The
Plotting
IV
The
Missionary Position
 1
2 3
4 
I
went back to New York after the St. Michaels plotting sessions,
cleaned up our notes and typed a Rough outline prepared with
James Michener - May, 1978. On the frontispiece, I used
the title COVENANT with this note:
"COVENANT"
is ELU working title. It comes from The Day of the Covenant, a religious
holiday in South Africa commemorating the Vow to God the Voortrekkers
took on the eve of the Battle of Blood River in 1838.
Click
here to read page 7 and 8 of the Outline
This
thirty-three page outline is, of course, a concise summation of
countless ideas Jim and I tossed around over those two weeks. For
both of us, it was a route map to the many twists and turns the
story would take as our thinking developed.
Though
Michener's April 1979 comments specifically
refer to the outline as I drafted it in May 1978, the pages he comments
on are interlaced with plot revisions made by me as we went along.
So, for example, the development of the Saltwood story, which gives
a very good idea of our ongoing "brainstorming:"
On
May 25, 1978 Jim wrote to me from Honolulu:
|
Honolulu, Hawaii
May
25, 1978
...
I think one of the best things I could have done in preparation
for my research is to visit Hawaii to see a rather fine society,
no better than Johannesburg, nor worse than Marseilles, but
just a good functioning agglomeration in which a large number
of people are finding happiness and self-government, and consumer
goods; and to realize that in south Africa everyone of these
people would be proscribed to a terribly limited life, and
that all their creative energies would've been diminished
if not destroyed. What an incalculable loss! It makes me think
of the mainland and how much poorer we would be without the
contributions of our Cape Coloured: O.J.Simpson, Lena Horne,
Ralph Bunche, Diahann Carroll, Sidney Poitier, and the rest.
How we would have cheated ourselves! It seems to me that someone
advised the Afrikaners poorly when the decision was made to
divorce this reservoir of talent from the mainstream.
The
more I study and think, the more heavily inclined I am to
make at least one of the Englishmen a missionary, perhaps
the very first although I haven't clarified that. I find myself
driven in this direction for a variety of reasons: (1) In
whatever I read I find the Dutch really despising the missionaries,
their own as well as the English, so the symbol must have
vitality; 2) I find the missionaries insufferable, which always
makes for a good character; and 3) I find them with startling
frequency to have been right or on the verge of rightness.
I do not (Michener's underscore) know how to resolve
this conflict, but let's give it the most serious thought.
Such deep feelings on my part usually turn out to be right. |
In
my response on June 2, 1978 I began."The idea of having one of the
Stanworth (Saltwood) clan as a missionary is excellent. Even today,
the conflict between their insufferability and the loathing of them
by the Afrikaner - and their being right, still exists. You have
only to look through a couple of issues of SA Outlook
to see that pattern.
| Pleasantville,
New York
June
2, 1978
...
Our missionary could well be Vera Stanworth's brother - a
likelihood in that someone would have had to accompany her
out to the Cape or we get an over-heroic figure doing the
long voyage etc. It could tie in well and offer an 'insufferable'
young man who would be at his peak when slavery ends. He could
be cranked into that 1813-1833 period without difficulty -
and could be a valuable link to the Xhosas. Perhaps, shift
him over to Natal after that, have him in Port Natal when
Piet Retief gets there. Just rubbing salt in old wounds and
strongly underlining the Boers' irritation at the English
presence.
...
I have the rough notes from our meeting all typed up and pretty
well organized. As a 'working title,' I came up with one word
that my interest you. It certainly covers the Afrikaans element
and if one thinks of the spiritual, the creative process,
the 'covenant' that all men have with Mother Africa,
it comes up as a strong label for black or white: COVENANT.
How
I agree with your comments about the terrible loss to South
African society by the failure to use so many talents there!
It's a point that could well be worked in through the experiences
of Daniel Nxumalo during his time as teacher at the Vrymeer
mission school.turning bright, talented youngsters into bright,
talented farm laborers etc. It could also be an observation
Craig (Saltwood) makes through his contact with Shamilah's
friends.
|
From
London two weeks later, Jim reacted to my title suggestion and shared
his thoughts on the English family:
London
15
June, 1978
...
The suggestion that the novel be titled Covenant
is a sturdy one. I had already planned that the most important
paragraph of the book come at the conclusion of Blood River,
something like this:
"What
they did not realize was that men and women are always free
to enter into a covenant with God, but this does not mean
that He is obligated to enter into a covenant with them,
and especially when they have determined unilaterally the
terms of the covenant."
You
can see that this concept, properly handled, will lend itself
to excellent elaboration, and covers, indeed many of the
strands of the proposed book. But I would not like, at this
time, to fix upon a title, for I've never done so until
the manuscript was finished, and even then have usually
left the final decision in the hands of Random House. I
am not good at titles and feel that naming a book too soon
during the gestation stage is a sure way to put a curse
on it. But I see much merit in Covenant; it's better
than anything I might have had in mind, and I will keep
it strongly on file.
I
find myself quite uneasy with the English name Stanworth,
and the fact that I cannot remember it when I am working
through ideas gives me not only considerable worry but also
a premonition that it will not serve. It lacks character,
and since I am now working on English materials in an English
setting I am most desirous of implying strong character.
For the present I am thinking in terms of something like
Saltwood, which I like very much, or Stamp,
which is good except that in my last novel I used
the name Steed to excellent effect and would fear
repeating myself with another one-syllable name beginning
with St-.
Working
here has clarified many gray points. I spent two days at
Three Bridges and found it horribly unsatisfactory. If my
Saltwoods came from there I wouldn't want to have much to
do with them. Had they been total exiles, Three Bridges
might have explained their flight, but since I want the
English home to remain a magnet, I knew that I had to find
something better. I have done so in the Cathedral town of
Salisbury, some 75 miles west of London. It is a place that
one might remember in exile and it has three virtues for
me: (1) It is near to Old Sarum, about which I once did
a lot of work and which will work well into the novel as
I see it, most tellingly in fact. (2) It is also close to
Netherhanpton where Sir John Newbolt lived, who wrote the
great poem about cricket, and since I want one of our Saltwoods
to cast the deciding vote not to send a black or coloured
cricketer to England back in the 1880s, thus establishing
the pattern that would prevail (a good account of this in
They Were Also South Africans) there could be a good
relationship. (3) Most important, Stonehenge is at hand
and the Saltwoods would know it intimately, which can become
important vis-à-vis Zimbabwe. I am visiting all these
sites tomorrow for the third time to see if they seem as
productive in review as they have gone in prospect. But
I think Salisbury is our locale.
I
am bewildered on a point which may seem trivial but which
looms as most important in my story-telling. Should the
Saltwood boys attend Oxford, which is rather nearby, or
Cambridge, which is distant? I go round and round on this.
If Oxford, we have Oriel which Rhodes attends, and also
the Oxford Players performing at Stonehenge. If Cambridge
we have that glorious Cam, and King's Chapel with the Rubens,
and a kind of daring educational policy that Oxford did
not have. We should think about this, and I shall be visiting
both universities again shortly to strengthen old impressions.
As of now I incline slightly toward Cambridge.
The
work here has settled one problem. The visitor in the last
charter must be an American, one of the Saltwood line who
emigrated to America when the others went to South Africa.
We do not hear of him for 180 years, but he comes as an
engineer with all the virtues of the Swede I had proposed
and many plus reverberations. This plotting is quite clear
and increasingly promising, so we may consider it settled.
I
am at a total loss about the missionary; I liked your suggestion
about the brother-escort but now feel it has got to be a
Saltwood. The more I work with this material the more convinced
I become that that is the way to go. (We shall have so many
characters as it is, that the closer we weave the net the
better; keeping the name Saltwood before the reader will
be an asset, and the more varied the performers under that
name the better.) But I am not doctrinaire on the matter'.
Please continue to give this your most careful thought,
as mine produces little except a conviction that we need
the character and can use him to tremendous effect if we
can come up with the proper structure.
|
My
response to the Saltwood questions called for a total re-work of
the rough outline, building on Michener's English leads and my own
vision of Reverend John Saltwood (later renamed, Hilary Saltwood):
I've
put all my thoughts and ideas about the Reverend John Saltwood on
paper. They certainly convince me that the meddlesome missionary
approach is indeed the most correct you could have chosen. With
the younger Saltwood, the office, the frontier-drama is still there
but the Godly-son-of-England can bring a marvelous depth, symbolism
and more.
Again,
I've worked this against that first 'rough notes' - though it's almost
100 per cent revised. I suggest ways in which earlier concepts may
be worked into the new framework. All seems capable of being handled
without much difficulty.
I'm
much taken with the sad figure of Saltwood, so involved and yet so
lonely upon this strange land where he has chosen to make his stand
for God. He often tries so hard, but cannot come to terms with his
adversary, Africa, for faint-hearted and wavering, he lacks the horizonless
vision to see beyond his present predicament. When he finds a 'vision'
it is fore-doomed, tragic. One wants to be next to the man - to give
him that nudge toward reality. But it can't be, and he seems destined
to choose the wrong path. Perhaps not 'wrong' in the sense of just
or unjust - not essentially so - but woefully misguided.
This
work on the revised draft for the Saltwood story showed the new
plot lines and complex dynamics between frontier Boers and English
settlers and how both groups stood in relation to the Xhosa.
Uys
Revised Plotting Notes - Saltwoods
Click
to enlarge and read pages
I
continued to revise and add to the story ideas amid the intensive
research that followed and later during the manuscript stage. So,
for example, I provided twenty-one pages of plotlines and leads
for Chapters XI and XII, the education and achievement of an Afrikaner
'puritan' beginning with an image of young Detleef van Doorn in
the immediate aftermath of the Anglo-Boer War:
| The
Education of a Puritan (excerpt from ELU plotting notes)
1902
May 31 Treaty of Vereeniging
ends Boer War
1903
The rains came late that year...
Much in the opening scene at Vrymeer evokes picture of the
past, of the primitive conditions of early man here, of the
Great Drought that drove the San away from this valley. First,
we see Paul de Groot in the upper part of the valley where
his farm Blinkfontein lies - like a broken, homeless
dog, cowering in the ruin of his farmhouse. Even his blacks
live better...
A
few miles away, the neighboring Van Doorns: Jakobus (b.1848
d.1918), Johanna, his daughter (b.1880 d.?), her husband,
Piet Krause (b.1876 d.?) and the child, Detleef (b.1895).
They are living in an old wagon from the Trek?) outspanned
behind the ruin of Vrymeer. The woman and child sleep
in the wagon, the two men on the ground below...
In
the town of Venlo is Miss Emmaline Broadhurst, one of Emily
Hobhouse's helpers, passionate pro-Boer/anti-imperialist,
now trying to organize a school for the children of the area.
She has heard about Detleef, and is on her way to Vrymeer
in her donkey cart when the thunderstorm breaks; the sparrow-thin
spinster, age 33, arrives at Vrymeer as the deluge ends. First,
when he learns that she is English, Jakobus van Doorn fingers
his sjambok . Johanna remembers her as one of the
Hobhouse girls and tells Van Doom that he must listen to what
she has to say about Detleef. Van Doorn argues about the language
of the conqueror in the mouths of slaves etc. . an argument
that will be repeated by the blacks years later, when the
Bantu Education Department, inspired by men with a 'separate'
vision like Detleef van Doorn, gets underway.
From
1903 to 1913, Detleef will be tutored, together with the other
children of Venlo, by this remarkable Englishwoman. (but a
time will come when, with the Broederbond fixing its grip
on the town, Miss Broadhurst is no longer needed.) During
this period, Jakobus van Doorn commences the reconstruction
of Vrymeer. Approached with the suggestion that he go back
to politics, he refuses, unwilling to participate in anything
associated with England. Though gone, Milner remains the personification
of evil, with van Doorn recalling Milner's December 1900 statement:
" If 10 years hence there are three men of British race
to two of Dutch, the country will be safe and prosperous.
If there are three of Dutch and two of British, we shall have
perpetual difficulty. |
When
the time came for Michener to write the first draft of the novel,
some of my ideas would be scrapped but most found their way into
The Covenant alongside Jim's own story-telling, as one
might expect in any intimate collaboration between two writers.
The
Plotting
1
2 3
4
Part
Three:The Research
Top
of page
MICHENER BOOKSHELF
©2007
Errol Lincoln Uys All materials are from my personal
archives, unless indicated otherwise. No items may be reproduced
without permission. Web site illustrations added to material
|
