY' signs on benches, restaurants and beaches around Cape Town, without anyone challenging her.

As she grew older, she realised that she could not live with the racial discrimination of the country, being classified a second class citizen. She decides to challenge the apartheid system and become and live as a White. At the age of 16 years old, after many tears when she says goodbye to her family without them knowing her intentions, she moves from Cape Town to Johannesburg, where she successfully jumps the race barrier.

Although she goes out with various men she meets on dates, she is continually scared to form a permanent relationship, knowing that should she have a child, the baby could give her race relationship away. However, she falls in love with a manager at the company she works for, and by accident she falls pregnant. The father, Eric, who joined the army to fight in WWII is killed at Tobruk before they marry. Her daughter, Marla when born is born with straight hair and a light skin colour that does not give Emmy's racial status away, as Emmy feared.

Through Charlie Stuart, the father of a friend, who helped her jump the racial barrier, she becomes involved in fighting the Apartheid system. When threatened by the Security Police who suspect her of working against the government, she is told that they will no longer 'provide protection for you or your family.' She refuses to give them the information they want. As a warning to her, they then poison her dog, Gamboo.

BOOK 2 . MARLA

Marla growing up as a European in a town called Potchefstroom, is encouraged by Emmy to 'make as many friends among the Afrikaans community as you can. The only way to overcome apartheid is from within, not by direct confrontation.'

When Marla goes to University, she joins the anti-apartheid student groups. And fights the Hendrik Verwoerd apartheid system. After she obtains her University degree, she tours England with friends, and in an accident, meets her future husband. It is only then, after returning to Cape Town, when she tells Emmy that she and Bertie wish to marry, that Emmy tells her that she is part of the Coloured community.

The target readership is... Anyone and everyone interested in the political system of South Africa during the apartheid era, and life as we lived it in South Africa, during that era.

More than 90% of the story in the book is based on actual events, that I have observed during my life in South Africa and England when I was student there in 1953.

Below is what Lynn Thompson of Thompson Writing & Editing Inc who edited the book, has to say about the books.

It's an interesting story set during an interesting period in history, which is the essence of a good marketable book. It's something about which most Americans know very little, too, so I like it from the educational perspective as well. I often advise my writers in terms of movies.... your book definitely has that potential.

Jacob Singer.
Author