Books: Author highlights Asian slavery at Cape of Good Hope

Isna Marifa's novel tells powerful, painful story through rare insights into everyday events

Isna Marifa's novel "Mountains More Ancient" relates the history of Southeast Asians enslaved in Africa, treading a path of graceful reconciliation with history's complexities. (Nikkei montage/Courtesy of Isna Marifa)

SHANE BUNNAG

January 18, 2023 08:00 JST

In the 17th and 18th centuries, thousands of people from what is now Indonesia and Malaysia were taken as slaves to the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa. Descendants of this population, who mixed with Europeans and other Asians, came to be known as Cape Malays.