Harold M. Bergsma
Three women, in An Oath of Vengeance, struggle with their seemingly hopeless conditions to survive and somehow gain their freedom against tremendous odds. It is a gripping tale of how three women and their families deal with the tragedies of their rape and abduction in different ways. It is also the story of men in their homes who live to defend their own honor and the honor of their families, and their women, at all costs.
Harold M. Bergsma is the son of United Presbyterian medical missionaries who worked in Ethiopia and northern India for many years. His early schooling was in India, at Woodstock School in Mussoorie. He speaks Urdu. He lived in various places in India where his father worked as a doctor. His earliest memories are of Taxila in the North West Frontier Province. Later he lived in Sialkot and later as a teenager in Ludhiana. Bergsma also lived as a child in California and in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He has published widely in professional journals. Bergsma, has written extensively about the Tiv Tribe of Nigeria, publishing a school reader, Tales Tiv Tell with Oxford University Press which is in its sixth re-print and has published two monographs for Africa, Oxford University Press, London, about traditional Tiv Kuraiyol and Tiv Proverbs as a Means of Social Control. He has written two unpublished books about the Tiv, Traditional Tiv Religious Practices and a novel, Cries in the Night. In October 2005 he published a work of fiction, Lalla and Lavina, Stories about Indian Women, through Authorhouse, Bloomington, Indiana. He published his memoir entitled, Rhododendron Wine Factory, Memoirs of a Wanderer, in the spring of 2006. In 2007, One Way To Pakistan was published and in April of 2007 was awarded the Indie Excellence Winner Award for Multicultural Fiction and a USA Book News Best Books award finalist for multicultural fiction. An Oath of Vengeance is the second book which continues the story in this trilogy.
Harold Bergsma is retired and living with his wife Lily Chu, a writer, in their home overlooking San Diego bay. He continues to travel internationally, gathering information for future writing projects.
Page 135
Half of the men stood up and began to shout, "Jihad! Jihad!" The room was crowded; officials were seated on carpets on the floor around a central area where they had spread their papers, or had put their weapons. Behind them stood fierce men, all carrying weapons. The leader raised his hand and waited for the room to quiet.
"The opium survey was done a few months ago in October by our Government of Afghanistan Narcotics Directorate and its findings were sent to Kabul and to the Americans. We know it was not accurate, but accurate enough. We can be proud of the numbers. I was surprised that so much had been grown and harvested. The opium crop was good, very good. Support for our causes comes from these sales. The West is dependent on opium products and every kilo we grow is sold to a hungry infidel market."
Page 21
Screaming hooters sounded! Ambulances and police cars came with their blue lights flashing when the rioting began. The Mohurram parade had ended in fights; there were clashes between supporters of the Shiites and a gang of young men who called out slurs against them. Not only were self inflicted wounds of celebrants bloody, but now at least a dozen of young mens sat glumly at the edge of the road waiting for ambulances, blood streaming down their faces.
Page 120
"The Americans think that they will force democracy on the entire world. The Russians tried to force communism. The British tried to force their great Raj. All of them failed. Do you know their weakness?" The iron worker dipped a red hot piece of metal into water. "You don't know? Look at my hand. It has one piece of metal in it. Imagine if I heated six and tried to pound them all, cool them all at once. Some would not be red hot when I tried to form them, others would be hot but not enough for the work. There is a saying in Urdu and in our language... If you try to do too many things at once, some will be neglected. Do you understand?"
"I think so. America is trying to control Afghanistan and Iraq at the same time." He laughed.
