In the epic war novel Rooisand , former detective Jeremy Vearey tells the story of Dirk Aruseb, who was taken from the orphanage at the age of 17 to join the Bondelswarts. Dirk couldn’t wait to conquer the Schutztruppe alongside Capt. Jakob Marengo, but at Schansvlakte, deep in Namaland, the first of his life lessons begins: Be humble, be patient, be merciful. Find your eland, tame your fiscal shrike. Vearey’s first novel is set from 1904 to 1922, when thousands of Bondelswarts were finally wiped out by Jan Smuts’s fighter planes. The story stretches from Tsumeb to Upington, from Windhoek’s prison camps to the dry riverbeds of the Fish River. And Dirk learns that the struggle for freedom for the Bondelswarts is about more than just a bloodthirsty feeling for Namaland, the promised land that must be protected at all costs.