A brave novel on looming South African white genocide
In the great tradition of employing fiction to illustrate the human condition, there appears a novel concerning the terrible plight of white folks in South Africa.
Never, Never and Never Again is a novel by K.M. Breakey. The title is borrowed from the words of Nelson Mandela, who erroneously stated that "[n]ever, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again [sic] experience the oppression of one by another."
The novel lays bare the dire political climate that presently exists in Mandela's "beautiful land." The dialogue and prose are tight, and the pace encourages a rapid read. A political and racial conflict plagues the African continent, complicating relationships. As survival is on the line, circumstances could not be more critical.
It's a story of love and family, but it's also reality-based fiction with a message. One cannot read this story without recognizing the scary, unspoken but palpable lesson within: Beware. It's coming here.
My introduction to K.M. Breakey was his previous novel, Johnny and Jaamal. That story explores racial dynamics in America without filters.
One constantly hears that a dialogue on race is needed. Yet from the mainstream media comes a steady monologue: black people are the exclusive victims, never the perpetrators, of racism. Black mob violence is never a "race riot," but it may be "teens" wilding or blowing off steam. Meanwhile, the specter of African genocide portrayed by writers like K.M. Breakey is unmistakable in its valuable lesson for the reader.
The characters in Never, Never and Never Again are easy to identify with. They are human. They want the best things for themselves. They want to be near the ones they love and to provide for each other and their children. They didn't create the political climate of conflict that surrounds them, nor are they responsible for it, yet they can't ignore it or escape it. That brings me to the next important message in Breakey's story. Just because you may choose to ignore racial genocide, that doesn't mean that racial genocide will always ignore you. The wiser among us are forewarned.
A few titles come to mind that fall into the same category as Breakey's latest novel. Nineteen Eighty-Four and Atlas Shrugged are two. But these works describe a future, dystopian society. Never, Never and Never Again opens our eyes to a world that exists here and now, in our time, only one ocean away.
I'm aware that by mentioning the two titles above, I am placing K.M. Breakey in with some lofty company. Time will tell if he belongs up there with Orwell and Rand.
The world is turning its back on South Africa. The attitude seems to be that whatever bad thing happens to the whites in Africa, they brought it on themselves, and they deserve it. K.M. Breakey has given us an important forewarning and an educational, entertaining work of fiction worth keeping.
Willie Shields is a radio host, a paralegal, and author of Exit 13A – A Control Tower Diary. A "once and always" U.S. Marine and a former air traffic controller, Mr. Shields resides in Wilmington, Delaware. He responds to email: WSHIELDS1775@VERIZON.NET. Twitter: @WILLIEONRADIO.