A kidnapped baby, a murder and the torching of white farmers’ farms are more interlinked than police lieutenant Shane Sheppard ever suspected. And the fact that his lover, the daughter of a black politician, is also having an affair with the leading politician of the radical white party complicates matters even further.

In post-apartheid South Africa, all the problems are far from solved, and political tensions spill over onto white farmers and their mostly black workers. And Sheppard is thrown into the middle of it all. The autopsy on the murder victim, a black farmhand, reveals horrific things: in his stomach, human flesh is found. Healers, known there as Sangoma, treat certain illnesses with human flesh. And as the deceased suffered from AIDS, Sheppard must travel to the lawless Shantitowns to find out who the dead man consumed and who was after his life.

At 150+ pages, this album is so intense in its interwoven stories that I had to put it aside several times to catch my breath. But time and time again, the story and the drawings drew me in. The ending is in no way inferior to the drama throughout the album. Absolutely recommendable.

Sangoma, the damned of Cape Town, is published in French by Glénat and is available for €17.99.