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jikajikatavern Tag

18 May

Posted at 14:53h in Book Excerpts

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""] Excerpt. © All rights reserved. The Leopard in the Lala (Prologue & Chapter 1) Maybe he was a tsotsi? February 2013 ‘Yoh, yoh, yoh!’ Baba Khumalo extended an arm to prevent his first wife from moving any closer to the body. What he could see of it was a bloody mess, and the smell of bodily fluids was overwhelming in the heat. The buzz of flies was as intense as the torrent of prayers falling from...

30 Aug

Posted at 15:23h in Author Insights

Interview with pilot, Steve McCurrach. Steve McCurrach is a blessed man. While the rest of us lovers of wild spaces experience the bush from car window level, Steve has a view most of us can only dream of…the sky. I met Steve while gathering information for my novel, Down at Jika Jika Tavern. I was looking for someone who had experience working in the field of anti-poaching, and Steve kindly responded to my request. In the novel, rhino poaching was a driver of...

10 Aug

Posted at 09:32h in Personal Stories

There she goes; woman of the sky. My name, Ashling, is of Irish origin (Aisling is the original Gaelic spelling). The name means ‘a vision’ or ‘a dream’. It wasn’t until I learnt of my name’s meaning, that I came to love it. As a child, I’d have appreciated a ‘normal’ South African name, like those of my friends, instead of an unheard of oddity of a name. Now I know that my name represents, if not, shaped, who I am as...

15 Mar

Posted at 15:57h in Book Excerpts

The Case of Dumisani Gwala Just like the fictional town of Mevamhlope featured in Down at Jika Jika Tavern, the town of Mtubatuba is small, a little bit grubby, but overflowing with energy and life. It is the gateway to the town of St Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a world heritage site. So it is fitting that the trial of Dumisani Gwala, alleged rhino poaching kingpin of Zululand, was to take place on the doorstep of a large conservation...

05 Nov

Posted at 15:46h in Book Excerpts

What makes you angry? In my first article related to my upcoming novel, Down at Jika Jika Tavern, I ended off by saying that I would share some of the research, and introduce you to people doing phenomenal work in the field of conservation (both academic and field). Today, I’d like to introduce you to Catherine Jakins, who completed her Criminology Masters at UKZN in 2019. Her research, The Modus Operandi of Rhino Poachers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa,  explored the drivers of poaching in...

04 Oct

Posted at 17:56h in Book Excerpts

You don’t find the story; the story finds you. I can clearly remember when the story of Down at Jika Jika Tavern found me. Although I had started toying with the idea of writing a novel in 2012 (after deregistering from my PhD), I wasn’t doing it very well. I had the main character but was fumbling with the plot. I had a notebook full of possible scenes, but no storyline to convincingly pull it all together.   It was only in...