Apartheid Rendezvous 🔞

24. Gatherings

"Love thy neighbor as yourself, but choose your neighborhood." ~ Louise Beal

Leonardo Dicaprio.

Koopman, Niemack, De Waal, Van Rooyens, Hoofmans, Lindemann,Van der Voort, De Bruin,Visscher, Kloppers, Schrijver- these were the various people whom I had been introduced to in the last half and hour. They all claimed to be very good friends of Uncle Johan which I really doubted considering they hardly knew anything about him except when it came to business and land. Infact one of them even claimed Uncle Johan was from Belgium which was absolutely preposterous or rather ludicrous. Yes, Belgians spoke Dutch but Uncle Johan could never be Belgian. It was a funny gesture. He is a six foot five giant, most Dutch man were. I didn't get the purpose of this gathering, all they talked about was politics. How much they distasted the non-whites which was one thing they all had in common. I didn't understand how someone could hold a clear conversation just talking and chattering about how much hatred they had for a certain race. It was beyond me.

One even claimed to have burned his maid with a hot iron and as idiotic as it sounds they are laughed like foolish Imbeciles. I thought Uncle Johan was a horrible boss but I was wrong there were people much worse.

As much as i would have loved to converse in a conversation with one of them, i couldn't. They all sounded brainwashed. They all had the same mindset, no one was open minded. No wonder Uncle Johan had invited them to the Anti-black conference. Their wives were no different, they just agreed with anything any of the men said. I was so lost in gaze watching Hope work, she was absolutely breathtaking. No matter how harsh anyone was, she didn't crack. Like it was something she was at home with. As for the other maid, she gave me loathing stares when I wasn't looking. I felt tense under her gaze, it was no surprise she would strangle me in my sleep.

"Engels English men are stupid." Lindemann slurred a little tipsy from the alcohol. Ofcause he wasn't talking to me but the rest of the man around the pool.

"They set the kaefers free there in Rhodesia." He continued and the other men hissed, grunted, murmured incoherent afrikaans curses in distress.

"It will be a fucking jungle there." One man I remember being called Van Rooyen added shaking his head slowly as he took a gulp from his beer.

"Heard it has a new name-" Someone added.

"Yes yes, Zimbabwe. It is already a jungle out there in Rhodesia that's why the National Party should have a tight leash on these Kaefers. Otherwise we would lose all our land." Kloppers said in an aggressive tone.

"Your land." I scoffed under my breath thinking about how hypocritical he was being. It wasn't his land or their land, it was these people's land. The same people whom they were mistreating like animals.

"So are you thinking of staying here or going back to Amsterdam ?" Lindemann questioned turning all the attention to me.

"Uhm this is not my place, i would rather be back in Netherlands." I said unhurriedly.

"I have been trying to convince him, that there are alot of opportunities here but die seun (the boy) is too stubborn." Uncle Johan said coolly.

"Oh, hy is Le roux se seun ?" One of the man I didn't recognize being introduced to said making all the men stunned as if they hadn't realised it.

"Have you seen my mooi dogter ( beautiful daughter ) over there ?" Lindemann said excitedly. "She finished high school and is ready to wed." He said proudly and I looked at him with distaste.

"Marrying off your daughters won't get you out of debt Lindemann..." someone said as a joke and laughter broke out.

"I'm not in debt." Lindemann growled under his breath.

"News travel fast besides thats why your kaefers have been aksing for me to give them work in my orange free state farm." Della Bruin muttered proudly.

"Certainly you must be paying them peanuts." Koopman added with a hint of amusement.

"Don't we all pay them peanuts." Uncle Johan said in a sarcastic tone making them all gurgle with laughter. I didn't get it, clearly I had missed the joke. How could mistreating human beings sound amusing ? My eyes were glued to someone else and I was barely engaging in their conversation when I saw Hope getting inside the house, i quickly excused myself.

Before I could make it into the house, someone tapped on my shoulder and I grumbled under my breath not in the mood to converse in fake interactions. I turned around with a smile on my face.

"Jy is Leo reg ?" (You are Leo right ?) A girl muttered probably Lindemann's daughter.

"Ja." (Yes) I vaguely replied in a hurry go away.

"I'm Marietje." She said with a genuine smile. She had shoulder length straight brown hair with straight bangs and small forest green eyes. She was dressed decently unlike the other girls I had seen.

"Nice to meet you, i was actually-" She immediately interrupted my sentence.

"Yes, i know. I heard you are a lawyer, studied at the - Vrije University -" She replied catching me off guard.

"Uh yes." I ran my hand through my blonde locks.

"How was it ?" She questioned.

"It was okay, i really wanted to go to University of Amsterdam but Vrije would have to do." I said honestly.

"I think Vrije is better than University of Amsterdam well when it comes to law." She muttered and I nodded.

"Why do you ask ?"

"My pa doesn't know but I'm thinking of studying there. I don't want to be in South Africa any longer." She said sadly.

"You grew up here ?" I asked.

"Yep, my grandfather and my great grandfather grew up here. Infact we have been here since 18-something. I hardly have any relatives in Netherlands." She paused. "That's why I thought I should talk to you."

"You could talk to Uncle Johan." I said in a hurry to leave.

"He wouldn't understand. I hate the conditions here, it might benefit me because of the colour of my skin but I absolutely loathe everything here." She whined.

"I do too." I said under my breath but was quite sure she heard me.

"I don't want to disappoint my pa, i know he will be if I tell him that I want to leave because of the way-" she paused. "I'm suppose to hate them, that's how I was taught from an early age even my brother recently left for the army. You know that rule that every afrikaaner as soon as they turn eighteen must go atomic the army mostly to be taught that they should hate black people. I know he will come back a different person mostly cold. It's like they brainwash them." She said sternly, for a moment I really wanted to help her, i looked at my left side and saw the other maid Thembi laughing and showing Hope the view in my direction.

That's when I realized I was the view but I wasn't in any way flirting with Marietje. Everyone looked at us expectedly and this is why I hated gatherings. Hope looked at me with hurt in her eyes but blinked it away, i don't know why my heart seemed to want to jump out when she turned away.

"Are you listening Leo ?" Marietje asked pulling me out of my daze.

"Uh yes." I mumbled.

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