Remembering Green

Global warming is already taking place in this story set 200 years from now. The Tekkies live on a concrete island off the southern-most tip of Africa. They believe that science and rationality are key to preventing the end of the world. But their actions are futile, their beliefs powerless. Only respect for the Earth and its creatures can restore the balance. So they abduct the girl-child Rain and her lion Saa, who represent the old ways. Saa, symbol of the life force, and Rain, daughter of the rainmakers, are now their only hope, to be offered as sacrifices if necessary. As Saa, drugged and caged, loses her will to live, Rain urgently seeks freedom.

The story contrasts the values of different peoples: the Tekkies, or colonisers, who live by force, rules and measurements, and indigenous peoples like Rain and her family, who live according to the rhythms of nature. Told from Rain’s point of view, it is moving, steeped with a sense of urgency and profound loss. Yet, in its ending, there is love and hope. Just as in Song of Be and A Cageful of Butterflies, intensity of feeling and poetic vision infuse every page of this tale, a plea for a greener, more humane world.