EVA & THE ISLANDOne week before their school holidays, Lebo, Veli and Thandi receive a letter from their friend Nomsa. In the letter Nomsa asks her friends to come and spend their holidays with her. And at the back of the letter there’s a gift from George - three air tickets to Cape Town!

3.30 in the morning at Jan Smuts Airport.

Veli, Lebo, wake up! The plane is about to leave!

VLUG 138 NA KAAPSTAD SAL NOU VERTREK.

Go through Gate 3. Enjoy your flight.

Brrr.... it’s cold!

There’s our plane.

I hope nothing goes wrong with this plane.

I was just thinking the same thing.

Aaaah, nyaqwaja! This thing is safer than a Zola

Budd any day!

I can’t wait to see Nomsa and uncle

George again.

Ghaaa!

Veli is going to Cape Town to see his

true love.

Please fasten your seatbelts, we are about

to take off.

What’s wrong with Veli?

He’s gone as pale as a ghost!

Hugghhhhh... Your friend doesn’t seem to like flying very much.

That’s my brother, Veli. My name is Lebo. Groaann...

My name is Aubrey Pieterse. Are you from Cape Town?

No, we live in Hillbrow. We are going to spend our school

holidays in Cape Town.

Aaaa, Cape Town is my home, but I have been away for many years. Now I am coming

back - with my son Amandla.

When did you leave?

Thirty one years ago...

I was just a laaitjie mos, at university. I was studying law part time and fighting

apartheid full time!

But when the police started arresting some of my pals, I knew the time had

come to leave.

Where did you go?

First I went to Zambia. After that... ag, Amandla and I have lived all over

the world. Exiles can never stay in one place for long.

Are your family meeting you at the

airport?

We are about to land. Please fasten your

seatbelts.

No.

For thirty years my father waited for me, but then he grew tired. He died last year without ever seeing

his grandchild.

On the bus to Cape Town. Amandla, we are home now, man. Take off those *#/%&@

glasses!

Wow, man! Now that’s a mountain with attitude.

That’s not just a mountain, it’s mos a symbol of hope for all South Africans everywhere.

The mountain looks like it’s got a tablecloth on.

You know, the old people used to tell a story about the clouds

on Table Mountain.

Many years ago a wicked old bandit called Van der Hunks went up on the mountain to escape his wife and to

smoke his pipe.

There he met a strange man who challenged him to a smoking competition.

What he did not know was that he was smoking with the Devil himself. S’true!

When the mountain is covered in clouds like today, the people say...

... Van der Hunks is smoking like hell to save his soul!

Look! There’s Nomsa!

EPISODE 2The story so far...

Let’s go to the flat first. It’s not far from here. Leila is making breakfast for us all.

Who’s Leila?

Leila is my very best friend in Cape Town. Her father is a fisherman.

How is your grandfather?

Uncle George is very well. He is now playing at a jazz club at the

harbour. We can go and hear him play tomorrow night.

Look at this place. It must be very old.

I bet that was Van Riebeeck’s house.

Rubbish! Van Riebeeck lived in a fort.

Aaahh! What’s that?

It’s only a squirrel.

Are you still interested in

history?

For sure. At the moment my class is studying the Khoikhoi; the people who

were living in the Cape before Van Riebeeck arrived.

But that ancient history is so boring.

My project is about a Khoikhoi girl called Krotoa, who went to live with the Van

Riebeecks... as a spy!

A spy?! In the house of Van Riebeeck!

Look, there’s Leila waving from our flat.

That evening... Why don’t we go to the disco?

Not tonight. I’m feeling very tired.

I would like to hear more about that girl who lived in Van Riebeeck’s house.

Oh no! Not another history

lesson.

Krotoa was a young girl sent by her uncle to live with the Dutch after Van Riebeeck arrived in the Cape in 1652...

My child, learn to speak their language. We must find out what they plan to do.

Krotoa ended up living with Van Riebeeck and his wife Maria. They gave her a new name, Eva. Maria made her wear European dresses and read to her from the bible. Soon Eva could speak

Dutch fluently.

Some Saldanhars have arrived with cattle, but there’s no one to interpret.

Eva can interpret for us.

But she is a woman, and she is so young.

Her Dutch is good and I trust her.

The Dutch needed many cattle to supply the passing ships.

Van Riebeeck often used Eva to interpret for him.

That child is too eager to please Van Riebeeck. She is giving away

our secrets.

But she also gives us information.

Mark my words, she will betray our people.

As time went by Krotoa became more and more attached to the Dutch. She spent less and less time with her own people. After Van Riebeeck went back to Holland Krotoa carried on living in the fort. A year later she married a

Dutchman called Van Meerhof.

And they lived on Robben Island.

Robben Island? Was it a prison in those

days?

Yes, even then it was a prison, and Van Meerhof was the

superintendent.

Two years later Van Meerhof was killed in an expedition. Krotoa went back to Cape Town. But she was

not liked by the Dutch and her own people had been chased out of Cape

Town. Krotoa turned to drink.

Eva was drunk again last night.

No!

Skande! She is not a fitting mother for Dutch children.

We must take the children away from her!

Krotoa’s children were taken away from her and she returned to Robben Island as a prisoner.

Sometimes she would be allowed to return to Cape Town. Then she would wander around cursing the Dutch for what they had done to her and her

people.

She died a few years later. She was 31 years old.

Poor Krotoa, what a sad story.

Yes, she was caught between two worlds...

I don’t feel sorry for her! She betrayed her people.

EPISODE 3The story so far...

This is an old dock, the big ships stay out there.

Oooh, look at the seals.

Haai! They look like big sea dogs.

You know a lot about ships and the sea.

My family have been fishing for hundreds of years.

You see those fishing boats over there?

Yes.

My father has a boat like that. It’s named District Six after the place where

my mother was born.

Where is your father’s boat?

It’s in another harbour called Kalk Bay.

I wish I could sail on the sea.

Well, come home with me on Sunday, then we can go on my father’s boat.

Viva!

Later... George Pahlane and the Dazzlers will be back

shortly.

I think that man is so handsome.

Hee hee!

This jazz is boring. I’m going for a walk.

Nomsa and Thandi must be looking for me.

I’ll sneak up behind them...

Hey! What do you want? LET ME GO!

Die kinders! Die kinders!

No! HELP!

Die kinders sterf op die eiland! Ons moet hulle red!

Die kinders! Die kinders!

Run! That old woman’s mad! What old woman?She’s gone!

But she was right there, I tell you.

Two days later... Look, there’s Aubrey and Amandla. I had a terrible nightmare last night.

I dreamed I was in a boat with that old woman, then she pushed me into the water.

Every time I tried to get back into the boat she would push me away.

But Veli, we never saw any old woman at the

harbour.

I tell you, she was as real as this hand!

She kept on saying, “Our children are dying on the island, we must

save them.”

You must have been seeing things.

Maybe it was a djin, an evil spirit!

There are such things in Kalk Bay. Sometimes you’ll be walking and someone will throw stones at you. But when

you turn around there’s no one there!

Let’s go for a swim! This is nca!

Nomsa, you know that story you told me about Krotoa - the girl who lived

with Van Riebeeck?

You said that before she died she would walk beside the sea shouting and

screaming?

Ya, that’s right.

Well, I think the old woman who attacked me was the

ghost of Krotoa!

EPISODE 4The story so far...

You didn’t see any ghost! And I wish you would stop talking about Krotoa!

You weren’t there. I know what I saw!

Leila, why do you get so upset when we talk about Krotoa?

She was a traitor! I don’t like talking about traitors.

But can’t you see that she was also a victim?

Jaaaa! The ghost of Krotoa has got you!

Leila! What’s wrong?

Leave me alone!

A little while later... I’m sorry I acted like that. The thing is

Krotoa reminds me of my lost grandmother.

You see that flat? When I was a child, Pappa and I stayed there with

Granny Eve. We were so happy.

Then one day Pappa came home and said that there was talk that the

fishermen would have to move out - to make way for white people.

Just like Sophiatown!

Pappa said we should find a house inland. He wasn’t going to wait for the Whites to come

and move us. That’s when the fighting started. Granny Eve had a white ID book. She stayed behind when we moved. Pappa called her a traitor and we never saw

her again.

Don’t you know what happened to her?

When we moved back to Kalk Bay she had gone. I don’t know if she is dead

or alive.

What do you mean lost?

Welcome aboard! We have a long way to travel to reach the place where the snoek are. Tonight we have to go around Cape

Point and past Robben Island.

Oh, I hope we go close to Robben Island.

GOOI LOS!

Why do you have to go so far? Aren’t there

any snoek around here?

When I was mos a laaitjie, great shoals of snoek would come past Kalk Bay, more than people could

catch. But not any more.

Haaai! It is beautiful to be on the sea.

Where are your nets?

We catch snoek with lines. The

nets are used to catch sardines and mackarel.

That night... A bietjie kreef vir die laaitjies?

No thanks.

I wish the boat would stop rocking!

Not hungry? They’ll get used to it.

Aaaah!

At dawn the next day...

Wake up! We’re passing Robben Island!

I didn’t know it was so big.

Ja, it’s even got a supermarket, you know.

To think that people like Nelson Mandela and Walter

Sisulu spent more than twenty years on that place.

I wonder what they thought when they looked across Table Bay? Did

they dream of going home?

And did Krotoa dream the same dream more than three

hundred years ago?

Later, far beyond Robben Island...

There’s a storm on the way! We must head back to Hout Bay.

We won’t make it to Hout Bay. I’m going to radio Cape Town harbour.

As the boat nears Robben Island...

Look, there’s someone on the jetty. Veli, look through the binoculars.

It’s the old woman who attacked me at the

harbour!

I saw her too... could it really be the ghost of Krotoa?

Are you sure you don’t want to come to Hout Bay?

Why is the ground rolling?

No thanks, Pappa. Let’s get some fish and chips.

Don’t talk to me about eating fish!

Hey! Let me look at that picture! Hey! I’m still eating!

There’s a picture of the old woman from the harbour!

What does it say?Who is she?

She isn’t Krotoa. Her name is... no, was Meena. She is dead now.

What else does it say?

Poor woman. Her story is not very different to Krotoa’s.

It says her body was found in the harbour a

few days ago.

How many days ago? Before or after that night when Veli saw her?

It doesn’t say.

I’ll never know whether I saw a ghost or a real person.

EPISODE 5The story so far...

Meena Abrahams is being buried tomorrow in Athlone.

Hey!

I want to go to her funeral.

I feel very close to that woman.

We’ll all go. We can catch the bus to Athlone.

The next day... Look, It’s Aubrey and Amandla. I wonder if Aubrey knew Meena

Abrahams?

I hope Amandla takes off his earphones to show

respect!

I need some water. I’ll see you outside.

AAARGGGHH!! Stay away from me!!

I’m sorry to give you such a fright.

Oh, I thought you were a ghost!

I will be dead soon, but I’m still alive now.

Young man, I want to ask you a question...

After the service...

Nomsa, Leila. I want you to meet Mr

Pieterse and his son Amandla.

It was mos a beautiful service.

Did you know Mrs Abrahams?

Ja, Meena and I were at school together.

She was a wonderful woman, you know.

Leila, come with me, I want you to meet someone.

Leila?

GRANNY EVE! I’ve missed you so much all these years! Why did you leave Kalk Bay?

After your father left I felt very lonely. When Ma Abrahams lost her son, I moved to Athlone to

look after her.

Look everyone! It’s Granny Eve!

What do you call this music? Mbaqanga. Baclanga?

You want to hear some real South African music? Well, listen to this!

From the time of Van Riebeeck when Krotoa was

around.

There’s been sadness in this country, there’s been blood on

the ground.

It’s the same old story that’s been repeated from the start; of people losing

their land, of families torn apart.

It’s the story of Krotoa, Meena, Granny Eve and Aubrey too; It’s the story of South Africa,

it’s the story of me and you!

Well, enough is enough! We’ve seen too much sorrow and pain.

It’s time to stop repeating the past, it’s time to start again.

We need to find a brand new story!

Yeah, this baclanga music sure is funky!