TOP CANADIAN AND HIS COWBOYS DESTINED FOR BOOK TOWN

The words ‘cowboys” and “Canada” coupled to “The Great Karoo” recently caught Darryl David’s eye as he surfed the ‘net. They grabbed his attention because his e.mail address is “cowboys” and Peter Baker, the co-organiser of Richmond’s Book Town Festival is Canadian. Both are always interested in anything that mentions Karoo. The site promoted a novel, The Great Karoo, written by Fred Stenson, one of Canada’s top authors. Highly acclaimed by the international press it was praised by Canadian critics for ‘illuminating a lost chapter of the country’s history.” The book was a finalist in the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Awards, among The Globe 100 Best Books that year, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2009 and long listed for the 2010 Dublin IMPAC Award. It is the story of some prairie cowboys, who joined the Canadian Mounted Rifles and came to fight in the Anglo-Boer War, yet it has received no mention in the local press. The Canadian magazine Quill and Quire says: “Stenson writes with power. His descriptions – particularly of the landscape and the trials of the horses – are masterful. These men brought their own horses to South Africa hoping that they would perform as well in the desert terrain of the Karoo as they did in Canada.” Darryl immediately phoned Peter. “We’ve got to get this guy to Richmond to launch his book in the real Karoo,” he said. After a few phone calls Peter confirmed – Fred Stenson could come to Richmond. Fred’s previous novel, Trade, written in 2000 won the inaugural Grant McEwan Writer’s Award, The City of Edmonton Book Prize and the Writers Guild of Alberta’s George Bugnet Novel Award. Fred Stenson has also written about 150 films and videos scripts.

OLD LEATHER TRUNK STARTS A JOURNEY INTO TIME

An old leather trunk, a jumble of letters, photographs and documents took Angela Read Lloyd on an historic journey which ended in a book. Some time ago Angela, a speaker at this year’s Richmond Book Town Festival, was faced with clearing out an old family home in Johannesburg. (It was named Lokshoek, in memory of a Jagersfontein farm, which the family still own.) At Loshoek House Angela found an old leather trunk which transported her to a different world and time. The trunk held a jumble of letters, family papers, albums, photographs and documents covering well over a century. Also in it was a great deal of fascinating Boer War memorabilia, telegrams and general information. . “It took a great deal of sorting out, but it was a fascinating task. There was, for instance, a package of pictures dating back to the Jameson Raid,” said Angela. This “treasure chest of information” set her off on a fascinating ten-year journey of research. “I was so intrigued that I began to search for more information in archives, old newspapers, libraries and University libraries here and abroad. I made many fascinating discoveries and uncovered a remarkable family saga. I managed to piece it all together with the help of some near and distant relations.” Angela followed the tale from the family’s arrival in South Africa throughout the Boer War and early 1900s to the end of the Johannesburg house when the family split up and scattered. She then turned this enthralling essay of life in South African from the late 19th century to the present day into a book entitled Bridging the Divide, the Story of a Boer- British family. It was published in 2002 by Jonathan Ball and was a runaway success. It sold out within a year. Bridging the Divide is now available in paperback and as an e-book. The Cape Times wrote: “Angela Read Lloyd’s skilfully crafted memoir deserves a wide readership. Her use of contemporary letters and photographs gives this book a quality of immediacy. It is a beguiling picture of white South African lives as they were lived in what now seems another world.” Business Day called it “one of the most entrancing local social histories to have emerged in recent years.”

ABOUT ANGELA

Angela has several other successful books to her credit. She is the author of Beyond Lake Titicaca and the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s Book of Days and Merchant Pioneers. She I grew up in South Africa and spent many childhood holidays in the Free State with favourite aunts soaking up tales of the Boer War.  She read history at university, before going to work as a journalist in London where mostly she wrote about travel, education and art. Then it fell to her to clear up the old Johannesburg family home and this led her to two great books. Bridging the Divide and The Artist in the Garden – The Quest for Moses Tladi. This will be featured at Book Town.

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE ‘BLOODHOUNDS’

After the Khoisan Rebellion and war of 1739 colonial pastoralists or trekboers were free to move beyond the Olifant River and Bokkeveld Mountains into the arid area known as the Thirstland. The availability of water and grazing controlled the pace and direction of their movement. No one settled permanently in the Onder Karoo – even as late as 1944 this extremely arid area was only being used in a temporary capacity, says Nigel Penn The Forgotten Frontier. Yet, this area was crucial to survival because temperatures in the Roggeveld and Bokkeveld could fall low enough to kill livestock, particularly lambs. George McCall Theal wrote: “Roggeveld and Bokkeveld farmers, who did not have the privilege of using the Karoo in winter, could not keep stock because it was too cold. But their treks to the Karoo had an added advantage. These gave the mountain veld a chance to recover.” Soon certain Bokkeveld and Roggeveld men regarded specific Onder Karoo places as their own and returned, year after year. Such places were known as a legplek or legplaats. “No extra rent was charged for this ground. It was considered to be attached to the loan farm of the claimant,” says Nigel. “Even when land ownership became more formalized and claims increased the legplaats system was still honoured.” The Onder Karoo remained a communal trekveld throughout the 18th century and served as a meeting place for Bokkeveld and Roggevled farmers – a place where they could barter, exchange items of produce, swop stock, hunt and socialise. The trekboers, of course, were not the first to discover the benefits of moving seasonally from one area to another – the Khoi khoi and San had been doing this for centuries. Remarking of this Otto Menzel said: “Hottentots are bloodhounds when it comes to smelling out the most fertile lands.” Roggevelders and Bokkevelders did not only trek in search of water in the winter. If the summer was dry, writes Nigel, they would migrate north and east in search of thundershowers and the waters of the Sak and Riet Rivers.

A THIN WET LINE

While the boundary between the winter and summer rainfall regions is not a precise line, there is an all-season rainfall corridor that runs from Namaqualand in the northwest, through the Hantam and Roggeveld to the Nuweveld Mountains in the south east. As the mountains receive more rainfall than the plains, they have more permanent springs and fountains. Migrating trekboers thus settled themselves as close to the mountains as possible from 1740 to 1770 and, during this time 221 new loan farms were granted in the Roggeveld, while 75 were settled in the Nuweveld. The farmers took advantage of the all-season rainfall corridor until the windmill was invented. This allowed them to access artesian water, but it only became part of life in the arid zone from the mid-1800s. Robert Kearns first advertised windmills in the Graaff-Reinet Herald in 1861 and the 1869 Census shows one was erected at Adendorp “for irrigation purposes.” The following year there were two at Buffelshoek. The earliest imported unit came from Halladay Windpumps in the United States and this was ordered by P J Du Toit of Hopetown, who became locally known as the “father of the windmill.” The Jacksons of Schilderspan, near Britstown, erected a wooden tower with wind engine driver by cloth sails to raise water in 1896, writes James Walton in Windpumps in South Africa. Before the windmill farmers made seasonal shifts from one region to another. When rain fell it collected in vleis, pools and dry river beds, bringing temporary relief to all inhabitants of the arid zone. Once the standing water dried farmers had to dig pits to collect seepage.

NO QUESTIONS WHEN IT CAME TO GRAZING HORSES

Early farmers may have bickered over grazing, but never when it came to horses. Migrant farmers were only too well aware of the value of a good and well-fed horse. Soon after the first loan was granted at Akerendam! (present day Calvinia) in 1750, it was found that this good sheep farming country, had exceptional grazing on the mountain slopes for horses. It was then discovered that horses grazed on these slopes became immune to horse sickness, the curse of the Karoo. No farmer ever claimed a monopoly of grazing on the mountain slopes because horses were a key component of a frontier farm life and central to the trekboer economy. Everyone knew a reliable firearm and good horse was the basis of the commando’s strength and this was the only way these far flung communities could ensure their safety and wellbeing. All horses thus grazed freely in this area.

INVENTIVE WHEN IT CAME TO WATER

The trekboers were inventive when it came to finding water. They made basin-line indentations (komme) in the ground to catch rain water. In places Graafwater (spade water) was found by digging down for about two meters and goras (holes) were dug in dry river beds. Where they were more settled the farmers dug wells – either a rolput, a well topped by a bucket attached to a wooden roller on iron legs or a wipput (a shaduf in the Middle East) a bucket on a long pole pivoted over the well to raise the water. When the source was good a continuous stream could be raised by a bakkiespomp (bucket pump) derived from the Indian noria by the British firm, Burgess in 1880, writes James Walton. George Finlay made these bakkiespompe under licence in South Africa and soon they became popular in the Williston-Calvinia area. From there they moved into other parts of the Karoo.

VIVID MEMORIES OF TRAGIC DAY

“I have vivid memories of the 1949 air crash mentioned in recent Round-ups, writes Victor Dubowitz from London. “Johan Claasen was a close friend and schoolmate of mine. His father worked on the railways, as a guard and they lived in Hillside, in one of the more distant avenues. Johan was a bright student and keen on doing medicine, but he did not get a place as he did not have the appropriate subjects or grades. He started a BSc hoping that after a year or two he would get a place in second year medicine. Johan had always been an aeroplane enthusiast and built model airplanes from balsa wood. We had gone up to Beaufort West to see our parents. I had a driving licence and was allowed to use my dad’s car. I often used it to take my young cousins for a spin. On that fateful day we invited Johan to join us as we were going to the aerodrome, about 11 or 12 kms north of town to see DC3 land or take off for either Cape Town or Johannesburg. By the time we got there a Harvard had just landed. The pilot came to chat to us and offered to take one of us for a flip. As I had the kids with me, I declined, but Johan was very keen as he had never flown before. After a few routine passes, the plane started doing loops. I was terrified by this. Then, after one loop, it went into an absolutely vertical dive and crashed on to the runway, not far from the airport area. There was a fire engine at the airport, and it raced out immediately to douse the flames, but nothing could be done for Johan and the pilot. Both were killed instantly. Johan’s funeral took place a few days later in the Dutch Reformed Mother Church in Donkin Street. This accident represented a tremendous tragedy for the Claasen family as they had lost their eldest son, Billie, in the Salt River train crash a year or two before. This left them with only one surviving daughter. The plane crash also was made even sadder by the fact that the pilot was engaged and on his way to Cape Town to be married.

FREEMAN’S TENTH BIRTHDAY MARKED BY DREADFUL CRASH

The item on the 1949 air crash also took Cape Town’s Dr Nathan Finkelstein back to old Beaufort West and his 10th birthday. “My grandmother organised a little party to which several of my friends and cousins were invited. While it was on the go my cousin, Victor Dubowitz, arrived looking ashen and visibly shaken. He told us of the tragedy at the airport. He had taken his friend, Johan Claasen, and two of our cousins to the airport by car. Soon after they arrived a Harvard, en route from Bloemfontein to Cape Town, had landed. The pilot evidently came and asked if anyone would like to go for a flip. Victor declined not wanting to leave the youngsters alone, Johan, however, eagerly accepted. The pilot it seems was performing some aerobatics and lost control of the aircraft. We went to see the wreckage. Metal was strewn in all directions. Both Johan and the pilot were killed.

Note: Last year, on the occasion of his 70th birthday Dr Nathan Finkelstein was made an honorary citizen of Beaufort West and given the freedom of the town. He and his cousin, Leslie, (Victor’s Brother) collected the handsome certificate from the Mayor’s office when they visited Beaufort West in December 2009. “Anyone who becomes a freeman of the City of London is allowed to drive a small herd of sheep across London Bridge,” he said. “I wondered whether a similar privilege would be conferred on me and whether I would be allowed to drive a flock of sheep down Donkin Street!”

BANK – A PUZZLE

Your latest Round-up is fascinating as always, but I am puzzled by the item on banking, writes Richard Tomlinson. It states that the Standard Bank started in Cape Town in 1838. My information, derived from numerous articles (including contributions from Standard Bank itself) in the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth’s journal ‘Looking Back’, is that the Bank was founded between 1857 and opened in 1862 as The Standard Bank of Port Elizabeth. PE was its headquarters until 1885 when it moved to Cape Town.

VOLCANOS IN THE KAROO?

Few would think that South Africa had volcanos. Yet the landscape is littered with volcanoes, writes Duncan Miller in Village Life October/November 2007. “They occur in unexpected places. Some are scenic, some are ancient, while others are geologically young, some are huge, and others are a mere hole in the ground. Fortunately, they are all extinct – or so we think.” Duncan says a “volcanic tour” would take us from Phalaborwa to Barberton in the Mpumalanga Lowveld to Sun City in the Pilansberg, near Rustenberg, then to Kimberley, Robertson and Sutherland in the Karoo where the best preserved of the most recent volcanos can be found. This is Salpeterkop and it last erupted 75 million years ago. “Because there has been very little erosion on this plateau since them, it still stands proud of a surface on which dinosaurs might have roamed,” writes Duncan. “In fact, the pointed koppie is only the preserved fragment of the northern rim of a much larger crater. Radiating cracks, up to 20 km distant, are filled with the greenish rock that fed the volcano. One of these forms the slopes of the low hill just behind the town of Sutherland. The rock is studded with crystals of the mineral called olivine, which is also found in diamondiferous pipes. In the past this raised false hopes that Sutherland in time would become another Kimberley, but sadly no diamonds have ever been found there.

SHADOWS OF A FORGOTTEN LOVE

A sad tale of long-lost love was revealed recently as Lyn Bosch of Cape Town browsed through some family papers. In her grandmother’s Bible was a 1936 newspaper cutting announcing the death of “Iris Lilford de Villiers, beloved daughter of Mr and Mrs C.P. de Villiers of La-de-da, near Beaufort West, and granddaughter of Mr and Mrs F.C. Lilford of Three Anchor Bay, Cape Town”. Lyn later found the full story in her grandmother’s diary. On January 15, 1936, she wrote: “Poor little Iris de Villiers died at 2 pm at La-di-da today. She had been suffering from diphtheria and despite being inoculated with antitoxins, the strain was just too much for her poor damaged heart. She lay down after lunch, dozed off and never woke again. Iris was the most beautiful character I have ever met, but not destined for this hard world. She was too unselfish and uncomplaining.” The next day the Cape Town family borrowed a car and travelled “along the Paarl Road,” and to Beaufort West for the funeral. It rained all the way and they arrived only just in time to go to the cemetery. “Mrs de Villiers was so thankful to see us. She said she was sure dear Iris would have been pleased.” They left the following day to return home and again it rained all the way, so they arrived home cold and very tired. Lyn’s grandmother did “not like the Hex River Pass but found the Karoo wonderful in its immensity with beautiful koppies. No wonder Iris loved her home in the mountains,” she said. “Sonny was swamped with condolences. It was comforting to know dear Iris was so well liked even by strangers. She was like a beautiful flower giving sweetness and radiance to all.” “It seems Iris was the love of Sonny’s (Percival Young) life. He was devastated by her death. As children we were told that Uncle Sonny had been engaged to a beautiful young lady, but that his fiancé had died and that this had left him heartbroken. This seemed incredibly romantic. Now, putting two and two together I assume Iris was the one,” says Lyn. She remembers meeting Dennis de Villiers in Somerset West and that he had a Citroen. Her grandfather, was asthmatic and at times went to the farm to recuperate.”

CRACK PILOT BECOMES A HERO OF THE KAROO

The hero of Karoo farmers during World War II was Victoria West’s Petrus H “Dutch” Hugo. He had a passion for flying and after matriculating went on to study aeronautics at the Witwatersrand Technical College. Then, in December 1938, when England started to expand her air strength, he applied to join the Royal Air Force. “He attained first place among all Dominions applicants in the entrance examinations, but no one in South Africa knew anything about him until he hit the newspaper headlines after shooting down six German aircraft in a single day. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC),” writes J S M Simpson in Springboks in the Battle for Britain. The news flashed around the world and caused a sensation in Victoria West where proud farmers decided to club together and buy a plane for the RAF. It was to be known as the Petrus Hugo plane. The man behind the idea was Petrus’s father, but he did not live long after hearing of his son’s distinction. Petrus and his good friend Acting Flight-Lieut Gaunce, who had also been awarded a DFC for his action that day, were on their way to “drown their ribbons,” when some Luftwaffe bombers passed overhead. They turned, took off again and helped drive off these aircraft with heavy losses to the enemy. They then landed and set off to celebrate a double victory. Petrus achieved 22 air victories of which six were with a Hawker Hurricane and 16 with a Supermarine Spitfire. He died in Victoria West on June 6, 1986.

A HERO OF THE RAIL YARDS

Allan Griffiths Watson, another hero of the Karoo, was born Hopetown in 1876. After completing his schooling, he Joined the Cape Colonial Railways and rose through the ranks to become the chief mechanical engineer (CME) of the then South African Railways & Harbours (SAR&H). He served his apprenticeship at the Beaufort Works in the Cape in 1894, then went to Scotland to further his studies in at Glasgow’s Hyde Park Works and the Technical College there. He came back to South Africa in 1900 and rejoined the Railways. In 1901 he was appointed temporary acting district locomotive superintendent at Noupoort. He transferred to Uitenhage in 1902 and worked there as a draughtsman until 1910. When the SAR&H was established, he moved to Kimberley as assistant superintendent of the mechanical division. He enlisted in the S A Engineers Corps when war broke out in 1914 and when peace was declared returned again to the railways. He moved to Durban in 1926 and was responsible for designing and building some low-cost double-engined railcars for branch-line work. On 1 April 1928, he was appointed assistant chief mechanical engineer and a year later succeeded Lt Col L. Collins as CME of the entire SAR&H network. Allan introduced water-softening plants in the Karoo and South West Africa, modernised works, improved layouts, machinery and buildings, and established the construction of rolling stock in the Railways’s own workshops. He introduced three standard locomotive boilers and developed several large locomotive types including the 15E class 4-8-2 and the 16E class 4-6-2 for main line work, and the 19B and 19C 4-8-2, 20 class 2-8-2 and 21 class 2-10-4 for branch line service. He retired in 1936 and died in Cape Town on November 13, 1945.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by a spectacular error – John Kenneth Galbraith