Ancient Rites

Thabang Maje, retired school teacher and part-time private eye, is contacted by Regional Education Director J. B. M. Motau to solve the case of a missing school teacher, Mamorena Marumo. There are two complicating factors: firstly, Thabang was in love with the elusive and bewitching Mamo when they were both teenagers; and, secondly, to complete his task, he’ll have to enrol as an under-cover primary-school teacher in the far-flung village of Marakong-a-Badimo, near Mafikeng.It doesn’t take long before he is affected by the strange atmosphere of the village: the villagers are secretive, there are kinship ties he cannot fathom and bonds of loyalty that stretch far back into the mists of time. Rumours of serial murders of prostitutes on the Botswana highway complicate his task, but it is not until he hears the history of the village from an old, old man that he realises how far out of his depth he really is.But there is still his ex-lover to find, and a mysterious child might just provide the answer. And then there is that mesmerising drumming coming from far away in the mountains … A bewitching detective story slowly unravells a tale of ancient African rites.