Table View author and journalist Lauren Jacobs has published a children’s book, Woman of Freedom, which tells the story of Anna de Koning, who came to the Cape Colony in the 17th century as a slave with her mother, Angela van Bengale.
In 1678, Anna, who was by then a freed slave, married Swedish explorer and Cape Colony official Olof Bergh, who would later buy Groot Constantia, making Anna one of the wealthiest and most influential women in the colony at that time.
Ms Jacobs says she found it thrilling digging into the history of Anna and her family, but she battled with self-doubt to get the book published, thinking it “was not good enough” as she is a perfectionist.
Illustrated by Elaine Bieldt and published by Naledi, the book is aimed at children aged 9 to 12, and Ms Jacobs hopes it will help its readers “fall in love” with their own history.
“It’s always fascinating to be told about our own rich history and of the people who once walked the same streets we do today,” she says.
“I’d be extremely grateful if this book will change the mindset of at least one child, who would realise that our own history holds so much power of the past, which is a tool in navigating the future.”
Ms Jacobs, who has a Master’s degree in theology and is a PhD student in the field, is the chairperson of the Friends of the Cape Town Museum and she has curated an exhibition, currently on there, about the women who shaped Cape Town.
Woman of Freedom is the fifth book she has had published and her second children’s book. Her first book, Yehudit, won the Desmond Tutu-Gerrit Brand Award in 2016, and her second book, Shelamzion – Queen of Israel, won the Next Generation Indie Book Award for historical fiction in America in 2018.
Visit annadekoning.co.za or email admin@laurenjacobs.co.za for a copy of Woman of Freedom.
