NEW RUSH: Diamond fever

Gert van Jaarsveld

*New Rush. They came from all over the world. Foreigners, inlanders, farmers, black workers. All with the glittering hope of diamonds in their eyes and hearts. Each with his own story like the three Afrikaner brothers form a farm near Philippolis who wanted to get away from their hated step-dad; Aletta who had to bury her father near New Rush; the shrewd Caprini, an Italian from Canada; the cancan dancers from Belgium and Staanvas from the Cape Colony. At New Rush they would all play a role together with others on this newest and richest digging. New Rush was the richest but also the most turbulent on the diamond fields of Southern Africa. It was like a man-eating monster. Sometimes it made instantly stinking rich; other times it caused church mouse poverty. Also, there was the British politicking and imperialism and the intense hatred of the prosecutor Shaw against his three step-brothers. Rogues and smugglers were aplenty and also the forced betrayal of Staanvas of one of his friends; but also love bud there, blossomed and expanded. New Rush: Diamond fever is an African Wild West story with interesting characters and events. It takes you back to the delvers’ circumstances; their ups and down

*New Rush was only renamed to Kimberley in July 1873; the Colesberg hill was long gone and the world-famous Big Hole was being excavated shovel for shovel seeking the glittering gems.