Ghamka Man-of-men – Eve Merchant

A5, 142p.

Ghamka was destined to become the leader of the Attaqua. As a boy this was of little concern to him as he and Xhan – his cousin, friend and rival – played, worked and learned the customs of their clan. But in time this changed. At first their only enemies had been hostile clans like the Obiqua, or the thieving bush people, the San, who possessed deadly poisoned arrows, or the veld’s fiercest inhabitant, the leopard. Then, out of the blue, strangers arrived from the sea … Few stories for young readers could have combined so skilfully the details of a long-lost culture and the warmth of a friendship between two boys.

‘An impressive, gripping story of the Khoi-Khoin, based on actual clans and genuine historical happenings with Dias and Da Gama arriving in what is now called Mossel Bay.’

~ Jay Heale,
Judge for the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature, 1985