Previous | Next issue

Download full-size PDF of front page (279 Kb)

Number 23 : April 2007

 

Tales of yore

Articles on history have proved to be very popular with our readers, and have become a hallmark of Village Life. Writing such stories from long ago is, however, somewhat harder than one may think: the people in a story may have died a hundred years ago, buildings have disappeared, and documents are stowed away in archives and libraries.

The easy way of dishing up bits of history is to cull material from other people’s books, which often constitutes the accepted truth about a place or events, but very often is not correct. The way Annalize does research for her articles on the old farms and families of South Africa, is to go back to primary sources, such as title deeds, inventories of deceased estates and writings by contemporary authors. This sometimes involves consulting literally hundreds of pages, often handwritten in florid Dutch!

Luckily many of these papers are now available on the internet, such as Cape documents in the State Archives in the Netherlands, or the complete Scottish census from a century ago. But she still needs actual books, and recently added the journals of Jan van Riebeeck to our already substantial library. What a find!

 

Contents

4. At the office

Letters from readers, and the first winnner of our subscriber prize

 

4. Win a stay at Aquila Safari

Subscribe and stand a chance to win

 

5. The show goes on at the Arts Theatre in George

A volunteer society that thrives, thanks to the support it recieves from the community

 

8. Chameleons: why do people love them or hate them?

Dr Krystal Tolley, co-author of a new book on the chameleons of Southern Africa and Madagascar, introduces her “little monsters”

 

12. Villages with heart

Well-known author Hans Fransen chooses his favourite villages

 

17. Calitzdorp: Growth through hardship

Resident Malan Roux recounts the history of this Little-Karoo village

 

21. Book offer: Old Towns and Villages of the Cape

Exclusive offer for readers of Village Life from Jonathan Ball Publishers

 

22. Marloth: the man and the reserve

This nature reserve at Swellendam was named after a remarkable man

Photographs by J L du Plessis

 

26. Louié Lemmer, sensitive soul

In memory of the artist who wrote about edible seaweeds for Village Life

 

28. Hippos are back in the Karoo

Geoff Tribe recounts how hippos were exterminated over large parts of southern Africa when hunters with firearms arrived, and how these mammals are now being reintroduced in a river in the Karoo that used to be their home

 

32. Coenradenberg, picture of the past

Annalize Mouton looks at how the first settlers lived at he Cape 300 years ago

 

37. Book offer: Focus on the Anglo-Boer War

Exclusive offer for readers of Village Life from Cederberg Publishers

 

38. Howick: Darling of the Midlands

The redbrick and stone of this historic town, by Darryl Earl David

 

42. Taung: Where the history of humankind was rewritten

Dr Judy Maguire visits this important fossil site

 

47. The other side of village life

Subsistence living at the old quarry

 

48. A big bill and a boom!

Veteran birder Nico Myburgh tells stories about the Ground Hornbill. Read full text

 

52. Local, but it’s French

Recipes from our Country Table

 

54. From the Sargasso Sea

Jen Lemmer continues our series on edible seaweeds

 

56. Foot note

Two kittens find a cozy home. View as PDF

 

Previous | Next issue