BOER COMMANDANT HONOURED
A century to the day after his capture near Prince Albert local Boer War enthusiasts honoured legendary Boer Commandant Gideon Scheepers. A memorial commemorating the 100th anniversary of Scheepers’s capture on Koppieskraal October 10, 1901, was unveilled by Rienus Koorts, grandson of the man who sheltered Scheepers. “This dynamic and controversial young Boer leader led British forces a merry chase across the plains of the Karoo”, said Lydia Barella, one of the organisers of the function. “Towards the end he became increasingly ill. This eventually led to his capture in a tiny room in one of the farm’s outbuildings. To set the tone for the full-day field trip we watched a short video on Gideon Scheepers at the Fransie Pienaar Museum before setting off”, she said. Boer War expert Helena Marincowitz also delivered a short talk on Scheepers’s escapades in the Karoo. From Koppieskraal the group explored Botterkraal, where Scheepers captured and plundered a post coach. In those days, this farm was a coaching stop with a little inn for travellers. From there the group followed Scheepers’s trail across the present-day N1 to Antjieskraal, which a century ago was at the old Blood River Station. Here British forces held Scheepers prisoner until they could move him to Beaufort West. Visitors enjoyed a lunch under palm trees in the gardens, visited the room in which Scheepers was held, and explored a small historic graveyard nearby. The final stop was at the blockhouse at Ketting Station. Here singer and owner of Antjieskraal, Jacolese Botes, entertained the group with renditions of Rudyard Kipling’s poem Bridge Guard in the Karoo and other Boer War poems she has set to music.
FIETSRYERS VERKEN DIE HEL EN SWARTBERGE
Die Karoo raak al hoe meer gewild onder fietsryers. Vir vanjaar se eksklusiewe “To Hell and Back” rit op 10 November is daar ‘n rekord getal van 450 inskrywings. “Hierdie rit is gewild omdat net ‘n beperkte getal mense mag ry, om so die impak op die pad te beperk. Volgende jaar sal ons heelwaarskynlik getalle moet afskaal, “ sê organiseerder Martin Scott van Natuurbewaring. ‘n Verdere groep van 60 fietsryers van Gauteng gaan dieselfde naweek die roetes in die omgewing van Prins Albert verken.
MANDLENKOSI ROUTE NOW PART OF THE AFRICAN DREAM
The Kwa-Mandlenkosi Township Tourist Route will be officially launched at a gala function on October 27, The programme includes praise singing by local Impongi Vos Bokwe, as well as performances by popular local groups. Among these are the young Gumboot Dancers, the Imizamo Choir, the Great Karoo Gospel Singers, the Conquerors, the Imtombi Zomnequngqu and the Methodist Male Choir. Mrs Phumela McKay will sing a solo and there will be an exhibition of traditional Xhosa dancing. Guests will be able to meet the ama-Xhuele traditional healers, enjoy traditional foods and drinks, such as Umqombuthi, a traditional African beer and Ama-Kewa, a drink made from Mealie meal. Visitors will also be able to buy a variety of locally-made crafts. Mrs Lungi Ngondo, chairman of the Kwa-Mandlenkosi Tourist Route Forum, said “I am immensely proud that it has taken only three months since Open Africa offered to assist us with the planning and promotion of this route for it to move off the drawing boards and become a reality. Their support and guidance in making us part of the African dream Tourism Project is highly appreciated”.
SEPTEMBER 11 CASTS A SHADOW IN KAROO
The terror attack on the New York World Trade Centre on September 11 had a ripple effect which reached across the world to the Great Karoo. Thirty-four members of the American Trappers Association, scheduled to visit Prince Albert, could not leave the US when flights were grounded. They had block-booked the recently renovated Swartberg Hotel for a week. Members wanted to extensively explore the Swartberg area to discover more about vermin in the Karoo. “Determined not to let terrorists ruin their plans, they called, not to cancel, but to reschedule”, said Anobé Badenhorst, owner of the Swartberg. “Twenty-three members of the group arrived in Prince Albert the following week. They were totally exhausted due to their flights being rerouted and rescheduled, resulting in extremely long delays at airports”. Nevertheless, after sampling our locally-made witblitz, enjoying a good night’s rest and some traditional Karookos, they were all ‘rarin’ to go. “The group spent four nights and five action packed days with us”, said Anobé. “They were out in the veld exploring for hours with local trapper and tanner Peter Schneekluth. They became so energised that they visited Gamkaskloof, The Hell, which truly enchanted them. Many have promised to return”, said Anobé.
TWEE WENNERS IN TOERISMEKOMPETISIE
Twee gemeenskaps ontwikkelingprojekte het gesamentlik R30 000 gewen in die Prins Albert Jeug Toerismekompetisie. Beoordelaars het besluit dat albei projekte uitstekend was en kon in een gesmelt word. “Die kompetisie was ‘n groot geleentheid op die dorp”, het toerismeburo ontwikkeling voorsitter Frank Fransen gesê. “Alle skole in die dorp het deelgeneem. Altesaam het nege spanne ingeskryf en beoordelaars het ‘n moeilike taak gehad om wenners aan te wys”. Die wenners was die “Alternative Tourism Township Scheme” van Fajousto Groenewald, Nomsa Afrika, Graham Hendricks, Hestro-Ann Schreuders en Monina Pieterse, gekoppel met die Agri-toerisme projek van Whiles Jansen, Jim Franse, Charmaine Januarie, Gwenneth Claassen en Stephny Hendricks. Spanlede gaan spesiale opleiding ontvang om te verseker dat hulle die nodige kapasiteit opbou om die projekte in werking te stel en alle nodige take te verrig. ‘n Lid van elke wenspan sal ook die geleentheid gegun word om Prins Albert te gaan bemark by volgende jaar se Toerisme Indaba in Durban. Hierdie kompetisie het ontstan as ‘n direkte resultaat van LEEDWEEK, ‘n plaaslike ekonomiese ontwikkeling inisiatief. Beoordelaars was Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, hoof direkteur toerisme ondersteuning van die die nasionale Department van Toerisme en Omgewingsake, Dr Joseph Raputsoe, direkteur, toerisme kwaliteit van die selfde department, en adjunk-direkteur, Nomaxhosa Jongilanga, wie ook verantwoordelik is vir toerisme promosie, Ithumeleng Pooe, direkteur in die Wes-Kaap Department van Toerisme and Debbie Bruce, direkteur van Suid-Kaap Sake Sentrum..
SILVER SALVER COMES HOME AFTER A CENTURY
A silver salver, presented to much loved Prince Albert doctor in 1901, has been returned to the village after a century. “And oddly enough it came back almost 100 years to the date after it was presented to Dr Mearns”, said Jonathan Rolfe, curator of the Fransie Pienaar Museum. In August 1901, Prince Albert residents were devastated to learn that their loved and highly respected doctor had decided to return to Ireland. However, before he departed Dr John Herbert Mearns was to earn a place in the history books. In October 1901, he was called out to attend the ailing and controversial Boer commandant Gideon Scheepers at Koppieskraal. Mearns and his wife, Joan, had played key roles in the community since their arrival in Prince Albert in 1879. Local residents could hardly imagine life without the couple. At a well-attended function to honour them, the townspeople presented Dr and Mrs Mearns with a silver salver, manufactured in 1843, to remind them of their happy years in the Karoo. With the salver came a scroll signed by virtually every inhabitant in the district. It expressed the local community’s deep regret at the couple’s departure and thanked them for all they had done to “advance the welfare of the community” and for their “many acts of kindness to the poor and needy”. A second scroll, signed by all members of the local Literary and Music Society, was also presented to Dr Mearns. His granddaughter, Barbara Mary Harker (nee Lacey-Cornes) recently visited Prince Albert to present the salver, scrolls, testimonials and some old family pictures to the Fransie Pienaar Museum.
CHRIS BARNARD NOT DULLED BY DEATH
Even death could not dull the flamboyant personality of Beaufort West’s most famous son, Christiaan Neethling Barnard. As he had promised, the great heart-transplant pioneer at the end he came home to rest. Professor Chris Barnard’s final journey took him across the world, from Paphos on Cyprus where he died on September 2, at the age of 78, to the garden of the house where he was born, a place where he was always happy. Barnard’s ashes were strewn beneath a large palm tree outside the room which once was the office of his beloved father. A showman to the last, Barnard would have smiled to see his death rocket his home town to the world’s centre stage. The news rated both international and local media coverage for days. Eventually only the World Trade Centre disaster in New York managed to shift media attention. Chris Barnard would have been proud that his funeral brought members of his family and the community of Beaufort West closer together. Those who attended the funeral services agreed it was good seeing the old mission church, now part of the museum, once again playing the role it was intended for. The church was filled with huge arrangements of indigenous flowers and a mass of blood red Chris Barnard roses in a silver urn below the pulpit. These were arranged by an internationally famous florist and old family friend from Richmond, Antoinette Paul, better known as “Flower” Walker. Museum curator Sandra Smith reports a huge increase in visitors to the Barnard house and display since Chris Barnard died.
BAANBREKERSBOEK OOR BOEREOORLOG
Die ervaringe van Denys Reitz en sy kamarade, militêre gebeure in Gamkaskloof (Die Hel) en verskeie optredes van Boere-invalskommando’s word in ‘n nuwe boek oor die Anglo-Boereoorlog bespreek. Skrywer Johan van Greunen het drie jaar lank navorsing gedoen en die optredes van genl. Smuts sowel as kommandante Scheepers, Kritzinger, Fouché, Theron, Marais en Van der Merwe is ook derglik onder die soeklig geplaas. Johan het elke dorp en begraafplaas in die gebied besoek en ‘n groot hoeveelheid inligting en dokumente ontdek waaroor daar nog nooit geskryf is nie. Sy boek Kommando’s deur die Klein Karoo kan direk vanaf hom bestel word teen ‘n koste van R105, posgeld ingesluit..
MOUNTAIN MARKS A MARRIAGE THAT WASN’T
Tales of a bride left at the altar, a powerful Xhosa leader and the possibility of an early German settler near the Nuweveld Mountains all emerged after the publication of the Karoo National Park’s new brochure. Archaeologist David Morris found information on Danser, a powerful Xhosa tribesman who roamed the Karoo in the late 1700s and who possibly gave his name to the fountain “Danserfontein” (See the included Kwa-Mandlenkosi Information Sheet). “Could Allemansfontein have been a water source for the use of all men or could ‘alleman’ have referred to a German”, ask readers Keith Mackay and Almero de Villiers. “I have seen the word ‘alleman’ used in several place names in South Africa”, said Almero, “and the theory is that it originates from ‘Allemand’, French for German”. Almero has also discovered a legend attached to Bruidegomsberg. “A young farmer from the Nuweveld was engaged to be married to a lovely lass from Stellenbosch. The date of the marriage was fixed, and a few days before the event he set off with his best horses and Cape cart. On the way he had to negotiate a steep pass. Halfway down, at the most dangerous spot, a dassie darted out and startled the horses. They shied, lost their footing and plummeted down the embankment, dragging cart and bridegroom with them. The young man and his horses were killed. It was, however, a lonely road and days passed before his body was discovered. Meanwhile, under the oaks, in Stellenbosch, the bride waited and waited until all hope faded and the guests left. Two weeks later she received news of the accident and her fiancé’s death.
TRAILING A REGIMENT THROUGH THE KAROO
An Englishman is trailing the passage of an Irish Regiment through the Karoo in search of his ancestors. “I am seeking information on William Woodley, his wife, Mary-Anne Coffey, and their son John, born in Beaufort West in 1856”, says Barry Wales from Cambridgeshire, in England. “William came to South Africa with the 85th Light Infantry, an Irish regiment. I cannot establish why the regiment was sent to Beaufort West, the mid-1850s there seem peaceful. William possibly married Mary in Beaufort West. In 1858 the regiment was sent to Grahamstown, then to Fort Napier. William appears to have been killed because Mary is later recorded as marrying another officer in the regiment in Pietermaritzburg”.
THE NAMING GAME
Wild animals of the African hinterland enthralled early explorers. They had never seen anything to compare and were not sure what to call them. So they named the game after animals familiar in Europe. Eland, for instance, is the Dutch word for elk. So it was bestowed on the large, golden, ox-like antelope they saw, despite these bearing no relationship to the elk at all. Rhebuck reminded them of roe deer. Professor C J Skead, in his book The Incidence of Mammals in the Western Cape, has much background information on how local animals got their names. “Many names grew out of Hottentot and Bushman words which were imitative of the animal grunts”, he says. “Among these are quagga and gnu. Despite early authors writing the name as gnoo, gnou or xgnou, it comes from the Bushman !Nu. Kudu comes from a Hottentot word. Early texts referred to these antelopes as coudou or koodoo. Dutchmen named the meercat and the dassie. Meercat is a Dutch term meaning Aa sort of monkey”. The name “dassie” for the rock hyrax goes back to 1601, when Dutch sea captain Joris van Spilbergen went ashore on what was to become Dassen Island. He saw hundreds of little animals there which he likened to stone badgers, “steen-daschen”. Skead says: “Stone badgers are so unlike dassies in every way that it is difficult to understand how Van Spilbergen could have been so mistaken. Nonetheless, the name stuck and has persisted for four centuries”. Germans were responsible for naming the klipspringer. They called this little antelope a “klipsteiner”, rock climber. The English referred to it as a rock jumper or rock leaper. “The origin of the Afrikaans term ‘muishond,’ for polecat, is lost in obscurity. The animal resembles neither a mouse nor a dog. Perhaps its name originated because early German travellers referred to it as a ‘maushund’”, says Skead. Honey badgers got their Afrikaans name “ratel” because of their liking for honeycomb, “heuningraat”. “The term gemsbok for the South African oryx is a great mystery and oddity”, says Skead. “It implies a relationship to the chamois, the popular animal of European fact and fiction known in various languages as gemse, gems, gams, camoschio, camuza. The gemsbok, however, doesn’t even resemble the chamois”.
STERREWAG KOM DORP TOE
Die gewilde Prins Albert Sterrewag op die plaas Spreeufontein gaan dorp toe verhuis. ADie sterrewag was ‘n groot toeriste attraksie, maar heelwat mense het nie kans gesien om in die donker op ‘n grond- pad te ry net om sterre te kyk nie”, sê stêrredeskundiges Ellie en Albert Jansen. “Ons het dus besluit om die toerusting dorp toe te bring sodat dit deur meer mense benut kan word”.
OOPS, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TORTOISES?
Think tortoise, think Karoo National Park. That’s the message 12-year-old Melissa Edwards of Eunice Primary School in Bloemfontein got last year when she visited the park to research the ecology of the Karoo for a school project. “The information officers told me that the park had more tortoises than any other similar conservation area in the world. I gathered details on five different species for my project. So I was surprised to see there were no tortoises on the Karoo National Park’s new brochures. The artist included a rhino, springbok, klipspringer, eagle, kudu, dassie, eland, aardvark, riverine rabbits and even a ghost. What happened to the tortoises?” “Oops, we erred”, says park manager Leighton Hare. “But don’t fret, just because they’re were missed out of the artwork doesn’t mean we’re not as proud as we’ve always been of having so many different tortoise species in the park. Nevertheless, thanks for bringing this oversight to our attention”.
LAINGSBURG GEREED VIR KAROOFEES
Die Karoo is weer oorgehaal vir die Karoofees wat jaarliks omtrent 5 000 besoekers na Laingsburg lok. Vanjaar word die fees op 26 en 27 Oktober gehou, en soos altyd beloof dit om ‘n pret tyd te wees. ‘Die aanbieding van donkiekarritte deur die dorp sal atmosfeer skep”, sê skakelbeampte Ronica Groenewald. “Daar sal ook skaaphondvertonings, slaglamkompetisies en ponieritte wees. Omdat Laingsburg bekend is vir uiesaadverbouing, sal daar ‘n interessante groentesaadtoer wees. Groot trekpleisters is die verskeidenheid 4×4 roetes, sowel as die fees gholfdag met groot pryse op die spel. Besoekers kan uitsien na ‘n verskeidenheid kosstalletjies met tradisionele geregte, sowel as ‘n verbyvlug van ligte vliegtuie”.
