Summary

Through lively anecdotes this memoir presents a vivid impression of growing up in a poor farming family in Namaqualand, a semi-desert area just south of the border between South Africa and Namibia. Set in the mid-20th century, this beautiful autobiography is also the tragic story of an indigenous family struggling to keep its land despite unfair appropriation and trickery by the governmental authorities. Details of the area's rich traditions illustrate nomadic and pastoral ways of life and the historical interactions between indigenous Africans and their white counterparts. Tdjouboegas, in dry, beautiful Namaqualand, is a special farm. Here Thomas grows up in the heart of his big, boisterous family, working the land that belonged to their Nama and Baster forebears - ntil the Springbok minicipal board tries to force them off their beloved farm, and into the new coloured location. But this story is more than a tale of historical injustice. Oppel's lyrical descriptions of the flower-filled veld, and the cycles of ploughing and harvesting, bring a lost era vividly to life. The story is laced with delightful, often hilarious anecdotes. Vibrantly written, this is a warm moving portrait of hard-working people struggling to keep their place in the world.