One farm. One family. One bloodline. Seven generations. In 1838 Pieter de Witt flees the Eastern Cape for Natal. Months later, after extreme hardship, he reaches the banks of the Tugela River. Here he hammers a corner post into the ground and paces off his farm. Donkerland he calls it. Here seven generations of De Witts experience the weal and woe of a burgeoning nation: the Great Trek, the struggle against the Zulus, the Anglo-Boer War, the Great Depression, the 1948 election, the Border War, the Soweto Riots, the coming of the new South Africa. For one hundred and fifty eight years the De Witts on their piece of land live out the triumph and ignominy of history. Seven generations later they know what it means to sink a corner post and pace off a farm. Donkerland is the first instalment in Deon Opperman’s Afrikaner trilogy.