Riveting. A book as much about the present as it is about the past. In it are vital lessons about the formation of culture, language and identity as they transform over time, space and distance... ~ Tembeka Ngcukaitobi
In this radical critique of established pre-colonial and colonial history, Mellet centres land dispossession, the destruction of livelihoods and the brutality of slavery in South Africa. Drawing on scholarly work and his own experience of searching for identity, Mellet provides a bold new perspective on the loss of land and belonging. Characters such as Autshumao, Krotoa and Doman come to life in the story of the founding of a port at Cape Town – over 50 years before Jan van Riebeeck arrived.
