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camwynI know, I know, I haven't updated the Iron Dog story in forever - I've been a bit busy. Finishing school, having a birthday, having a sister's wedding shower, dealing with Mom defending her Ph. D. thesis proposal, dealing with the car, etc. makes it just a little hard to get my head around anything creative...
However, the real world has graciously coughed up a case as strikingly like to the basic scenario of Iron Dog as any I have ever seen. I'd like it noted that my boy's story came first and was delberately drawn on historical kidnappings-into-slavery - but the case of Happy Sindane provides extra material and details that I think I shall have to incorporate in later drafts. For preference, drafts where I get rid of the first-person perspective.
BBC News Online - SA couple claim 'kidnapped' boy
Thursday, 22 May, 2003, 09:20 GMT 10:20 UK - South African police are trying to trace the parents of an 18-year-old white boy, who says he has spent years as the captive of a black family.
Police have conducted blood tests on a couple who claim they are the parents.
The boy, known as "Happy Sindane" can only speak the Ndebele language but told police that his parents were Afrikaans-speakers.
He said that he was given to a black family by a domestic worker employed by his parents when he was aged six.
"The police have received many calls since the story broke, but many have been hoax calls," said police spokesman Percy Morokoane.
"Blood samples have been taken from a couple in Danville in Pretoria, who claim the boy is theirs."
Wedding photos
"Happy Sindane" can remember little except that he was born on 4 May 1985 and lived in Johannesburg, along with his parents and a small dog.
He can also recall his parents' wedding photographs at their home.
Happy told a news conference that he felt free now that he had escaped the family.
"I am feeling much better because this person was abusing me," he said.
"He was telling me that I don't belong here and to other kids and that hurts me.
"I asked him why is he telling other kids that I don't belong here? He used abusive language."
The Afrikaans daily newspaper, Beeld, reported on Wednesday that 45-year-old Sarie Botha of Danville recognised Sindane from a picture published in the newspaper.
She believes the boy is her son Jannie, who disappeared in 1992 when he was seven.
"Happy" told police that he first lived with the black family in the north-eastern town of Verena before the couple split up.
He then moved with the woman and her family to the nearby township of Tweefontein.
"He said he attended a primary school where he was teased because he was white," Mr Morokane said.
The boy remembers seeing his picture on television between 1994 and 1999.
But when he told his adopted mother, she threw him against a wall and banned him from watching television, he said.
The man he knew as his grandfather, Koos Sindane, said the boy arrived with his daughter from Johannesburg one day
"My daughter said she had got him from another woman," he told the BBC.
The boy left school at grade five to look after his "grandfather's" animals.
Poison threat
"Happy" said he was treated like a slave and was beaten if he did anything wrong.
Last year, his "grandfather" threatened to poison him so he ran away.
He returned after three months working on an orange farm but the threats continued. He then turned himself into the police, accompanied by a female friend.
"Everyone has been captivated by this story," the police spokesman said.
The case is being looked after by the police Missing Person's Bureau and Child Protection Unit.
However, the real world has graciously coughed up a case as strikingly like to the basic scenario of Iron Dog as any I have ever seen. I'd like it noted that my boy's story came first and was delberately drawn on historical kidnappings-into-slavery - but the case of Happy Sindane provides extra material and details that I think I shall have to incorporate in later drafts. For preference, drafts where I get rid of the first-person perspective.
BBC News Online - SA couple claim 'kidnapped' boy
Thursday, 22 May, 2003, 09:20 GMT 10:20 UK - South African police are trying to trace the parents of an 18-year-old white boy, who says he has spent years as the captive of a black family.
Police have conducted blood tests on a couple who claim they are the parents.
The boy, known as "Happy Sindane" can only speak the Ndebele language but told police that his parents were Afrikaans-speakers.
He said that he was given to a black family by a domestic worker employed by his parents when he was aged six.
"The police have received many calls since the story broke, but many have been hoax calls," said police spokesman Percy Morokoane.
"Blood samples have been taken from a couple in Danville in Pretoria, who claim the boy is theirs."
Wedding photos
"Happy Sindane" can remember little except that he was born on 4 May 1985 and lived in Johannesburg, along with his parents and a small dog.
He can also recall his parents' wedding photographs at their home.
Happy told a news conference that he felt free now that he had escaped the family.
"I am feeling much better because this person was abusing me," he said.
"He was telling me that I don't belong here and to other kids and that hurts me.
"I asked him why is he telling other kids that I don't belong here? He used abusive language."
The Afrikaans daily newspaper, Beeld, reported on Wednesday that 45-year-old Sarie Botha of Danville recognised Sindane from a picture published in the newspaper.
She believes the boy is her son Jannie, who disappeared in 1992 when he was seven.
"Happy" told police that he first lived with the black family in the north-eastern town of Verena before the couple split up.
He then moved with the woman and her family to the nearby township of Tweefontein.
"He said he attended a primary school where he was teased because he was white," Mr Morokane said.
The boy remembers seeing his picture on television between 1994 and 1999.
But when he told his adopted mother, she threw him against a wall and banned him from watching television, he said.
The man he knew as his grandfather, Koos Sindane, said the boy arrived with his daughter from Johannesburg one day
"My daughter said she had got him from another woman," he told the BBC.
The boy left school at grade five to look after his "grandfather's" animals.
Poison threat
"Happy" said he was treated like a slave and was beaten if he did anything wrong.
Last year, his "grandfather" threatened to poison him so he ran away.
He returned after three months working on an orange farm but the threats continued. He then turned himself into the police, accompanied by a female friend.
"Everyone has been captivated by this story," the police spokesman said.
The case is being looked after by the police Missing Person's Bureau and Child Protection Unit.
*mutter*
Date: 2003-05-28 12:42 pm (UTC)