Page 32 - FWG Issue 4_May_2022

Book Review

IT’S THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE A TOWN

B Y JAMES CLARKE

Steytlerville Main Road

think I’ve been to Steytlerville. In fact, A little while ago, a long row of masts were or two clans possessed coats of arms.
I must have, for I’ve been through the erected down the length of the central For those who had neither, Linda’s group
Eastern Cape Karoo a few times. But, island of the main road. Hanging from each delved into their histories and, with the
in

I those days, I suppose it was one mast there is a pair of large vinyl banners help of the anthropology department
of those places of which Dorothy Parker bearing the crests and even coats of arms of the Albany Museum in nearby
would have said, “when you get there, reflecting the past of many of the families Grahamstown (now Makhanda), set
there is no there there”. and clans who live among Steytlerville’s about designing individual family crests
4 000 people, of whom 70% are Coloured. and coats of arms. This is why the banners
I have now vowed that when I am in that bear some unusual armorial symbols:
area again, I will stop at Steytlerville and The road was, until recently, a dusty, littered cooking pots, items such as kudu horns,
I will walk down its main road and, at the avenue. The municipality had long given cotton reels, brown hands clasping black
end, have a cup of coffee at Lizzy’s Khaya up watering the 250 bougainvillea shrubs and white hands, shields, spears, sheep,
which is, in fact, part of her house. along the central island – shrubs that were goats, Karoo windmills and other items
planted years before by a much-loved reflecting Steytlerville’s two centuries
The town gets a chapter to itself in a very resident gardener. It had also stopped of history, including a crest depicting a
entertaining new book, Karoo Road II – cleaning the streets. local store owner’s heritage – a symbolic
more tales from the heartland by Julienne shopping trolley.
du Toit and Chris Marais. Linda Henderson, a local entrepreneur, and
her friends who conceived the idea of the Local farmer, Rikus Bezuidenhout, upset
The main road through the town is an banners, decided to uplift their town. As by the neglect of the bougainvillea shrubs
extraordinarily wide road. To the far Linda put it, “En dis mense wat jou ‘n dorp along the island, mounted a water tank on
south, there’s Baviaanskloof. Beyond gee” – it’s the people who make a town. his bakkie, collected grey water from the
that is Humansdorp and St Francis Bay. town’s sewage plant and resuscitated the
All around, it’s sheep and Angora goat They began interviewing the families of shrubs. He has kept them watered ever
country. which a few had family crests and one since.

Fourways Gardens • 30 • May 2022