Moederland

Moederland means 'Motherland' in Afrikaans. In it, Cato Pedder asks how South Africa became the country it is, and explores the question across four centuries. She follows the country's turbulent history, including the rise and fall of apartheid and the legacy of her own family, through the lives of nine very different women.

The women begin with Krotoa, a Khoikhoi translator for the newly arrived Dutch East India Company, and Angela, a former slave from Bengal who climbs the ladder of settler society. Elsje arrives from Germany aged three, marries at thirteen and is a mother at fifteen. Anna is mistress of the Cape's grandest estate and regains control from her violent husband, while Margaretha, an uncompromising Afrikaner farmer, resists the abolition of slavery.

Another Anna loads her family onto an ox-wagon and treks into the interior to escape the British. Isie survives the Boer War and becomes the wife of South Africa's Prime Minister and 'Mother of the Nation'. Cato herself escapes to England and the Quakers as white supremacy turns into apartheid. The last is Petronella, who returns to the Motherland, falls in love across the colour bar and risks everything to fight the system her grandfather set in motion.