Notes

Lost in the Dust

A majestic African sunset dominates the scene and colours the landscape gold. Here are no clues of what could have taken place. Three riders are lucky to ride away alive and three remain behind but it is not clear who they people are. Could they be Boers who are riding away? How does one distinguish? They cannot be identified by their beards because men on both sides of the war wore beards. Could it be assumed that they belong to a Boer commando because they are wearing civilian clothes? Fighters on both war fronts wore civilian clothes; it was nit a distinguishing feature of only one group. Who are the wounded or dead left behind? Are they Brits or Boers? Why are they simply left behind on the bare plain? Did those men who are riding into the sunset have to quickly escape from imminent danger? Is there no time to bury the dead? Or is there a feeling of war fatigue that leaves the dead to their own fate?

The men riding away are abandoning their comrades to the night. Would the fate of the dead haunt them? Would they think about the bodies ravaged by the burning African sun or attacked by wild animals and vultures that same night? Are they thinking about how much blood has already flowed in the war – blood that soaks and stains the earth? Or is it dismissed for the moment as the natural course of the war where other rules apply?

Three men’s lives are cut short – dust to dust. Three men, most probably in the prime of their lives, are riding away as the evening displaces the day, much like death eventually displaces life. An atmosphere of inhospitality (unheimlich) is evoked by the endless harshness of the veld, together with the restless, fleeting specks of cloud. Will the image of the bodies remaining behind be part of their emotional baggage for the rest of their lives, or has the barrier of desensitisation already been erected?

Amanda Botha (2014) John Meyer: Lost in the Dust, Cape Town: MINX Publishing, pages 102–105.

Provenance

Ryk Neethling, Paarl.

Literature

John Meyer: Lost in the Dust (2014) Cape Town: MINX Publishing, illustrated on pages 35, 103 and 127.