Some in South Africa believe that there is no community in the country that can spin a story better than the people who speak Afrikaans. Rich in nuance and always ready for a laugh, the Afrikaans storytellers first used a campfire hundreds of years ago to narrate stories about hunting, the veld and love.
Now that the new millennium has arrived, the storytellers are still at it. Afrikaans sentiment has been selling well lately. Dana Snyman first got the ball rolling, but now a host of other authors have also kept the genre alive and kicking. One of the new offerings is Koot Steenkamp’s Padkos uit Toeka (Human & Rosseau).
Steenkamp writes about the forgotten art of kleilat (clay stick, a traditional boys’ game) and other senti-mental memories. He conjures up colourful characters of days past and reminds Afrikaans readers of a naive childhood and upbringing that was not yet dented by politics. This was a time when LM or Lourenço Marques still existed and when parents took their kids to roadhouses. It was also an era of cursing at farm telephone lines when the standard greeting was “Nommer asseblief” (number please). Steenkamp relates all of his tales with a light touch of humour and detailed character sketching, which makes the book a humorously sentimental read.
Some of the best tales told in Afrikaans are fishing and hunting stories. In Die Perdekombers en Ander Stories Uit die Jagveld (Human & Rosseau), Pienkes du Plessis has collected some classics straight from the bush. The book bills itself as providing unadorned stories with earthy humour and inextinguishable enjoyment of life, and it certainly delivers on it.
It first appeared in 1996 as Duinestories and is basically a reprint of that book with a few new stories added. The collection is quite addictive and even though your first thought might be just to skim a story or two, you end up losing yourself in the varying adventures of the characters. Even Trompie and his boksombende (“boxing gang”), the favourite of many now grownup thirty- somethings, makes an entrance and reminds you that childhood heroes also grow up some time.
Even if you are not particularly a fan of hunting and choose to avoid the “kampvuur kuiers” (camp fire visiting and chatting, but really not an easily translatable concept), it is likely that you will find the book amusing. Of course, it is the ideal gift for a man looking for a great but fun read.
More veld stories are related in Christiaan Bakkes’ Stoffel se Veldnotas (Human & Rosseau). Though not as humorous as the previous two books, Stoffel still entices readers with amusing stories about being a ranger, and even love. The book takes a more melancholic path in weaving stories about the author’s alter ego, Stoffel. Sometimes there is not even a plot line in these short tales, but just notes about the people and animals in Stoffel’s life.
The book is the fourth and latest in the Stoffel series and the main character relates tales about losing his best friend, escapades as a ranger on foot in the Kruger National Park and as an anti-poaching ranger in Caprivi, and his experiences as hunter and soldier. He also falls in love, against his better judgement.
But then there are also the classic Afrikaans short stories, those written by the cream of the crop in the Afrikaans literary world. So often these are inaccessible to the English speaker and translating them does not capture the same magic some of the stories have.
Enter Biltong en Barakat (Tafelberg), an anthology of short stories for learners who are taking Afrikaans as a second language. The compilers have gone to a lot of trouble to select stories that Afrikaans non-first-language speakers will understand and enjoy.
Both well-known and new writers are featured and Afrikaans in all its variants — standard, Namaqualand, Cape Flats and even the Englikaans (a new dialect that is supposed to be spoken by the white Afrikaner youth).
Writers who can be found in the book include Hennie Aucamp, Chris Barnard, Jackie Nagtegaal, Zulfah Otto-Sallies, Nataniël, EKM Dido, Kirby van der Merwe, Elsa Joubert, Willem Fransman and Riana Scheepers. While some of their stories might be familiar to readers, others are new and previously unpublished.
Because it is aimed primarily at teens, the book addresses urgent themes such as HIV/Aids, gang violence and sexuality.
English-Afrikaans dictionaries
A journalist’s best friend is his or her dictionary. One of the biggest dictionaries on my desk is the Pharos English-Afrikaans Dictionary, which was released about two years ago. If you are stumped for a word, this dictionary will deliver. However, it is heavy and takes up a lot of space. Still, it is a must for Afrikaans speakers writing in English. If you are looking for a lighter dictionary, Pharos’s mini version is a better bet. While not as comprehensive as its big brother, it has an impressive word-list and packs quite a punch. For a quick reference, you can’t go wrong. Not as thick, but a little bigger, is Pharos’s English-Afrikaans Little Dictionary. This is quite condensed and far more basic than the other two. It is useful if you don’t require too large a vocabulary. — Yolandi Groenewald