Page 51 - SilverLakes_Issue 5_2022

BOOK REVIEW

A little while ago, a long row of masts was
erected down the length of the central
island of the main road. Hanging from each
mast is a pair of large vinyl banners bearing
the crests and even coats of arms reflecting
the past of many of the families and clans
who live among Steytlerville’s 4 000 people,
of whom 70% are Coloured.

The road was, until recently, a dusty,
littered avenue. The municipality had long
given up watering the 250 bougainvillea
shrubs along the central island – shrubs
that were planted years before by a much-
loved resident gardener. The municipality
had also stopped cleaning the streets.

Linda Henderson, a local entrepreneur, and
her friends who conceived the idea of the
banners, decided to uplift their town. As
Linda put it: “En dis mense wat jou ‘n dorp
gee” – it’s the people who make a town. Image Ria Truter - Unsplash

They began interviewing the families and
discovered that a few had family crests and
one or two clans possessed coats of arms.
For those who had neither, Linda’s group
delved into their histories and, with the Residents along the main road have One of the chapters in this latest Karoo
help of the anthropology department of the spruced up their modest Karoo-style Roads book takes us deep underground
Albany Museum in nearby Grahamstown houses and gardens. along the 83km Orange/Fish River tunnel –
(now Makhanda), set about designing a brilliant piece of civil engineering which
individual family crests and coats of arms. The great width of the main road speaks sends 22 tons of water per second from the
This is why the banners bear some unusual of the days when ox wagons, drawn by Gariep Dam to the Eastern Cape, but which
armorial symbols: cooking pots, items such spans of up to 16 oxen, had to be able to shuts off the supply for a month a year when
as kudu horns, cotton reels, brown hands do U-turns. the public can explore it. That is something
clasping black and white hands, shields, I must also see.
spears, sheep, goats, Karoo windmills The town’s story is delightfully told in
and other items reflecting Steytlerville’s Karoo Roads II. Co-author Julienne du There’s a fascinating chapter on springbok
two centuries of history, including a crest Toit began her career as a Johannesburg- and the drama of their mysterious 19th-
depicting a local store owner’s heritage – a based journalist and Chris Marais, her century mass migrations, when they
symbolic shopping trolley. husband, is one of South Africa’s foremost behaved like lemmings mindlessly passing
photojournalists. The couple, who live in though farms in countless numbers, carrying
Local farmer Rikus Bezuidenhout, upset Cradock, have had eight books published livestock and even other antelope helplessly
by the neglect of the bougainvillea shrubs stemming from their probing journeys along in their midst and often to their
along the island, mounted a water tank on across South Africa. deaths in the thirstlands to the west. The
his bakkie, collected grey water from the chapter on the introduction of merino sheep
town’s sewage plant and resuscitated the They write separate chapters giving their is equally fascinating.
shrubs. He has kept them watered ever personal impressions, yet they frequently
since. refer to the other, so the reader picks I found the book a sheer joy to read.
up their mutual enjoyment and their
Helein van Tonder, who teaches at the local boundless enthusiasm for what their The book is available in some bookstores,
farm school, started an omgee groep (care publishers call ‘Faraway South Africa’. but if you would like a signed, first edition
group) to keep the town’s streets and parks Faraway? The Karoo, currently a floral copy, email julie@karoospace.co.za for the
clean. This is not just a weekly task – they wonderland after unusual summer rains, details. The recommended retail price is
remove litter whenever they see it. probably takes up half of South Africa. R340, including delivery.

INTRAMUROS JUNE 2022 | 49