Go well Wilbur Smith
I READ with a profound sense of shock about the unexpected passing on of thriller writer, Wilbur Smith, on November 13, 2021, at his home in Cape Town with his beloved wife, Niso, by his side.
Thus fell the curtain on the sterling performance of one of Africa’s most vibrant literary giants whose 49 meticulously researched novels sold over 140 million copies worldwide and were mostly about a bygone era and a vanishing Africa.
Born in Zambia in 1933, he was educated at Michaelhouse and Rhodes University. After his first novel, “When the Lion Feeds”, Wilbur Smith gave up the accountant’s pen for the writer’s quill and ink in order to work on and put his dream of writing from obscurity to prosperity to the test by continually churning out some of the finest historical novels of all time featured on the best seller charts often at number one.
A dedicated scholar and a fanatic adventurer, Smith was driven by the whip of ambition to share in black and white, with the eye of someone on the verge of death, his worldly experiences and prodigious knowledge about an Africa that he adored and loved so much.
His novel, “The Angels Weep” dwelt on the liberation struggle and the independence of Zimbabwe, while “Rage” touched on the struggle against the Apartheid system in South Africa, at the same time outlining some of the Zulu traditional marriage customs and “The Burning Shore” described the diamond mining industry in South Africa and Namibia.
A wildlife conservationist at heart, he wrote with passion and an unmistakable twinge of regret about the plunder and ravaging of a virgin Africa by some of the earliest white settlers.
The novel “A Sparrow Falls” touched on the need to preserve the dwindling wilderness of the African environment from destruction by the advancing civilisation and agriculture. His carefully crafted plots, which always began with a limited number of characters, coupled by his strong characterisations that undoubtedly breathed life into his fictional heroes, did much to endear him to the hearts of many the world over.
What reader worth his mettle can forget a powerful encounter with a character like Sean Courtney, whose imposing personality, sheer strength and cold brutality ensured that he was too rough, too tough and too aggressive?
Indeed, the life’s work of some men forcefully demand to be noticed and Wilbur’s is no exception. He deserves a golden statue, an arch or two, or a reverent mention in the history text among other renowned men of letters like Arthur Conan Doyle, John Keats and Dambudzo Marechera who gave up everything to be true to their creative spirits. May his soul rest in eternal peace.