The Mercenary's Women consists of a Preface, Introduction, twenty-two chapters, an epilogue, an appendix with a list of historical characters and a glossary. This novel traces the growth and adventures of a starving Bantu herd boy from South Central Africa. It is a bildungsroman, a novel about the formative years of a young man, his growth, adventures, loves, and his eventual achievement of autonomy and freedom. The novel takes place in the turbulent 17th century, a time of imperialistic rivalries, warfare between the Dutch and Portuguese in both Africa and Brazil, and the influence of the slave trade in both Africa and the Americas. The protagonist, Khumbi, is caught up in the turmoil of those times and has to adjust to different roles he is forced into by others. He is sold away from his famine ravaged family in South Central Africa, taken to a new family and traded as a servant. He adapts and has a relationship with the family's daughter, until he is sold again and taken way. He is captured by raiders, and must adapt to being a child soldier or face being killed and eaten. He does well, becomes a senior warrior and acquires two women concubines, but loses both. He fights on the side of Africa's most famous warrior queen, Nzinga, and her allies, the Catholic Kongolese, and the soldiers of the Dutch West India Company, against the Portuguese and their African allies. He is later captured and forced to join the Portuguese forces in Brazil, where he fights against the Dutch to remove them from their holdings in sugar rich Pernambuco. He joins Bandierante slave catchers and is wounded in a skirmish with Maroons from the largest community of escaped slaves in the Americas. He is mistaken as a Maroon and accepted into their capital town with the help of a Tupi Indian trader. When his role as a slave catcher is discovered he joins the Tupi trader's family in an epic journey by canoe across the length of Brazil toward El Dorado in search of the Tupi's Dutch partner in the Guianas. Along the way he falls in love with the Tupi's daughter. They have more adventures and eventually leave the South American coast for St. Vincent Island, where they settle among the Carib Indians. Khumbi is now a free man, master of his own family and life, on an island where he is free to choose the way he wants to live.
This historical novel is based on careful historical research, mixed with the author imagining what it may have been like in those times, told from the point of view of a protagonist representing people who are not usually depicted as the main characters in stories of those times.
If you enjoy the historical novels of Allende and Follett, or read Edugyan's Washington Black, are curious about African and Brazilian 17th century history and the people who experienced those times, are interested in stories depicting indigenous people, the African diaspora, and the rivalry between European imperialistic powers, you may well enjoy my novel. It also includes a young man's quest for belonging, identity, autonomy, and love. It is an adventure story, depicting historically significant conflicts, and the various peoples and cultures of the times.
