Bobby Day and the Natives of eMajeniya

About the Book

Bobby Day is the first prince (and African) ever to study at Learner's Place. The late Lord Doodily Twinkleworth created this school of schools. LP is on The Isle of School off the mainland of Europe. Only masters in their fields are appointed as teachers. Mr Yuddlebury (Ol' Spectacles) is the headmaster. However, everyone knows his secretary, Ms Lilly Bubblequery (Lady Superior), actually runs LP.

Bobby is also Africa's youngest witchdoctor who performs magical actions through his secret little umdumbadumbane or invisible tom-tom. He has many friends among the natives of uMajeniya, a community on another plain.

Bobby's mates at LP are Salana, whose mother is a Bollywood actress, Tiny, from a Scandanavian country and Eddie, from somewhere in eastern Europe. Bobby and his mates experience breath-taking magical adventures on The Isle at this dawn of the 21st century. They visit eMajeniya regularly on the shoulders of the great Lightning Bird.

The kids' adventures take them to the plain of Nokhwezi, the beautiful princess, whose jealous sisters wanted to feed her to the crocodiles of the River of Roaring Water.

An evil bat has haunted the Isle ever since the Middle Ages. It preys on the blood of humans. Bobby and his mates have encounters with this bat and the bad Mr. Lizard in the hut on top of the hill on The Isle. Even the spirit of the Flying Dutchman who, according to legend, has roamed the route around the Cape of Good Hope since the 17th century, enters the picture.

Mr Lizard wants to take revenge on Bobby. It plans to kill him and his friends. In Mr Lizard's body also lives the scaly Chakijana, a little rascal that takes on many human and animal forms.

A nerve-breaking battle of wits is unleashed between Bobby and this treacherous little rascal.

About the Author

Long, long ago, on the southern tip of Africa, where the provinces of the old Transvaal and Natal kind of joined Swaziland in a small, relatively isolated triangle of their own, lived four childhood friends: Kula Nkosi, Gubude Ndwandwe, Mpotomane Sibiya and the author.

Their only medium of communication was isiZulu and their cowboys and crooks, Tarzans, Cinderellas and the like were the izinganekwane or folk-tales that were related to them by oGogo (grandmothers) Mbomvu, Saralina and Mafikizolo. Their Learner's Place was the fields and hills and woods of their beloved native Africa.

The author's three little mates were the brave and proud real-life Bobby Days from his own early childhood. They left an everlasting impression on the author's total being.

At the tender ages of 15 and 17 Erasmus published two books on Zulu folklore in Afrikaans. He later studied Jungian psychology at various universities, specializing in the psychology of African folklore. He obtained both his Master's degree and doctorate in that field.

The author went into radio and TV broadcasting at the age of 22. He produced various plays based on Zulu folklore. Quite a few enjoyed international recognition: some have been broadcast in a number of countries outside Africa, even behind the Iron Curtain of the time.

For the better part of the last two decades, the author found himself completely involved in the HR field, mainly developing job profiling and assessment systems unique to Africa.

With Bobby Day and the Natives of eMajeniya Erasmus has now come in from the cold to pay tribute to the Bobby Days from the roots of his own childhood.