Hello all,
I know the World Cup 2010 is over and all the hypes are now quieting down. But in actual fact, my fascination with African Continent, in particular South Africa has started about 12 years ago. It all began when I borrowed a book from my best friend (it was his brother’s book actually!). Its title is ‘The Power of One’ by Bryce Courtenay. Boy, I was hooked! I was so in love with the story and ended up reread it for like another 10 times. I even gave it to my brother to read and he also likes it so much.
The setting of the story was circa 1940-ish and apartheid is already poisoning and dividing the nation. ‘Peekay’ grew up and truly survived all the hardships he encountered along the way to achieve his dream of becoming the Welterweight Boxing Champion. He was sent as 5 yrs old to a bording school where he is the only English among the Afrikaner and was bullied by students at the hostel led by biggest boy called ‘Judge’. On Peekay’s way to East Transvaal town of Barberton to his new home, he met Hoppie Gronewald (Boxing Champion of South African Railways) on the train and learnt about boxing. He later met and befriended a German Professor whom he called ‘Doc’ who took him under his wing and nurtured and taught him so much from Latin, Botany, Mathematics, chess and also piano. He was awarded scholarship to study at Johannesburg Prince of Wales School and there Peekay met his Jewish friend, Morrie Levy and together they embarked on the interesting journey of education, boxing matches, taking bets and forming ‘the Bank’ for their fellow students at school. Both are also involved in the movement to educate Afrikans (black people) and later were instructed to stop by Police. Nevertheless, that episode left black remark on Peekay’s application for Rhodes scholarship to study in Oxford. He was frustrated and felt that he had let his mother and grandpa down. Heck, even whole Barberton town were frustrated. And that includes his boxing coach and team at the local prison where he trained. Peekay’s name also became more and more famous after he won many matches and excelled as a boxer. However, he surprised everybody when he decided to go and worked in the Copper mines at Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) to save money for his own education. Peekay has grown into a matured man of his own and never waver from his belief instilled by Hoppie that said ‘first with the head, then with the heart’.
The setting of the story was circa 1940-ish and apartheid is already poisoning and dividing the nation. ‘Peekay’ grew up and truly survived all the hardships he encountered along the way to achieve his dream of becoming the Welterweight Boxing Champion. He was sent as 5 yrs old to a bording school where he is the only English among the Afrikaner and was bullied by students at the hostel led by biggest boy called ‘Judge’. On Peekay’s way to East Transvaal town of Barberton to his new home, he met Hoppie Gronewald (Boxing Champion of South African Railways) on the train and learnt about boxing. He later met and befriended a German Professor whom he called ‘Doc’ who took him under his wing and nurtured and taught him so much from Latin, Botany, Mathematics, chess and also piano. He was awarded scholarship to study at Johannesburg Prince of Wales School and there Peekay met his Jewish friend, Morrie Levy and together they embarked on the interesting journey of education, boxing matches, taking bets and forming ‘the Bank’ for their fellow students at school. Both are also involved in the movement to educate Afrikans (black people) and later were instructed to stop by Police. Nevertheless, that episode left black remark on Peekay’s application for Rhodes scholarship to study in Oxford. He was frustrated and felt that he had let his mother and grandpa down. Heck, even whole Barberton town were frustrated. And that includes his boxing coach and team at the local prison where he trained. Peekay’s name also became more and more famous after he won many matches and excelled as a boxer. However, he surprised everybody when he decided to go and worked in the Copper mines at Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) to save money for his own education. Peekay has grown into a matured man of his own and never waver from his belief instilled by Hoppie that said ‘first with the head, then with the heart’.
Oh well, if you want to read much more about the story, you can check out the much longer and details on the plot at here . Bottom line, go and read the book. I have since scouted Bryce Courtenay books whenever I could. A truly gifted story teller and I love his style of writing. Awesome reads, I think. And yeah, after so many moths holding it (at that time), I finally returned the book to my friend and few years back, I borrowed it back and has since kept it under my care. I even started to read it again few days ago. Hence, this post.
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