In case Helen Zille’s remarks about colonialism weren’t controversial enough, I thought Salman Rushdie might help. More specifically, I refer to his prize-winning novel Midnight’s Children, which is regarded as one of the finest works of postcolonial literature. The novel won the Booker Prize in 1981 and went on to win the two Booker of Bookers, in 1993 and 2008. The protagonist, Saleem Sinai, is one of a group of magically endowed children born on the stroke of midnight of India’s independence. He is supposedly the child of an organ grinder and his wife, but his real father is a British colonialist who seduced the boy’s mother. The story is further complicated when he is switched at birth with the son of a wealthy merchant and his wife, and grows up as their son. Fate conspires to reveal to the merchant that not only is his son not his, but he is the bastard offspring of colonialism. The merchant seeks to drive out Saleem, but his wife intervenes, exclaiming "but the bond has been ...
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