Just Children
David Muller · Zentyn Press · 2027

A true story · Mozambique, 1990

They sailed into paradise. Their captors were children.

Just Children by David Muller
Coming 2027 · Zentyn Press

In 1990 a family's yacht ran aground off the coast of Mozambique. Within hours David Muller, his wife and their two children, aged 8 and 5, were prisoners of teenage soldiers in the middle of a civil war. They were held for 49 days.

Seth, aged five, smiling and holding a spent shell casing and rifle rounds
Just Children · Coming 2027
Seth, a week after the rescue, proudly holding some of his "treasures" from his time as a hostage.
The yacht Arwen at anchor on still water at dusk, her mast reflected below

Arwen. David spent ten years building her by hand.

At anchor in Knysna Lagoon, on an earlier voyage.

Heard the podcast?

You're in the right place. These are the photographs David talks about.

The evidence

What survived the camp

These photographs were taken in the camp, several of them in secret. The captions are David's own.

The family's palm-leaf house in the camp, with a red cloth door and a table outside
Our house, after six weeksIn Renamo's Inhambane headquarters. Taken secretly from the latrine enclosure.
Commander Arlindo seated outside his house, seen through the trees
Commander ArlindoSeated outside his house. Taken secretly from ours.
Tammy, aged eight, sitting at a table in the camp, eating a bread roll
Tammy at "our" tableThe murky liquid in the bottle is the beer the soldiers brewed. We used it to make bread rolls.
Seth, his mother and Tammy plaiting palm leaves outside a hut
Building the wallsA photo the Commander allowed. Learning to plait palm leaves for the walls of our house.
The two children and their mother sitting on the ground among villagers in a clearing
The first contactThe first community we reached after the 70 km walk along the coast.
Hand-drawn map of the Mozambique coast showing the route walked from Cabo São Sebastião, where Arwen grounded, south past two overnight camps to the Renamo camp near Pomene
The routeFrom Cabo São Sebastião, where Arwen grounded, south on foot to the bush camp near Pomene, where we spent seven weeks.
49days held
70 kmmarched on foot
8 & 5the children's ages
39thbirthday — the day a covert naval operation freed them
David Muller, smiling, in a blue shirt

The author

David Muller is a South African architect. He designed Nelson Mandela's home at Qunu. He kept a diary through every day of his family's captivity, and thirty years later turned it into this book.

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