The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
The novel traces the adventures of Peekay, an English-speaking South African
boy, from age five to age seventeen, from the year 1939 to 1951. After his
mother suffers from a nervous breakdown, the five-year-old Peekay is brought up
by his Zulu nanny Mary Mandoma and his Granpa on a farm in the province of
Natal. Soon after, he is sent to an Afrikaans boarding school, where--as the
youngest of all the students, and the only English-speaker--he is brutally
tortured by the other boys. The Judge, a senior boy called Jaapie Botha, and his
so-called "stormtroopers" punish Peekay for his bedwetting habit and his
circumcised penis by means of constant verbal and physical abuse. They call him
derogatory names in Afrikaans such as "pisskop" (piss head) and "rooinek"
(redneck), a term used for Englishmen during the Boer War (fought between the British and the
Boers, or Afrikaners). The Judge, who wears a swastika tattoo on his arm,
convinces the innocent Peekay that Hitler is on a mission to march all
Englishmen into the sea and to restore glory to the Afrikaners. Mevrou, the
Afrikaans woman who runs the boarding house, walks around brandishing her deadly
"sjambok" (cane stick), instead of offering solace.
Peekay returns home after his first year of school, and his nanny commissions
the famous black chief Inkosi-Inkosikazi to solve Peekay's bedwetting dilemma.
Not only does Inkosi-Inkosikazi manage this, but he also opens Peekay's mind to
a special place of "dreaming"-a place of three waterfalls and ten stones-where
Peekay may always find him. Peekay returns to school the following year with his
problem solved, with Granpa Chook one of Inkosi-Inkosikazi's magic chicken, and
with the independent spirit he refers to as the "power of one." Granpa Chook
becomes Peekay's only friend at school, and Mevrou allows him to live in the
kitchen where he keeps the cockroaches at bay. Peekay excels at school, yet he
has learnt that surviving the system means one has to adopt a camouflage-he thus
hides his brilliance. Nevertheless, he soon finds himself doing all the Judge's
homework, which only serves to increase his intelligence. This does nothing to
quash the Judge's hatred for Peekay-on the contrary, at the end of the
schoolyear the Judge forces to Peekay to eat human feces, and he kills Granpa
Chook with a catapult. Traumatized, Peekay longs to arrive home to his nanny's
embracing arms. But Mevrou tells him that there has been a change of plans: he
is to head to the Eastern Transvaal town of Barberton, where his Granpa awaits
him. Peekay's name is coined by Harry Crown, a Jewish man where Mevrou takes
Peekay to buy shoes before the trip home-Harry Crown says that "Pisskop" is not
a respectable name for a young man, and dubs him "PK" instead.
On the train to Barberton, Peekay meets Hoppie Groenewald, boxing champion of
the railways. Hoppie shows Peekay his boxing gloves, and invites the boy to
watch him box a man called Jackhammer Smit in Gravelotte, a stop on the way to
Barberton. Peekay's dream to become welterweight champion of the world is born.
He commits Hoppie's advice-"First with the head, then with the heart"-to memory.
At the Barberton train station, Peekay's mother welcomes him-she has returned
from the mental institution, and has become a born-again Christian. Peekay
discovers from Dum and Dee, the Shangaan kitchen servants, that Peekay's mother
dismissed his nanny because she refused to give her life to the Lord. Peekay's
mother begins trying to proselytize Peekay, but he tells his mother that the
Lord is a "shithead." In the hills behind his new house, Peekay meets an old
German music professor, Karl von Vollensteen, who introduces himself as Doc and
explains that he collects cacti. Doc and Peekay become firm friends (along with
Mrs. Boxall, the town librarian), and when Doc is taken to the Barberton prison
since he never registered as a foreign alien, Peekay visits him for music
lessons. The prison has a boxing squad where Peekay begins lessons under the
special instruction of a Cape colored man, Geel Piet. Peekay quickly develops
into an outstanding boxer, leading the team-the Barberton Blues-to victory.
Peekay has great compassion for the black prisoners, and works out a black
market scheme with Geel Piet and Doc for tobacco and letters. In such a way,
Peekay becomes a legend among black South Africans - they believe he is a chief,
the "Onoshobishobi Ingelosi" or "Tadpole Angel." One of the white prison wardens
suspects that some illegal activity is underway, and one night Peekay discovers
Geel Piet has been murdered in the boxing gym by the violent warder Borman.
World War II ends, and Doc finds himself free once again. Doc, Mrs. Boxall, and
a Jewish schoolteacher Miss Bornstein develop Peekay's precocious intellect
through music, literature, chess, and science. To the delight of the town,
Peekay passes his Royal College of Music exams and also wins the Eastern
Transvaal under-twelve boxing title. With the help of his mentors, Peekay wins a
scholarship to the prestigious Prince of Wales school in Johannesburg.
Book Two of the novel describes Peekay's experiences at the Prince of Wales
school. He quickly partners up with the son of a Jewish multimillionaire, Morrie
Levy. Peekay and Morrie take the school by storm-Peekay's boxing talent reforms
the pathetic Prince of Wales boxing team, and Morrie becomes Peekay's manager.
Soon the two boys have a lucrative gambling business set up, as well as all
kinds of other "scams" which bring in enough money for Peekay to begin boxing
lessons with South Africa's top coach, Solly Goldman. Peekay becomes a stranger
to failure, excelling at boxing, rugby, and academics. However, he must face
Doc's death towards the end of his school career as well as the disappointment
of not winning a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford University.
Book Three traces Peekay's life in Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe)
where he takes on a dangerous (but lucrative) job as a "grizzly man" in the
mines in order to build up his body for his boxing, and to earn enough money to
pay his way through three years at Oxford. He forms a close friendship with a
Russian miner, Rasputin, who eventually saves Peekay during a mining
catastrophe, killing himself in the process. Peekay recovers but, before leaving
the mines, he discovers that he has been working for his old nemesis, Jaapie
Botha. Peekay fights Jaapie and knocks him out. Over Botha's swastika tattoo,
Peekay chisels a Union Jack and the letters "PK".
Characters List
Peekay - The
novel's protagonist and narrator, Peekay is a white English South African who
recounts his life growing up in South Africa during World War II and the
beginning of the apartheid era. An extremely precocious student and a naturally
brilliant boxer, Peekay is loved by almost all who meet him. He moves a legend
amongst black South Africans, who believe that he has come to avenge them
against the Afrikaners. Each side, however, wishes to claim Peekay for
themselves. Peekay's generosity and altruism leads him to devise ways of helping
black prisoners write and receive letters, and to teach black men to box.
Peekay's sense of humor, his fascinating philosophical and analytical voice, and
his ability to criticize himself allow us to identify closely with him.
Doc - Doc is a German music professor, in his 80s, with
whom Peekay becomes best friends in the town of Barberton. Doc's loves are
music, cacti, whisky, and coffee. Doc was a concert pianist in Germany before he
gave up performing after a disastrous concert in Berlin in 1925. He is one of
Peekay's most important mentors, but is prized by the Barberton citizens only
for the culture he brings to the town through his classical music. The only
characters other than Peekay with whom Doc has much contact are Geel Piet and
Mrs. Boxall. When Doc dies, he leaves all his belongings to Peekay.
Geel Piet - Geel Piet is a Cape Colored man who works in
the Barberton prison. A rascal of a man, he nevertheless becomes Peekay's
personal boxing trainer in Barberton and develops a close relationship with both
Peekay and Doc. Geel Piet is largely responsible for spreading the myth of the
Tadpole Angel. The most important lesson he teaches Peekay in terms of boxing is
to fight with his feet- he tells Peekay to "dance" with his feet. Geel Piet is
brutally murdered by one of the Barberton prison warders, Borman, who grows
suspicious of Peekay and Geel Piet's close relationship. Together Peekay and
Geel Piet were running a black market within the
prison.
Morris Levy - Morrie is a very rich Jewish boy who
becomes Peekay's partner at the Prince of Wales School. Morrie, who is a foil to
Peekay, teaches Peekay the tricks of business-gambling is his passion, and he
and Peekay set up all kinds of "scams" together. Morrie, like Peekay, is an
"outsider" because of his Jewishness, and Morrie has to put up with racism from
the likes of Jannie Geldenhuis. Morrie is a loner, an intellectual, a fine
joke-teller, and a generous friend. He undergoes a catharsis during the course
of the novel-through Peekay he comes to know black people for the first time in
his life, and he becomes extremely invested in the night school that he and
Peekay start for the black boxers at Solly Goldman's gym. When Peekay does not
win a Rhodes scholarship, Morrie wants to pay for him to attend. He is prepared
to defer his own degree in order to study with Peekay. He does not understand
Peekay's boxing dream, however, and wants Peekay to become his law
partner.
The Judge - The Judge is a huge Afrikaans boy who
traumatizes five-year-old Peekay at his first boarding school. The Judge dubs
Peekay "Pisskop" and makes Peekay his personal slave and "prisoner of war." The
Judge convinces Peekay that Hitler is going to march all the Englishmen in South
Africa into the sea. He has a swastika tattoo on his arm. In his final torture
of Peekay at school, he tries to make Peekay eat human feces. When Peekay's pet
chicken, Granpa Chook, defecates into his mouth, the Judge pelts Granpa Chook to
death. At the end of the novel the Judge happens to be Peekay's diamond driller
in the mines. In the novel's final scene, the Judge (Botha) searches for Peekay
in the Crud Bar, screaming for his blood. Peekay recognizes the tattoo on
Botha's arm, and fights him until he has knocked him out. With a pocketknife,
Peekay carves a Union Jack and the letters "PK" over the Judge's swastika tattoo
Mrs. Boxall - Mrs. Boxall is the librarian in Barberton
and has a weekly column in the local newspaper called "Clippings from a Cultured
Garden." She becomes a great friend of Peekay and of Doc, and she personally
undertakes to educate Peekay in English literature. Mrs. Boxall, a generous and
magnanimous woman, initiates the mysterious Sandwich Fund, whereby she gathers
food, money, letters, and tobacco for black prisoners and their families. She
delights in classical music and loves Doc's concerts.
Miss Bornstein - Miss Bornstein is a young Jewish woman
who arrives to teach at the Barberton primary school while Peekay is studying
there. She becomes a mentor to Peekay and helps him to win a scholarship to the
prestigious private boys school in Johannesburg, the Prince of Wales school. Her
grandfather, Mr. Bornstein, becomes Doc's chess partner. Peekay is stupefied by
Miss Bornstein's beauty-she has thick dark hair, bright green eyes, a perfect
complexion, and a perfect smile. She continues to write copious study notes for
Peekay after he leaves for the Prince of Wales school. Peekay and Morrie
eventually publish these notes and sell them. They help to establish the famous
"Miss Bornstein Correspondence School," of which Miss Bornstein becomes the
principal.
Peekay's mother
- We never learn the name of Peekay's mother. She suffers from a
nervous breakdown in Peekay's youth, and is absent for many years at what Peekay
calls "the nervous breakdown place." She returns to live with Peekay and his
Granpa in Barberton, where she becomes a seamstress-and a born again Christian.
She spends most of her time zealously trying to proselytize people.
Granpa -
Granpa spends most of his time tending his rose garden, which he cultivates for
his long-dead English wife, and chuffing on his pipe. He is notorious for
telling Peekay irrelevant stories when Peekay goes to him for advice. A racist,
Granpa nevertheless has respect for Inkosi-Inkosikazi since he cured him of his
gall stones. Granpa also helps Peekay convince his mother to allow him to teach
the black inmates at the Barberton prison.
Nanny - Nanny
is Peekay's Zulu wet nurse. She brings Peekay up telling him stories of warriors
and women washing by the baboon's water hole. When Peekay prays as a child, he
prays not to God, but to his nanny. She summons the great Inkosi-Inkosikazi to
cure Peekay's bedwetting problem. As a result, Peekay brings great honor on her
because she has the chance to flaunt her story-telling skills in front of the
medicine man. When Peekay arrives in Barberton, he is distraught to find that
his beloved Nanny is not there. Peekay learns that Nanny had an argument with
his mother-Nanny refused to remove her charms and amulets in accordance with
Peekay's mother's born-again Christian beliefs.
Gideon Mandoma
- Gideon Mandoma is Nanny's son and the great-great-grandson of the
Zulu chief Cetshwayo. Peekay boxes against him and emerges victorious in
Sophiatown. Gideon continues to train at Solly Goldman's gym and he and Peekay
become great friends. Peekay and Morrie use Gideon in order to inspire guilt in
Singe 'n' Burn, their headmaster, when they try to convince the man to allow
them to start a night school for black boxers.
Dum and Dee -
Dum and Dee are Peekay's Shangaan twin kitchen maids. They become the
caretakers of Doc's cottage and are very possessive over Doc and Peekay.
Marie - Marie
is a fifteen-year-old farm girl who works as a nurse in the Barberton hospital.
Peekay's mother manages to turn her into a born-again Christian and Marie, in
turn, tries to proselytize everyone she can.
Borman -
Borman is the aggressive warder at Barberton prison who brutally murders Geel
Piet.
Hoppie
Groenewald - Hoppie Groenewald is one of the guards on Peekay's train
to Barberton, and is also the "champion of the railways." He inspires Peekay to
begin boxing lessons and his dictum "First with the head, then with the heart"
remains with Peekay throughout the novel.
Big Hettie -
Big Hettie is an obese Irish woman whom Peekay sits next to during Hoppie's
boxing match against Jackhammer Smit in Gravelotte. Big Hettie gets stuck in the
train compartment and-after stuffing her face with food-dies when they reach the
town of Kaapmuiden. She teaches Peekay the importance of pride and courage.
Inkosi-Inkosikazi - Inkosi-Inkosikazi is the great
Zulu medicine man who, at the beginning of the novel, is summoned by Peekay's
nanny to cure the boy's bedwetting problem. Inkosi-Inkosikazi introduces Peekay
to the magical world of the "night country," where Peekay can always find him.
He also gives Granpa Chook to Peekay. Interestingly, Inkosi-Inkosikazi, a modern
medicine man, drives a Buick.
Lieutenant
Smit - Lieutenant Smit works at the Barberton prison and is one of
the boxing coaches. He is also the brother of the well-known boxer, Jackhammer
Smit, which is how he and Peekay initially strike up a friendship-Peekay saw
Jackhammer Smit fight against Hoppie in Gravelotte. Smit, a reasonably
non-prejudiced man, avenges Geel Piet's death for Peekay by beating up Borman.
Yet Smit is not entirely devoid of racist attitudes-at his introduction, he
allows his colleague Klipkop to beat one of the servants for an offense that he
did not commit.
Kommandant
van Zyl - Kommandant van Zyl is in charge of the Barberton prison. A
simple man, he enjoys "braais" (barbecues), "tiekiedraais" (dances), and often
commissions Doc to give piano concerts. He is notorious for taking the credit
for inventions of other people.
Solly
Goldman - Solly Goldman is a Jewish man, and the best boxing trainer
in South Africa. He coaches Peekay while Peekay attends the Prince of Wales
School in Johannesburg and teaches Peekay his famous thirteen-punch combination.
St. John
Burnham - Singe 'n' Burn is the headmaster at the Prince of Wales
school. An Englishman, he is known for choosing six boys from the third form
each year to take under his personal tutelage and mold into "Renaissance men."
Singe 'n' Burn assists Peekay and Morrie with setting up the night school for
black boxers, but only after he has met Gideon Mandoma.
Granpa Chook
- Granpa Chook is Peekay's pet chicken, given to him as a gift from
Inkosi-Inkosikazi. Granpa Chook is Peekay's only friend in the hostile boarding
school environment. He becomes Mevrou's cockroach cleaner. He stands up for
Peekay by defecating into the Judge's open mouth while the Judge is trying to
make Peekay eat human feces. Peekay is heartbroken when the Judge kills Granpa
Chook by pelting him to death with stones. Peekay gives Granpa Chook a fine
burial and, at the end of the novel, he avenges Granpa Chook's death by beating
up the Judge.
Rasputin -
Rasputin is a Russian man who lives next door to Peekay in the mining camp in
Northern Rhodesia. A hulk of a man, each evening he hews a wooden ball with a
great axe while he drinks whisky and listens to Tchaikovsky. He buys sweets for
the mining kids on Wednesday western nights, and he loves to make rabbit (or
cat) stew for Peekay. When Peekay is knocked unconscious in a mining accident,
Rasputin comes to the rescue, killing himself in order to save his friend.
boy, from age five to age seventeen, from the year 1939 to 1951. After his
mother suffers from a nervous breakdown, the five-year-old Peekay is brought up
by his Zulu nanny Mary Mandoma and his Granpa on a farm in the province of
Natal. Soon after, he is sent to an Afrikaans boarding school, where--as the
youngest of all the students, and the only English-speaker--he is brutally
tortured by the other boys. The Judge, a senior boy called Jaapie Botha, and his
so-called "stormtroopers" punish Peekay for his bedwetting habit and his
circumcised penis by means of constant verbal and physical abuse. They call him
derogatory names in Afrikaans such as "pisskop" (piss head) and "rooinek"
(redneck), a term used for Englishmen during the Boer War (fought between the British and the
Boers, or Afrikaners). The Judge, who wears a swastika tattoo on his arm,
convinces the innocent Peekay that Hitler is on a mission to march all
Englishmen into the sea and to restore glory to the Afrikaners. Mevrou, the
Afrikaans woman who runs the boarding house, walks around brandishing her deadly
"sjambok" (cane stick), instead of offering solace.
Peekay returns home after his first year of school, and his nanny commissions
the famous black chief Inkosi-Inkosikazi to solve Peekay's bedwetting dilemma.
Not only does Inkosi-Inkosikazi manage this, but he also opens Peekay's mind to
a special place of "dreaming"-a place of three waterfalls and ten stones-where
Peekay may always find him. Peekay returns to school the following year with his
problem solved, with Granpa Chook one of Inkosi-Inkosikazi's magic chicken, and
with the independent spirit he refers to as the "power of one." Granpa Chook
becomes Peekay's only friend at school, and Mevrou allows him to live in the
kitchen where he keeps the cockroaches at bay. Peekay excels at school, yet he
has learnt that surviving the system means one has to adopt a camouflage-he thus
hides his brilliance. Nevertheless, he soon finds himself doing all the Judge's
homework, which only serves to increase his intelligence. This does nothing to
quash the Judge's hatred for Peekay-on the contrary, at the end of the
schoolyear the Judge forces to Peekay to eat human feces, and he kills Granpa
Chook with a catapult. Traumatized, Peekay longs to arrive home to his nanny's
embracing arms. But Mevrou tells him that there has been a change of plans: he
is to head to the Eastern Transvaal town of Barberton, where his Granpa awaits
him. Peekay's name is coined by Harry Crown, a Jewish man where Mevrou takes
Peekay to buy shoes before the trip home-Harry Crown says that "Pisskop" is not
a respectable name for a young man, and dubs him "PK" instead.
On the train to Barberton, Peekay meets Hoppie Groenewald, boxing champion of
the railways. Hoppie shows Peekay his boxing gloves, and invites the boy to
watch him box a man called Jackhammer Smit in Gravelotte, a stop on the way to
Barberton. Peekay's dream to become welterweight champion of the world is born.
He commits Hoppie's advice-"First with the head, then with the heart"-to memory.
At the Barberton train station, Peekay's mother welcomes him-she has returned
from the mental institution, and has become a born-again Christian. Peekay
discovers from Dum and Dee, the Shangaan kitchen servants, that Peekay's mother
dismissed his nanny because she refused to give her life to the Lord. Peekay's
mother begins trying to proselytize Peekay, but he tells his mother that the
Lord is a "shithead." In the hills behind his new house, Peekay meets an old
German music professor, Karl von Vollensteen, who introduces himself as Doc and
explains that he collects cacti. Doc and Peekay become firm friends (along with
Mrs. Boxall, the town librarian), and when Doc is taken to the Barberton prison
since he never registered as a foreign alien, Peekay visits him for music
lessons. The prison has a boxing squad where Peekay begins lessons under the
special instruction of a Cape colored man, Geel Piet. Peekay quickly develops
into an outstanding boxer, leading the team-the Barberton Blues-to victory.
Peekay has great compassion for the black prisoners, and works out a black
market scheme with Geel Piet and Doc for tobacco and letters. In such a way,
Peekay becomes a legend among black South Africans - they believe he is a chief,
the "Onoshobishobi Ingelosi" or "Tadpole Angel." One of the white prison wardens
suspects that some illegal activity is underway, and one night Peekay discovers
Geel Piet has been murdered in the boxing gym by the violent warder Borman.
World War II ends, and Doc finds himself free once again. Doc, Mrs. Boxall, and
a Jewish schoolteacher Miss Bornstein develop Peekay's precocious intellect
through music, literature, chess, and science. To the delight of the town,
Peekay passes his Royal College of Music exams and also wins the Eastern
Transvaal under-twelve boxing title. With the help of his mentors, Peekay wins a
scholarship to the prestigious Prince of Wales school in Johannesburg.
Book Two of the novel describes Peekay's experiences at the Prince of Wales
school. He quickly partners up with the son of a Jewish multimillionaire, Morrie
Levy. Peekay and Morrie take the school by storm-Peekay's boxing talent reforms
the pathetic Prince of Wales boxing team, and Morrie becomes Peekay's manager.
Soon the two boys have a lucrative gambling business set up, as well as all
kinds of other "scams" which bring in enough money for Peekay to begin boxing
lessons with South Africa's top coach, Solly Goldman. Peekay becomes a stranger
to failure, excelling at boxing, rugby, and academics. However, he must face
Doc's death towards the end of his school career as well as the disappointment
of not winning a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford University.
Book Three traces Peekay's life in Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe)
where he takes on a dangerous (but lucrative) job as a "grizzly man" in the
mines in order to build up his body for his boxing, and to earn enough money to
pay his way through three years at Oxford. He forms a close friendship with a
Russian miner, Rasputin, who eventually saves Peekay during a mining
catastrophe, killing himself in the process. Peekay recovers but, before leaving
the mines, he discovers that he has been working for his old nemesis, Jaapie
Botha. Peekay fights Jaapie and knocks him out. Over Botha's swastika tattoo,
Peekay chisels a Union Jack and the letters "PK".
Characters List
Peekay - The
novel's protagonist and narrator, Peekay is a white English South African who
recounts his life growing up in South Africa during World War II and the
beginning of the apartheid era. An extremely precocious student and a naturally
brilliant boxer, Peekay is loved by almost all who meet him. He moves a legend
amongst black South Africans, who believe that he has come to avenge them
against the Afrikaners. Each side, however, wishes to claim Peekay for
themselves. Peekay's generosity and altruism leads him to devise ways of helping
black prisoners write and receive letters, and to teach black men to box.
Peekay's sense of humor, his fascinating philosophical and analytical voice, and
his ability to criticize himself allow us to identify closely with him.
Doc - Doc is a German music professor, in his 80s, with
whom Peekay becomes best friends in the town of Barberton. Doc's loves are
music, cacti, whisky, and coffee. Doc was a concert pianist in Germany before he
gave up performing after a disastrous concert in Berlin in 1925. He is one of
Peekay's most important mentors, but is prized by the Barberton citizens only
for the culture he brings to the town through his classical music. The only
characters other than Peekay with whom Doc has much contact are Geel Piet and
Mrs. Boxall. When Doc dies, he leaves all his belongings to Peekay.
Geel Piet - Geel Piet is a Cape Colored man who works in
the Barberton prison. A rascal of a man, he nevertheless becomes Peekay's
personal boxing trainer in Barberton and develops a close relationship with both
Peekay and Doc. Geel Piet is largely responsible for spreading the myth of the
Tadpole Angel. The most important lesson he teaches Peekay in terms of boxing is
to fight with his feet- he tells Peekay to "dance" with his feet. Geel Piet is
brutally murdered by one of the Barberton prison warders, Borman, who grows
suspicious of Peekay and Geel Piet's close relationship. Together Peekay and
Geel Piet were running a black market within the
prison.
Morris Levy - Morrie is a very rich Jewish boy who
becomes Peekay's partner at the Prince of Wales School. Morrie, who is a foil to
Peekay, teaches Peekay the tricks of business-gambling is his passion, and he
and Peekay set up all kinds of "scams" together. Morrie, like Peekay, is an
"outsider" because of his Jewishness, and Morrie has to put up with racism from
the likes of Jannie Geldenhuis. Morrie is a loner, an intellectual, a fine
joke-teller, and a generous friend. He undergoes a catharsis during the course
of the novel-through Peekay he comes to know black people for the first time in
his life, and he becomes extremely invested in the night school that he and
Peekay start for the black boxers at Solly Goldman's gym. When Peekay does not
win a Rhodes scholarship, Morrie wants to pay for him to attend. He is prepared
to defer his own degree in order to study with Peekay. He does not understand
Peekay's boxing dream, however, and wants Peekay to become his law
partner.
The Judge - The Judge is a huge Afrikaans boy who
traumatizes five-year-old Peekay at his first boarding school. The Judge dubs
Peekay "Pisskop" and makes Peekay his personal slave and "prisoner of war." The
Judge convinces Peekay that Hitler is going to march all the Englishmen in South
Africa into the sea. He has a swastika tattoo on his arm. In his final torture
of Peekay at school, he tries to make Peekay eat human feces. When Peekay's pet
chicken, Granpa Chook, defecates into his mouth, the Judge pelts Granpa Chook to
death. At the end of the novel the Judge happens to be Peekay's diamond driller
in the mines. In the novel's final scene, the Judge (Botha) searches for Peekay
in the Crud Bar, screaming for his blood. Peekay recognizes the tattoo on
Botha's arm, and fights him until he has knocked him out. With a pocketknife,
Peekay carves a Union Jack and the letters "PK" over the Judge's swastika tattoo
Mrs. Boxall - Mrs. Boxall is the librarian in Barberton
and has a weekly column in the local newspaper called "Clippings from a Cultured
Garden." She becomes a great friend of Peekay and of Doc, and she personally
undertakes to educate Peekay in English literature. Mrs. Boxall, a generous and
magnanimous woman, initiates the mysterious Sandwich Fund, whereby she gathers
food, money, letters, and tobacco for black prisoners and their families. She
delights in classical music and loves Doc's concerts.
Miss Bornstein - Miss Bornstein is a young Jewish woman
who arrives to teach at the Barberton primary school while Peekay is studying
there. She becomes a mentor to Peekay and helps him to win a scholarship to the
prestigious private boys school in Johannesburg, the Prince of Wales school. Her
grandfather, Mr. Bornstein, becomes Doc's chess partner. Peekay is stupefied by
Miss Bornstein's beauty-she has thick dark hair, bright green eyes, a perfect
complexion, and a perfect smile. She continues to write copious study notes for
Peekay after he leaves for the Prince of Wales school. Peekay and Morrie
eventually publish these notes and sell them. They help to establish the famous
"Miss Bornstein Correspondence School," of which Miss Bornstein becomes the
principal.
Peekay's mother
- We never learn the name of Peekay's mother. She suffers from a
nervous breakdown in Peekay's youth, and is absent for many years at what Peekay
calls "the nervous breakdown place." She returns to live with Peekay and his
Granpa in Barberton, where she becomes a seamstress-and a born again Christian.
She spends most of her time zealously trying to proselytize people.
Granpa -
Granpa spends most of his time tending his rose garden, which he cultivates for
his long-dead English wife, and chuffing on his pipe. He is notorious for
telling Peekay irrelevant stories when Peekay goes to him for advice. A racist,
Granpa nevertheless has respect for Inkosi-Inkosikazi since he cured him of his
gall stones. Granpa also helps Peekay convince his mother to allow him to teach
the black inmates at the Barberton prison.
Nanny - Nanny
is Peekay's Zulu wet nurse. She brings Peekay up telling him stories of warriors
and women washing by the baboon's water hole. When Peekay prays as a child, he
prays not to God, but to his nanny. She summons the great Inkosi-Inkosikazi to
cure Peekay's bedwetting problem. As a result, Peekay brings great honor on her
because she has the chance to flaunt her story-telling skills in front of the
medicine man. When Peekay arrives in Barberton, he is distraught to find that
his beloved Nanny is not there. Peekay learns that Nanny had an argument with
his mother-Nanny refused to remove her charms and amulets in accordance with
Peekay's mother's born-again Christian beliefs.
Gideon Mandoma
- Gideon Mandoma is Nanny's son and the great-great-grandson of the
Zulu chief Cetshwayo. Peekay boxes against him and emerges victorious in
Sophiatown. Gideon continues to train at Solly Goldman's gym and he and Peekay
become great friends. Peekay and Morrie use Gideon in order to inspire guilt in
Singe 'n' Burn, their headmaster, when they try to convince the man to allow
them to start a night school for black boxers.
Dum and Dee -
Dum and Dee are Peekay's Shangaan twin kitchen maids. They become the
caretakers of Doc's cottage and are very possessive over Doc and Peekay.
Marie - Marie
is a fifteen-year-old farm girl who works as a nurse in the Barberton hospital.
Peekay's mother manages to turn her into a born-again Christian and Marie, in
turn, tries to proselytize everyone she can.
Borman -
Borman is the aggressive warder at Barberton prison who brutally murders Geel
Piet.
Hoppie
Groenewald - Hoppie Groenewald is one of the guards on Peekay's train
to Barberton, and is also the "champion of the railways." He inspires Peekay to
begin boxing lessons and his dictum "First with the head, then with the heart"
remains with Peekay throughout the novel.
Big Hettie -
Big Hettie is an obese Irish woman whom Peekay sits next to during Hoppie's
boxing match against Jackhammer Smit in Gravelotte. Big Hettie gets stuck in the
train compartment and-after stuffing her face with food-dies when they reach the
town of Kaapmuiden. She teaches Peekay the importance of pride and courage.
Inkosi-Inkosikazi - Inkosi-Inkosikazi is the great
Zulu medicine man who, at the beginning of the novel, is summoned by Peekay's
nanny to cure the boy's bedwetting problem. Inkosi-Inkosikazi introduces Peekay
to the magical world of the "night country," where Peekay can always find him.
He also gives Granpa Chook to Peekay. Interestingly, Inkosi-Inkosikazi, a modern
medicine man, drives a Buick.
Lieutenant
Smit - Lieutenant Smit works at the Barberton prison and is one of
the boxing coaches. He is also the brother of the well-known boxer, Jackhammer
Smit, which is how he and Peekay initially strike up a friendship-Peekay saw
Jackhammer Smit fight against Hoppie in Gravelotte. Smit, a reasonably
non-prejudiced man, avenges Geel Piet's death for Peekay by beating up Borman.
Yet Smit is not entirely devoid of racist attitudes-at his introduction, he
allows his colleague Klipkop to beat one of the servants for an offense that he
did not commit.
Kommandant
van Zyl - Kommandant van Zyl is in charge of the Barberton prison. A
simple man, he enjoys "braais" (barbecues), "tiekiedraais" (dances), and often
commissions Doc to give piano concerts. He is notorious for taking the credit
for inventions of other people.
Solly
Goldman - Solly Goldman is a Jewish man, and the best boxing trainer
in South Africa. He coaches Peekay while Peekay attends the Prince of Wales
School in Johannesburg and teaches Peekay his famous thirteen-punch combination.
St. John
Burnham - Singe 'n' Burn is the headmaster at the Prince of Wales
school. An Englishman, he is known for choosing six boys from the third form
each year to take under his personal tutelage and mold into "Renaissance men."
Singe 'n' Burn assists Peekay and Morrie with setting up the night school for
black boxers, but only after he has met Gideon Mandoma.
Granpa Chook
- Granpa Chook is Peekay's pet chicken, given to him as a gift from
Inkosi-Inkosikazi. Granpa Chook is Peekay's only friend in the hostile boarding
school environment. He becomes Mevrou's cockroach cleaner. He stands up for
Peekay by defecating into the Judge's open mouth while the Judge is trying to
make Peekay eat human feces. Peekay is heartbroken when the Judge kills Granpa
Chook by pelting him to death with stones. Peekay gives Granpa Chook a fine
burial and, at the end of the novel, he avenges Granpa Chook's death by beating
up the Judge.
Rasputin -
Rasputin is a Russian man who lives next door to Peekay in the mining camp in
Northern Rhodesia. A hulk of a man, each evening he hews a wooden ball with a
great axe while he drinks whisky and listens to Tchaikovsky. He buys sweets for
the mining kids on Wednesday western nights, and he loves to make rabbit (or
cat) stew for Peekay. When Peekay is knocked unconscious in a mining accident,
Rasputin comes to the rescue, killing himself in order to save his friend.