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Jacob Asher Singer was born in the town of Potchefstroom in South Africa, a town 72 miles West of Jahannesburg. After attending Central Primary school, and then the Potchefstroom High School for Boys, he went to London, England, where he studied Pharmacy at Chelsea Polytechnic.
In 1958, as a qualified Pharmacist, he returned to Potchefstroom, opening the Protea Pharmacy and later working at the Mooi River Pharmacy when his father, Mokey Singer, an ex Mayor of the town, retired.
Although never political active, he met and knew, personally, many of the active players on both sides of the political fence.
When he was threatened by the Security Police, for withholding information,he encouraged his children to emigrate. Once they had established themselves in Canada, he and his wife joined them in December 1992.
Many of the characters in his book, The VASE with the MANY COLOURED MARBLES, were people he knew personally, and grew up with.
"Writing the book, and reliving memories was hard," he said, "but I am pleased that everything is now down in black and white so that readers can experience what it was like to live in apartheid South Africa."
His first book, BRAKENSTROOM, published in 2000, is a book of short stories about Potchefstroom.
Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
In South Africa of the 1930's, beautiful Emily Kleintjies is considered "colored", of mixed race, as her grandfather was white and her grandmother, one of the grandfather's workers, was black. Emily decides to pass as "white", learns to speak English by reading in her local library, and moves from her home in Cape Town to Johannesburg where she is known as Emma Kline and works in the lingerie department of the OK Bazaar. Emily or Emma, as she is now known, is attracted to Eric O'Neill and their love affair results in the birth of daughter Marla. Eric enlists in the South African armed forces but is killed during World War II. He leaves Emma the house he has bought in Potchefstroom and she moves there with Marla, keeping her background a secret. Emma works for two men who mask their smuggling of diamonds by selling eggs. Emma accidentally comes home with some of those uncut diamonds in Marla's diaper bag. She doesn't know what they are and mixes them in with colored marbles in a vase she keeps filled with flowers all the years. A family friend tells Emma what those uncut stones are and the sale of them, one by one, aids her family. And so, Emma's vase is like South Africa with its mix of blacks, Dutch, English and many nationalities living together in one land.
"The Vase with the Many Coloured Marbles" is a beautifully written story of South Africa and its discriminatory past and how it has evolved into its present state of acceptance. Emily Kleintjies becomes Emma Kline believably and her concern at being discovered to not be "white", at having no birth certificate, at giving birth to a child who might show her black heritage are themes that Jacob Singer covers well. Emma, Marla, their friend Charlie Stuart, Eric O'Neill, and Marla's Bertie are three dimensional, believable characters whose dialogue and development are authentic. The plot proceeds evenly with the twists and turns expected in life. "The Vase with Many Colored Marbles" should be on reading lists everywhere. It tells a story readers everywhere should hear.
