Firesticks — Joy Bassetti-Kruger

It was unusual for a Bushman to teach someone outside of his clan to use fire sticks to light a fire, especially a white haired English girl of only twelve years old. -But because he liked her and she had shown an interest in the ways of the Bushmen, K'nxu decided he would teach Angela how to light a fire. He even made a pair of fire sticks for her from the appropriate wood. Eager to learn, Angela soon had her fire glowing and K'nxu told her that his god N'dimo, had blessed her with the gift of fire.
Later, when Angela was all grown up she returned to the Kalahari desert to find K'nxu and his clan, for she had promised him she would return to help his people to find land where they could live and hunt and keep up their normal way of living, which included hunting for the pot.
She brought with her a dedicated team of people who had managed to get together sufficient funds to finance such an expedition. Angela too had raised funds by appearing on BBC Prime and demonstrating her fire making skills. It took a while to get the project going, but in the end the Bushmen finally had land where they could continue to live and hunt.
There was a considerable amount of in fighting between the various ethnic groups that lived in the area and after Angela's husband was murdered, she returned disheartened to England. Her small daughter, Gloria, who had also been taught to use fire sticks by K'nxu, did not fully understand what was going on. Her mother seemed different and distant and this worried her for years. Then when she was older and her mother had died, she discovered something that made her determined to finish her mother's work amongst the Bushmen clans. The reserve was now run by a family that welcomed her back and they told her that they knew something strange had been going on at the time of her father's death. Then a farmer who had been holding on to one of Angela's trunks for her, that was filled with notes, diaries and books, appeared on the scene one day and this held the key to what Gloria was looking for. And what she found helped her to come to terms with her mothers strange moods in England and also her death. This meant that she felt free to continue with the work her parents had begun by helping the Bushmen people to retain the land, so they could continue with their traditions and yet also slowly emerge into the modern world.
Gloria then located K'nxu's grave by using the GPS numbers her mother had written in one of her diaries. She scattered her mother's ashes there. Then one night around the communal fire, the Bushmen began to tell a story about a new star that had appeared in the night sky and while they were talking, Gloria realized they were saying that her mother had now joined her father and K'nxu and that they were happy and watching over them. A cold shiver ran down Gloria's back when she heard this, as nobody had yet told them about her mother's death or that she had scattered her ashes near K'nxu's grave.
Based on a true story.