1984 is a story frozen in time, fossilized on our farm. The Karoo, with its dolerite-capped mountains, ancient time line, and vast semidesert plains, is famous for its fossils. And the footprints of the White Afrikaner tribe, with its fanatical claim as a chosen people, superior race, called by God to take possession of the land and subdue the natives, linger like trace fossils—providing indirect evidence of a past life preserved in the attitudes, anecdotes, and apartness on our farm.
