‘The Kupferberg Mining Company’

Yvonne Amukwaya

Beyers was born in 1953 in Krugersdorp, South Africa, he obtained a National Diploma in Meteorology at the Pretoria Technikon and married in 1976. The newlyweds moved to Namibia at the end of 1977, never to return to South Africa again.

Presently he works as the Human Resource Manager for the Harnas Wildlife Foundation and has three children and two grandchildren. Although writing isn’t his profession, Beyers’ talent and ability to transform words into powerful images make his first novel a work of art.

The story revolves around a very average Afrikaans fellow named Rudolf de Wet. He starts out on a routine journey to the remote wildlife outpost, where he has to repair their damaged radio equipment. Taking a scenic route that few people have travelled on, he unknowingly becomes a pawn in a political match-up between the government and their desperate obsession with a mythical place called Kupferberg.

As though entering a dream, Rudolf is hurled into an idyllic though isolated and anonymous kingdom enclosed in the walls of a meteorite crater, called the Duchy of Kupferberg. The natives of this separate world are governed according to a strict religious and moral doctrine that leave them vulnerable as quickly a war zone develops on the borders of Kupferberg.

Rudolf becomes an integral member in their defense against the invading militia and has his heart stolen away by beautiful women, beginning a whirlwind romance with the perplexing sister of the Grand Duchess and even marrying a beautiful dark-haired woman.

Despite all his efforts, Rudolf soon finds himself betrayed and witnesses the destruction of this unique utopia, being thrown back to the reality of being an outlaw. Survival looks bleak.

This novel is not easy to put down. I found the story to be intriguing and filled with excitement. The idea of having a secret society hidden in the barren coastline desert of Namibia brings a sense of enchantment and fantasy rarely seen in Namibian literature.

Beyers provides a plot that entices the audience into following poor Rudolf as his life is turned inside out and changed forever. ‘The Kupferberg Mining Company’ has an element of Utopian fiction. Typically this type of writing involves an observer from our world/reality journeying to another place or time and encountering a society that the author considers ideal.

The point is usually that the choices we make now may lead to a better or worse potential future world. In Ursula K Le Guin’s wonderful tale ‘Always Coming Home’ there are similar utopian fiction styles of writing that provide the author with an idea of a different world.

“Unlike other countries, Kupferberg is an island, a very unique island with a long, proud and unblemished history. Unfortunately, it is also an island surrounded by a cruel world with different ideals and aspirations.”

However Beyers has not limited his work to a single category, there is a subgenre that is fast becoming popular, ecotopian fiction, where the author posits either a utopian or dystopian world revolving around environmental conservation or destruction. Beyers provides a detailed description of the setting and opens the audience to an appreciation of the flora and fauna of the Duchy of Kupferberg and that of the outside desert.

The novel is certainly a good read for anyone who enjoys some espionage and mystery. It is a creative tale and truly a good job from the imagination of Johan J Beyers.