Book 18- Streets Paved with Gold

The action of the first story takes place in the 1960s on a farm near to the Nkandla Forest in Zululand. This is where the final battle of the 1906 Zulu uprising against the Natal Colonial Government took place. The causes of the rebellion are several, chief amongst which was the poll tax imposed by the government on the indigenous people. A Scottish family who owns a dairy farm near the forest coincidentally has a connection to the uprising of 1906. Their grandfather was in charge of the colonial force which defeated the rebels. The uprising is commonly called the Bambatha Rebellion after one of the leaders (pronounced: bum-ba-ta). Bambatha himself was never captured and several legends arose at the time. He was supposed to have escaped to Mozambique, promising to return. Others say his ghost still haunts the forest.
The dairy farmer knows about his family’s connection with the massacre in the gorge, but is not concerned about it. His wife, on the other hand, experiences feelings of unease. Then, her daughter starts to have nightmares. The farmer dismissed his wife’s feelings as irrational. She wants to leave the farm, but her husband does not. The climax of the story takes place during a picnic in the forest. It is clear that the score between the Zulu rebels and the Scottish family needs to be settled once and for all.
The final scene takes place during the centenary of the Bambatha Rebellion. The new generation of the Scottish family learns about their family history, but not all of it. One member of the family has a guilty secret to hide.

The second story is a light, humorous tale of an isolated village in the mountains cut off and forgotten by the rest of the world.