"Paris, 1958. A skirmish in a world-famous restaurant leaves two men dead ... Why did the head waiter, a man who's been living in France for many years, lunge at his patrons with a knife? ... Gradually the extraordinary story of Pitso Motaung, a young South African who volunteered to serve with the Allies in the First World War, emerges. Through a tragic twist of fate, Pitso found himself on board the SS Mendi, a ship that sank off the Isle of Wight in February 1917. More than six hundred of his countrymen, mostly black soldiers, lost their lives ... Dancing the Death Drill recounts the life of Pitso Motaung. It is a personal and political tale that spans continents and generations, moving from the battlefields of the Boer War to the front lines in France and beyond."--Back cover.