A local author has just released his first children’s book celebrating KhoiSan culture which he hopes will help address the identity crisis experienced by coloured laaities.
Gregory Edwards, 52, has fulfilled his lifelong dream by self-publishing his book, titled The Table Mountain Story.
The Ocean View resident says after eight years of research, he was finally able to publish the first in a five-book series aimed at educating and encouraging children to embrace their KhoisSan heritage.
“I work as a debtors clerk, but it was never really my passion,” he tells the Daily Voice.
“I grew up in Simon’s Town, but under apartheid we were moved to Ocean View.
“Coming from a fishing family, I could not study further and had to leave school in Standard 9 to go and work.”
While doing various jobs, Gregory always had faith in his talents as a writer.
So he completed his matric while working at Independent Newspapers, and later on completed a national diploma in marketing management.
Several years ago The Centre for the Book held a competition for upcoming authors and Gregory entered with a different book.
“It was about two pixies in a garden and their love story, but it was felt that it was too Eurocentric (not African enough) and I felt a bit disheartened,” he says.
“I started to do some research and could not find any children’s book on KhoiSan in the libraries and this is when I wrote the first three books.”
He says while The Table Mountain Story is a fun-filled fiction story about the famous berg set in a magical world of the Khoikhoi /Xam tribe, it incorporates a glossary of Khoi words, a leaflet on English words showing how this is spelt in KhoiSan, and a map of the Khoi/San occupation in Cape Town prior to colonisation.
“So it’s not a boring read where one is shoving history down your throat,” he explains.
“I wanted to explore the concept of mixed race and how we came about, so children can understand their heritage, because some really have an identity crisis.”
Gregory is also a self-taught artist and did all the illustrations in the book himself.
He recently printed 30 books at a cost of R3500.
“It retails for about R160, and was sold out in the first week, as I advertised on Facebook.”
He is now trying to raise funds to print more books.
If you would like to buy a book, or for more information, email [email protected].