Job
Maseko Story ..............................................
In the King’s Army Job travels as a free man! He thrives on his natural charm and is elated when he bests a superior officer for the attention of a British nurse but his moment is short and ends abruptly when his entire division is captured at Tobruk. He believed in glory or death, but capture becomes unbearable. The prison guards are half-hearted Italians who resent the clinical Germans as much as the prisoners. Job befriends Ezio, a young Genovese who is as often a target of brutal and arbitrary cruelty from the German captain as Job who dreams of escape. The guards are lax because the desert is the real captor. Frustrated, Job turns to sabotage instead. Succeeding, he becomes bolder until the suspicious captain murders Samuel in cold blood. Job’s need for revenge rises with the spectre of Lucas’s echoed. Defying the odds Job attempts to single-handedly sink a German supply ship and deal a heavy blow to the Germans. His gamble pays off, but his only hope for survival now is to escape into the desert. He survives a gruelling 500 mile trek with no provisions and returns to his army with vital intelligence. He is hailed as a hero and becomes a decorated soldier. Ironically, after the war he returns home to find that in South Africa the fascists won. Life after the war is worse than ever. He is denied the promised military pension and the white population is distrustful of a decorated black soldier. A Native should know his place. Job Maseko believes in freedom and is prepared to fight for it. He finds a natural home in the growing resistance movement. He is on the threshold of taking his place in the movement when he dies tragically while working as a labourer on the railroad. The poignancy of his death throws his life and actions in to stark relief. He dies penniless, but his legacy inspires a new generation of freedom fighters. After freedom in South Africa the Navy honours him by naming their Flagship “SAS JOB MASEKO”. |