Novel recounting Mendi’s last voyage to be launched in Ginsberg tomorrow

AUTHOR Fred Khumalo recounts the final, doomed voyage of the SS Mendi in his latest novel, titled Dancing The Death Drill.

Khumalo will be launching this book at the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg tomorrow.

In January 1917, the SS Mendi sailed from Cape Town en route to Le Havre in France, carrying the last contingent of the South African Native Labour Corps, made up of more than 800 black men.

On the morning of February 21 1917, the SS Darro, travelling at full speed and with no warning signals, rammed the SS Mendi, which sank in 20 minutes in the English Channel south of the Isle of Wight.. This led to the death of many of the men on board.

Growing up in KwaZulu-Natal, Khumalo said he and his friends used to sing about the Mendi and often heard stories about it from the elders.

“The story of the Mendi was not featured in any books. All we heard was that there were African men who went to fight in Europe,” he said.

A trip to France in 2004 saw Khumalo learning more about those who served in World War 1. While there, he visited the war cemetery and saw the graves of some South African men who had served there.

Soon he was doing research. “There was absolutely nothing written about the Mendi. All I found were newspaper reports,” Khumalo said.

In 2007, he came across a book, Black Valour, written by Norman Clothier.

“I used Norman’s book when I was researching the Mendi,” Khumalo said.

“I couldn’t write this story as non-fiction, so I decided to approach it as a novel.

“This story doesn’t talk only about the Mendi. There is a mix of two wars, the Boer War and World War 1. I try to explain who went to this war and why they did.”