The Colour of Love: A tale of slavery, hope and liberty

“There’s absolutely no excuse to buy and sell slaves as you would your house, your horse or your gun!” declares Sophie Rousseau fervently, a freed slave, whose mother was Malay and father, French. She adds, “Ideas are powerful and the idea of freedom has to be the most powerful of all!”

The story opens with a slave auction and the predominant theme is slavery, particularly as it impinges upon and influences individual slaves, who are all fictional characters, as well as their slave owners.

The Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of the African continent, was a Dutch Colony up until 1795 when the British defeated the Colonists at the Battle of Muizenberg. This story takes place from November 1798, coinciding with the departure from the Cape of the first British Governor, Lord Macartney. This is followed by a ball at the Castle in honour of the new Acting Governor hosted by the Colonial Secretary, Andrew Barnard, and his wife, Lady Anne, who had been briefed in London to conciliate the Dutch and British.

At the ball, the chief protagonists, Paul van Reenen, a wealthy farmer, and Sophie Rousseau, meet.

Though Sophie falls in love with Paul, to whom slavery is a centuries-old custom, she “cannot respect a man who buys and sells human beings.” For Sophie abolition is a passion.

Later, while fighting on the Eastern Frontier, Paul reflects, “What is the colour of love, the colour of sacrifice, the colour of heroism?” - universal qualities that surmount barriers of class, education, race and religion.

Back in Cape Town, Sophie is distracted by Alex Japiot, an engaging young officer fighting for France, who arrives at the Cape and whom Sophie had met in Paris the previous year.

A duel on the high seas and a thrilling encounter with a French warship brings the story to a dramatic conclusion.

The historical and fictional characters weave together a story through the turbulent events at the end of the 18th Century – a terrible fire in the Cavalry stables – a wine-pressing ceremony at Groot Constantia – a tremendous storm in Table Bay with loss of lives and shipwreck – flooding of the Castle – the rape of Sophie’s childhood friend and a slave uprising.

The Colour of Love holds at its heart both the tragedy of slavery and the triumph of the human spirit.