"South-West Africa, 1904: When German colonial authorities issue an extermination order, the Herero are forced to flee ... Tjipuka, a young Herero mother, escapes the massacre with her baby, but is captured and put to work in the death camps in Lüderitz. ... The Transvaal, 1899: ... [Riette] is forced into marriage with an older neighbour. When he is taken captive and their farm is set ablaze during the Second Anglo-Boer War, she and his daughters must face the horrors of the British concentration camps. Against the background of southern Africa's colonial wars at the dawn of the twentieth century, The Scattering traces the fates of two remarkable women whose paths cross after each has suffered the devastation and dislocation of war."--Back cover.