On the bridge of goodbye

Set against the southern African canvas of war and upheaval is the story of the famous San soldiers who fought first for the Portuguese in Angola, then for South Africa from bases in northern Namibia. When South Africa withdrew to make way for Namibian independence, many of these soldiers and their dependants came to South Africa where, after 13 years in tents, they moved into small houses on the outskirts of Kimberley. Beyond the bare bones of this story, remarkable in itself, lies a process of devastating displacement that has never fully been explored. Angolan and Caprivian communities had been wrenched apart by war, and for many neither reunification nor closure had been possible since the sudden Portuguese evacuation of Africa in the mid-1970s. David Robbins travelled with a small group of these discarded San soldiers on a journey into their respective pasts so that he could tell their stories. The result is "On the Bridge of Goodbye", a book rich in insight and emotion that culminates deep in the Angolan bush, and also in the very marrow of human loss and endurance.