Summary

Preface to “The Mulberry Tree” – The author describes the origins of the “colored” people of South Africa, descended from the children of white colonizers who impregnated the women of the indigenous tribes at the time, the Khoisan. Over time, he writes, the pure Khoisan were eliminated, leaving behind a population of mixed raced peoples which absorbed other mixed-race individuals to create a community of people that, in the author’s words, do not know who they are.

The Mulberry Tree – This chapter begins with an explanation of how colored people in South Africa were treated like outsiders, and how anyone perceived as being better than the others in their community (or trying to be), whatever the community, was bullied and reviled. The author describes himself as being in that situation: being colored, living in a colored community, but perceived as being an outsider...