FASCINATING PEEK AT PEOPLE OF THE PAST

Max du Preez’s new book, Of Tricksters, Tyrants And Turncoats, is an excellent read. Typical of his work it is well-researched and well-written. The book takes readers back over 500 years and brings to life many lesser known people of the past. This is how history should be presented, particularly in schools, where all too often it is considered a deadly dull and dry. This book is a sequel to Of Warriors, Lovers and Prophets, however, its characters are perhaps more robust, colourful. The book contains amusing tales of Khoi ‘gentlemen’ who tried to integrate themselves into early Cape social circles, eccentric explorers who braved rugged routes into the interior and turbulent times on the frontier, which forced brave Xhosa men to flee from their homeland. A good selection of pioneer women have been included. Among them is the sad saga of Eva (Krotoa) who made it in Van Riebeeck’s household under the guidance of his loving wife, Maria, who married, but eventually sank into despair and turned to alcoholism. Then, there’s the fascinating tale of her daughter Petronella, and of Mantatisi’s fearsome drive across the country at the head of an ever-growing hoard that was almost impossible to feed, let alone control. They and more are in this book, published by Zebra, and costing about R175.

BOOKTOWN SCHEDULED AGAIN FOR OCTOBER

Richmond’s “Booktown” is once again scheduled for October. This will be the third year in a row that this popular event is being organised for booklovers and “karoosters”. The term “karooster” – to describe people who love the Karoo – was coined by Darryl Earl David, a Booktown organiser, who “commutes” between Richmond in the Karoo and Kwa-Zulu/Natal, where he lecturers in Afrikaans at the University. An interesting programme is being arranged for this year’s Booktown on October 22, 23 and 24. Organisers have once again invited booksellers and they hope to co-ordinate some new book launches to coincide with the event. Several storytellers have also been invited.

WHERE THE SNAKES GET THEIR POISON

Blue coloured agama lizards that basked in the sunlight among stones in the Karoo intrigued the explorer, Bryden. In Kloof and Karoo, he wrote: “The Boers call these blaauw kop salamanders. They are striking creatures, the head and back being a bright blue, while the throat is of an exquisite rose colour. The Boers look upon these creatures with awe and horror. They solemnly say – and they believe it – that this reptile is deadly poisonous and that from it all snakes obtain and renew their poison.”

“BOEREKOS” – DELICIOUS, BUT WHAT IS IT ACTUALLY?

South Africans are particularly proud of their traditional dishes. They delight in serving delicious dishes, called boerekos, but what are its origins? Dr H W Claassens recently set off on a journey through mountains of musty manuscripts to find out. Her search took her through time to ancient Persia and Rome, into a world of cuisine before the birth of Christ. “The Dutch were sophisticated cooks. They enjoyed tasty food and used herbs and spices as flavourings. They brought this way of food preparation with them to the Cape,” she said recently in a talk on her book, Die Geskiedenis van Boerekos van 1652 to 1806, at a meeting of Dames met Perspektief, in Bloemfontein. The work began as a doctoral thesis, however, as she had so much interesting information, she re-worked her material into a book. It covers Van Riebeek’s gardens, what was cooked and served at the Cape. “The Dutch ate salads as ‘starters’. These included a variety of lettuces similar to those found in supermarkets today. The salads were dressed with olive oil, vinegar and sugar – this is not a French dressing. Also, the Dutch exported herbs from the Cape to Batavia. Then came the English. They boiled the lettuce, didn’t like the herbs, so stopped growing them. Food tastes changed.” Her book dispels the myths that the Malay slaves brought spicy dishes to South Africa. “These are rooted way back in ancient Rome and Persia,” she said. It was a splendid talk. The book, available in Afrikaans only, costs about R200.

EARLY ORDERS FOR S A CHUTNEY

Cape housewives, keen to give their dishes a piquant lift, made a chutney, which was eventually christened blatjang. However, says the Rev Charles Pettman, this relish, made of dried apricots, peaches, quinces, raisins, chillies and vinegar, etc, was nothing like the true Malay condiment. They pounded prawns and small fish to a pulp, allowed it to ferment in a heap, mixed it together and then pickled it. This they called Blatcham or blatjang. This was quite a delicious delicacy. So much so, it is said that an early Zoutpansberg farmer exchanged two sacks of mealies and a woollen blanket for a jar. In Diary of a Cape Housekeeper Hildegonda Ducket mentions making blatjang and sending it to England. “It will keep for a year. I have sent it to England several times and have had orders for another supply form those who prefer it to chutney,” she says. Chutney is said to be Hindu in origin and was originally brought to South Africa from India.

PRESERVES EARN HIGH PRAISE

Cape preserves were taste treats enjoyed by many a visitor. An article in an 1871 issue of the Cape Monthly Magazine praises the delicious preserves made by Dutch housewives in South Africa. “They preserve a variety of fruit and call it konfyt. The fruit pieces either lie in syrup or are candied. Either way they form a very appetizing adjunct to the tea table.” The writer admitted an admiration for Dutch housewives. “They rise so early that at twelve o’clock dinner is honestly earned after seven hours of dawdling about in the kitchen. After dinner they have along siesta, mostly in a darkened room, then they take coffee and cakes or tea and konfyt and trail about until it is time to go to bed again at ten.”

PICTURESQUE SPEECH OF THE EARLY CAPE

Early settlers at the Cape often had most amusing turns of phrase for quite ordinary events. Many of these greatly amused the Reverend Charles Pettman, particularly when related to food. In his book Africanderisms he states that whenever there was a get-together of women only without gentlemen present – something the British would call a “hen party” – the Cape settlers humorously referred to such gatherings as “’n byeenkoms van kool sonder spek” (a meeting of cabbage without bacon).

FINGER-LICKING GOOD?

It is always interesting to find out what the early explorers, adventurers, researchers and travellers ate on their journeys into the interior. Lichtenstein mentions that often while travelling in the hinterland he was offered a repast of sheep’s paunch and feet. In his Travels, written in 1814, he states that on most farms two or three sheep were killed every day. “The entrails and feet are cooked with the fat of the tail, after a fashion which is very much in vogue in the Colony. This is then served up as a dish called “pens and pootjes” and thoroughly enjoyed by all at the table.”

NOTHING QUITE LIKE THE COFFEE

When Hicks came to the Cape in 1900, he liked the coffee. He found the local brew much better than any other he had ever tasted. In The Cape as I Found It, he wrote “The coffee is the most delicious you ever tasted in your life. It is served with roosterkoeks roasted on the coals while the coffee brews.”

FROM BISCUIT TO PAVING BRICK

Say “klinkers” and most people think of brick-like paving blocks. Indeed, initially klinkers were bricks that had partially vitrified in the kiln. They were hard and ideal for paying driveways and courtyards. However, research into the origins of South African food reveals another kind of “klinker”, a specially hard biscuit. These are mentioned by Commandant Christiaan Rudolf de Wit in his Three year’s War, which was published in 1903, he writes: “On some wagons we found klinkers (hard biscuits for dipping into coffee), jam, milk, sardines, salmon, cases of corned beef and other such provisions in great variety.” Klinkers seem to have been enjoyed by many men on commando.

ART STARTS IN BEAUFORT WEST

World renowned acrylic artist Joe Marais was born in Beaufort West, but he grew up in Kwa-Zulu/ Natal where the African landscape and wild life inspired him. He had a natural love for drawing, and this led him to start sketching and painting. In June 1993 his painting of two sparrows on a milk-can was selected for the back page of Reader’s Digest. In 1995 he was invited to exhibit at the Washington Square Outdoor Art exhibition. He also successfully exhibited in New York’s Central Park, in Canada and London. In January 2004 his work appeared at the Safari Club International Convention in Reno.

LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU …

Henry Francis Maltby, who was born in Ceres on November 25, 1880, became a well-known stage and film actor and prolific play writer. He left South Africa as young man and moved to England to pursue his interests in acting. It was a good career choice and he was soon appearing in several theatres in London’s West End. His success in London encouraged him to turn his sights to Broadway. There too he was a great success. Henry enlisted at the outbreak of World War I and served as a bombardier in France. His first play, written in 1915, was called The Rotters. It took almost a year for him to get it onto a provincial stage, writes Gordon Williams, in British Theatre in the Great War: A but once it was eventually performed it was such a success that it soon transferred to the Garrick Theatre in London’s West End. There it played for 86 performances – a wonderful record considering the war was still on. At the end of the war Henry returned to England where he settled down to write another play. By now The Rotters had ended its enormously successful run and started a tour which lasted for a decade. It was then made into a film. The play, which deals with a dysfunctional family, has a satirical theme and mostly covers the family’s minor ‘sins’ revolving around the father’s obsessive desire for respectability. Despite the fact that it received a drubbing from The Times, it was immensely popular with audiences.

… AND WHAT AN ENTERTAINER HE TURNED OUT TO BE

Henry then went on to write an all-woman farce, Petticoats, which dealt with women taking over the state while the men were away at war. It too was a runaway success. By 1919, writes Kurt Gänzl in The British Musical Theatre, Henry decided to try his hand at writing musicals. He was contracted to adapt the libretto of a French piece for Maggie. The success of this piece resulted in Henry turning out two comedies a year, in addition to his other works. His film career began with the silent movie Profit and the Loss, which went into production in 1917. Henry loved the film industry so much that he decided to try his hand at acting. Again, he was a great success. During his lifetime Henry appeared in 61 films made between 1930 and 1940. He specialised in cameo character roles particularly, those of pompous individuals. Henry wrote the scripts for over 50 films, from 1910 to 1950, he also wrote all the screenplays for Todd Slaughter, series of melodramas, as well as many special dialogue inserts for films. He married twice, first to Billie Joyce and later to Norah M. Pickering. In 1950 he published his autobiography, Ring up the Curtain. He died in Hove, Sussex in 1963 at the age of 82.

THE JOYS OF MOVING AN ARMY BY WAGON

Today a common transport concern is the cost of fuel but imagine the headaches of moving an army across South African by wagon – and the fodder bills. A wagon with a full span of oxen stretched was 37 meters long, so 30 wagons – the normal number needed to move fighting men and all their paraphernalia – would stretch over 1,6 km of rugged road stated Donald Morris in The Washing of the Spears. Ox teams had to be doubled at the drifts or dongas where wagons bunched up because the first to arrive could not pass easily and continue on its way. A few dozen wagons following one another’s tracks very quickly rutted and destroyed the roads. In open country, wagons proceeded five or six abreast in choking clouds of dust, but at least this meant that a single breakdown did not stop the entire column. When the 30 000-strong British Army landed in the Crimea it used 21 wagons – in South Africa they needed hundreds and the costs ran into thousands of pounds. In 1879 a trained span of oxen cost £300, and a good wagon about £500. Spare and replacement oxen were needed, as well as slaughter cattle to feed the soldiers.

AND, THEN THERE WAS THE QUESTION OF GRAZING

Grazing had to be found for all these oxen – an immense problem in a country plagued by droughts and with unreliable water sources. And attrition among ox teams was harrowing. Oxen, driven for eight hours or more a day under heavy loads often died of starvation or diseases, such as lung sickness. If they oxen were driven through even light showers without being thoroughly dried their hides on the shoulders chafed and peeled off in strips. Inexperienced drivers often kept teams yoked during thunder storms and lost entire span when lightning struck. There were also tales of the uninitiated who decided to sleep underneath a wagon on a Karoo winter’s night. It was so cold they decided to make a fire, but they did not notice they were sleeping under an ammunition wagon. Their efforts to get warm had disastrous and costly consequences. In comparison a team of eight mules costing £200 could draw almost as much as an ox team, but mules were not a feasible solution as there was little grazing for them. Each team needed about 120 pounds of fodder a day and this had to be carried with them.

THE ROUTE TO TOP-CLASS LEATHER SHOES

Charles Pettman admits to being amazed at the many uses for buchu. “In the Karoo, one species, of the order Ficoideae, was even used to tan leather,” he said. Indigenous people used the juice of the fleshy leaves in a preparation for tanning skins for karosses (skin blankets) and other soft leather items. I once heard a man being told to take the skins off some ostriches and prepare them. He first pressed them into a soft, salty, juicy bush, which he called kama. They were left there for a week, then they were brayed finally put into mimosa bark. The final product was a fine pliable leather. The East London Daily Dispatch carried a similar story in 1912 and hailed the leather as being excellent for shoe uppers.

ONE NAME, TWO BIRDS, INTERESTING CALLS

Pied barbets have a cry not at all unlike the sound of a penny trumpet, writes the Rev Charles Pettman. For this reason, he says, these delightful birds (Tricholaema leucomelas) are known as penny trumpeters in many parts of the hinterland. “Some people call them “tinker birds”, but in my opinion a tinker would emit louder, more metallic sounds,” he says. An 1869 an issue of The South African Magazine, also refers to barbets as “penny trumpeters” but the magazine uses the name in reference to a different species. They state: “In a previous month we omitted to note that the Albany Museum had received more of those elegant little barbets called ‘penny trumpeters (Megalaima barbatula), among other specimens, sent to them for display.”

DREAM TO LEARN OF HERBS BECOMES A REALITY

A dream to learn more about the traditional uses of veld plants led Beaufort West’s Afrikaans actress Antoinette Pienaar to a far-flung farm and elderly “bossie dokter” cum herbalist Johannes Willemse. This 91-year old man wanted to pass on his knowledge to someone who would value it as his children were not interested. Antoinette had long dreamed of learning this craft, but she actually searched him out when she was desperate to find a cure for malaria which she contracted on a trip to Mali. She moved to the farm, Theefontein, 60 km from Beaufort West, where Oom Johannes lived and his treatments cured her. Antoinette then gave up her theatrical and storytelling career to pursue a dream of becoming a traditional herbalist. She moved into a tiny sparse brick hut, with no electricity, nor running water, but with her six dogs and a cat. There, under Oom Johannes’s guidance she started to studying Karoo veld plants and their healing properties. She later built on this knowledge through a radio programme and eventually, on an old manual typewriter, wrote a book.

FROM THEATRE TO STORIES AND NOW THE VELD

Antoinette, who was born in Beaufort West, studied drama at both the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town. She has always been a person to follow her dreams. “But, often, if you do this people think you‘re mad,” she says. But that doesn’t bother her. After graduating she tried acting in a few Shakespearean plays, but soon gave that up in favour of storytelling. This was her forte and she made a name for herself at the Grahamstown and Oudtshoorn festivals, as well as at theatres across the country. “Story-telling allowed me to share a bit of myself and my love for the Karoo.” Mostly she told stories about people, using her acting talents to bring their historic tales to life. She told of the dry land and the rain. “People are different after the rain.” Now, while she still tells stories, she does this in smaller places, closer by and to more intimate audiences. “The stories too are different; more real.” Antoinette says she intends to live out her days on the peaceful farm Theefontein and has already chosen her burial spot. Oom Johannes, a hunter and herbalist, learned his skills from his Griqua grandfather. He divides his time between Beaufort West and the farm, where he now eagerly passes on his knowledge. “Nothing is written down, it’s all in my head,” he says.

BARK OF A DIFFERENT KIND

In the 1870s “bark” was a slang term that meant “to sit up and keep watch at night, when camps were set up.” According to Boyle’s book To The Cape For Diamonds, the term originated when two sailors, lost in the veld, heard lions roaring all around them. “They were greatly frightened. They had no means to light a fire and no dog to protect them. So, they took turns circling about and ‘barking’.” On a later trip to the hinterland Boyle again encountered someone who offered to “bark” on first watch.

Time is a circus – it’s always packing up and moving away.

Ben Hecht, a Russian-Jew, who was born in New York in 1894, raised in Wisconsin, and moved to Chicago after graduating from high school. There he worked as a journalist, columnist, playwright and screen writer. He had an intense disdain for the film industry, and this became obvious in his work.