Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland

Olive Schreiner described Cecil Rhodes as 'the only great man and man of genius South Africa possesses' and believed 'any accident to him would... mean the putting back of our South African development for fifty years'. Later, however, she became disillusioned by his corruption and misuse of power and expressed an 'awful sense of relief that the terrible power which was threatening to crush all South Africa (was] broken'. The reasons for her change of opinion are reflected in Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland, an allegorical and savage attack on Rhodes and his British South Africa Company. Trooper Peter Simon Halket, a young British soldier employed by Rhodes' Chartered Company in Mashonaland aspires to emulate Rhodes. After witnessing and perpetrating numerous atrocities such as whippings and hangings, he becomes sick at heart. Lost one night, he has a 'visitation' by a Christlike stranger who convinces him of the immorality of conquest and oppression. He decides to release a black prisoner whom he has been ordered to shoot, resulting in the death of the fugitive as well as his own death at the hand of his commanding officer. The work was originally published in 1897. This edition is introduced by Sally-Ann Murray, a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Natal.

*Page edges slightly yellowed; name inscription on first page*