The Power of One Characters

From Pisskop to PeekayHe may be little, but he's mighty—well, after some hardcore boxing training, anyway. Peekay is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. He's a boy growing up in South Afri...

As children, the Judge and his group of lackeys are Peekay's worst nightmare. Jaapie Botha comes up with horrific torture sessions for Peekay just because he's from an English family. He is pretty...

Doc is Peekay's best friend and teacher, an orderly, scientific, and very dependable guy. He gives hope, structure, and sanity to Peekay in a crazy world full of bullies, a family that moves withou...

Geel Piet, or "Yellow Peter" in Afrikaans, is a long-time prisoner in the Barberton prison. He's spent forty of his forty-five years in jail, so he's a little bit of a crusty old guy. Still, that d...

Peekay's Zulu Nanny is the true maternal figure in his life. She has taken care of him since he was born, nursing him and caring for him as if he were her own son. He describes her as "a person mad...

Not to be rude, but Peekay's mom is a real piece of work. Her weakness is in many ways the source of all of Peekay's problems in life. She has a nervous breakdown when he's five and has to go to a...

Peekay's grandpa, his mother's father, is a sweet, quiet old man. He spends his days caring for his beloved chickens and, when they have to be exterminated because of a disease, moves to the town w...

The champion of the railroads, Hoppie is the boxer that inspires Peekay to become one himself. Even though he only spends one day with Peekay, he changes his life by giving him hope and a goal.The...

The town librarian, Mrs. Boxall is one of the only people in Barberton who seems to have her head screwed on right. While everyone goes nuts with German spy fever over Doc, Mrs. Boxall is the only...

Morrie is Peekay's best friend at the Prince of Wales School. He's also Jewish, and therefore an outsider among all the Christian gentlemen, and uses this position to his advantage as best he can....

This guy is evil incarnate, a walking nightmare. He is a new prison guard, transferred from Pretoria, who shows up with a chip on his shoulder and looking for trouble. He spends his time looking fo...

Miss Bornstein is the schoolteacher in Barberton and Peekay's first crush. Just take a look at how he describes her:Miss Bornstein was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. She had long black...

The powerful Zulu witch doctor, Inkosi-Inkosikazi cures Peekay of his bedwetting problem by teaching him to go to a place where three waterfalls flow, then jump over stepping-stones in his mind. Th...

Captain (nee Lieutenant) Smit is the boxing coach at the Barberton prison and a pretty good guy overall. Even though he's afflicted by the racism that's central to the system, he does come around t...

Dee and Dum, named for the Tweedle twins from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, are the kitchen servants at Peekay's family's place. The fact that they are utterly indistinguishable in the story is...

When Peekay is set up for a fight against a black pro in a black township, it turns out to be Nanny's son. Coincidence? Probably not. Gideon is said to be a Zulu chief, and his spirit has to fight...

St. John, pronounced "Sinjun," is the headmaster of the Prince of Wales School. He dedicates his life to finding the best and brightest and molding them into Renaissance men, well-rounded students,...

This mysterious Georgian (the country, not the state) speaks very little English, and therefore doesn't have much to say about himself. Still, he is an important friend to Peekay during his time in...

Solly is the best boxing trainer in South Africa. He agrees to take on Peekay when he's in school even though he usually only coaches pros, and he also helps set up the fight with Gideon Mandoma. H...

At Peekay's first school, the first example of adult cruelty he ever meets comes in the form of Mevrou, Afrikaans for Mrs. or Madame. She's terrifying, but does have her soft spots, like when she h...

Barberton is a small town, and all of its residents seem to fall for Peekay. He gets send-off parties and welcome home parties every time he comes home or goes off to school, and his boxing wins ar...

A gigantic woman who cries and speaks English instead of Afrikaans when she's drunk, Big Hettie passes out in Peekay's train compartment after Hoppie's fight, and ends up stuck in the floor under t...

Mr. Nguni is a tall African man who attends all of Peekay's fights once he gets to the Prince of Wales School. He's also the one who starts the chanting to the Tadpole Angel, "Onoshobishobi Ingelos...

In the Barberton prison where Peekay learns to box, lots of others kids—mostly the children of the prison guards—come to train as well. With names like Snotnose, Jaapie, and Maatie, the childre...

Jackhammer Smit is the giant boxer who goes down in the fight with Hoppie Groeneweld that inspires Peekay to become a boxer. He's got some mean trash talk and packs a mean punch, but Hoppie brings...

Pik Botha, the conductor on the train from boarding school, is a taste of what's going to come when Peekay gets back to his mother. He is a born-again Christian and a real grouch of a guy. He tries...

Aside from Morrie, the kids at the Prince of Wales Schools are pretty much interchangeable. They've got funny nicknames like Pissy Johnson and Cunning-Spider, and they are willing to join the boxin...

Peekay's opponents are almost always bigger than him and almost always Boers. The cultural difference provides fuel to the fighting fire, and the fact that Peekay is good at languages lets him tras...

Also known as the storm troopers (no relation to Star Wars), this group of bigger boys are the Judge's toadies at the first boarding school Peekay goes to, and they dedicate their lives to making h...

Dr. Henny is a family friend who also happens to be a rugby star. He takes care of Peekay when he's at boarding school, and is also one of the first people to tell Peekay that he doesn't have to wo...

Harry Crown is the Jewish shopkeeper who sells Peekay a pair of shoes that are way too big for him. He's also the one who changes the horrible nickname Pisskop into Peekay, forever transforming Pee...

At Peekay's first boarding school, the teachers' favorite educational method seems to be the classic "beat their pupils into submission" method. Between a drunkard headmaster, a Nazi teacher, and a...

Hoppie takes Peekay to a shop owned by an Indian family. It's the first time that Peekay's ever come across Indians, and thinks that the woman is beautiful with her long hair and the red dot on her...

The teachers at the Prince of Wales School are mostly English gentlemen planning to train the next generation of English gentlemen to be, well, English gentlemen. Peekay and Morrie do their best to...

The people in the mining town are a rough-and-tumble group, many of whom are mercenaries left with nothing to do after the world war is over. They spend their Saturday nights getting drunk and look...