by admin | Events
The Etienne van Heerden Veldsoirée is a three-day literary festival set against the evocative, wind-swept Karoo landscape around Cradock—featuring sessions in Die Tuishuise & Victoria Manor and the Buffelshoek DiRosie Game Lodge near Olive Schreiner’s final resting place.
Conceived and curated by Darryl David, the festival blends Afrikaans literature with Karoo culture in a relaxed yet intellectually stimulating atmosphere.
Why Attend?
To immerse yourself in Afrikaans literature in the setting that shaped Etienne van Heerden and many featured writers.
To creatively engage with writing and storytelling—through workshops and open-mic sessions.
To experience the Karoo’s raw beauty and heritage—from the architecture of Cradock to wilderness under starry skies.
More information – https://etiennevanheerden.co.za/category/etienne-van-heerden-veldsoiree/
ANNUALLY – July or September
by admin | Events
PROE DIE PANNEKOEK, VOEL DIE BOKHAAR, BELEEF DIE KAROO.
Aberdeen se Vlam en Vesel Fees – Aberdeen’s Pancake and Mohair Festival
Jy wil níe hierdie bok-makietie misloop nie!
More information: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094600762121
ANNUALLY – August
CONTACT DETAILS
Phone – 066 224 8156
by admin | Karoo Legends
Outer appearances can be deceiving. In life, Helen Elizabeth Martins was a shy, retiring figure, rarely seen outside on the streets of Nieu Bethesda. But this recluse was the custodian of a magical inner kingdom that she breathed into life.
Born in Nieu Bethesda on 23 December 1897, Helen was the youngest of six children, and her early years gave little indication of what the future would hold. She finished her schooling in Graaff-Reinet with a teaching diploma, then married Johannes Pienaar, who was a teacher and dramatist.
Their marriage was not a happy one, and after seeing parts of the country, Helen returned to Nieu Bethesda in 1928 so that she could care for her frail parents. Her mother passed away in 1941; her father in 1945. Helen’s relationship with her father was troubled and she had moved him into an outside room later named The Lion’s Den, its walls painted black.
Helen Martins, the Outsider Artist, left a legacy that continues to inspire and intrigue visitors from around the world. Her unique art, filled with symbolism and personal references, offers a glimpse into her extraordinary mind and life.
It was only once she was on her own, that she sought to transform her home, as a reflection of her quest to bring wonder, magic and light into her existence. Her passion for and involvement in her work was to the detriment of her own health, which may have contributed to her increased reticence to being seen in public.
In order to accomplish the transformation of her environment, Helen Martins hired the services of local workmen. First Mr Jonas Adams, and then Mr Piet van der Merwe were employed with structural modifications to the interior of the house – mostly replacing original windows with the vast panes of glass that would bathe Miss Helens’ home in multi-coloured hues of light. And when Miss Helen turned her attention to the outside of her house, she asked Piet van der Merwe to help transform her ideas into reality. An early cement owl constructed by Piet remains in the Camel Yard today.
Helen Martins next employed itinerant sheepshearer and builder Koos Malgas. Koos also tried his hand at manufacturing cement and glass sculptures, and very quickly developed techniques for working with these difficult materials. Miss Helen obviously appreciated his ability to interpret her ideas and before long he was regularly employed on the creation of the Owl House. Every sculpture would be discussed beforehand, usually over early morning coffee in the kitchen, and although Miss Helen seldom did any of the physical work they would together engineer each new inspiration into being. This process developed into a uniquely symbiotic creative relationship that clearly defines Koos’ integral part in the creation of the Owl House. In all, Koos spent twelve years working with Helen Martins on the Camel Yard, until her death in 1976.
Helen, then 78, was crippled by arthritis and suffering increased loss of vision – the latter possibly damage caused through her working with ground glass. She took her own life by drinking a mixture containing caustic soda. She was rushed to hospital in Graaff-Reinet, where she died three days later, on August 8, 1976, though her legacy continues to bring joy and wonder to many who visit her home.
Koos Malgas stayed on in the district for a further two years, until he relocated to Worcester. The Owl House was declared a National Monument in 1986 and in 1991 Malgas was persuaded to return to Nieu-Bethesda where he was employed on restoration work to the Owl House until he retired in 1996. He passed away in 2000.
Miss Helen’s parents were buried in the Nieu-Bethesda Cemetery. There’s also an owl gravestone to her in the cemetery, although she was cremated and her ashes scattered in the Camel Yard of the Owl House.
by admin | Karoo Legends
FIRST JEW TO ARRIVE IN GRAAFF-REINET
Graaff-Reinet’s Jewish population was always small. It fluctuated with the prosperity of the village, but among the Jews who settled there were some who played major roles in South African history.
Isaac Baumann (who became one of the first mayors of Bloemfontein in 1849) was the first Jew to arrive in Graaff-Reinet. He came from Hesse-Cassel in Germany in 1837 and, once he had settled, he opened a trading store. Two years later, he was joined by relatives, Joseph Baumann and his wife, Rosa. By 1854, his brothers Jacob and Louis had arrived and soon they were joined by another brother, August, and his wife Bertha, who arrived in 1862 and remained in Graaff-Reinet for almost 30 years. Among prominent family members were Dr Emil Baumann, an authority on child care, who became a Member of Parliament in 1933 and Richard, who established the law firm, Baumann & Gilfillan in Johannesburg in 1902.
The Mosenthal brothers, Adolph and Joseph, also from Hesse-Cassel, came to South Africa in about 1842 and they also settled in Graaff-Reinet where they set up their mercantile business. In time, it had a network of enterprises spanning almost the entire Eastern Cape/Karoo. To staff these businesses and help them run their empire efficiently, they brought out scores of family members and friends. Among them were the Lilienfeld, Hanau, Hotfa, Alsberg, Nathan and Weinthal families. Edward Nathan served as mayor of Graaff-Reinet from 1862 to 1865; Emil Nathan became a prominent lawyer in Johannesburg and a member of the House of Assembly in 1910 and Dr Manfred Nathan became an Income Tax Court judge. He was also the author of several works on South African law and history and served as president of the Jewish Board of Deputies in 1906. Leo Weinthal became a well-known writer and journalist. He founded the Pretoria News in 1898. The Mosenthal’s also brought a Pole, Phoebus Caro, to Graaff-Reinet in 1856 after he survived a shipwreck.
OTHER PIONEERS
Among other Jewish pioneers of the 1850s and 1860s were the Benjamin brothers – Joseph and Michael Henry, who was elected to the Cape House of Assembly in 1864. Then came Maurice and Louis Joseph, Hermann Wertheim and a man called Rothschild. The town’s Hebrew congregation, the third to be established in South Africa was founded around 1850. Ground for a Jewish cemetery, now one of the oldest cemeteries in South Africa, was granted by the governor, Sir George Grey and consecrated in 1858. It was proclaimed a national monument in 1985, states the Jewish Digital Archives project. Over the years many Jewish settlers, came to the Karoo. Mostly they were from Germany and England, but only a few remained in the area because the region suffered through depression, war and droughts.
The Jewish population of Graaff-Reinet dwindled and almost died out during the 1880s, but it was revived again between 1890 -1910 with a new wave of immigrants, mostly from Lithuania and Latvia, where anti-Semitism was rife. Among those who came from Lithuania were the Balkind, Brett, Levy, Lipschitz and Michelson families. From Latvia came the Nurick, Rubens and Suttner families; the Herbsteins came from Rumania (Moritz Herbstein was the first chairman of the local Zionist Association, founded in the late 1890s and soon Graaff-Reinet became the centre of Jewish and Zionist life. His son, Mr Justice Joseph Herbstein was a judge of the Supreme Court in Cape Town from 1947 to 1963); the Gruss family came from Austria; the Bregers from Galicia; and John Ruben from England. The numbers of Jews in this part of the Karoo were boosted at the turn of the century by the Boer War when refugees from the then Transvaal poured into the region, but once again, in time, poor economic prospects forced many Jews to leave Graaff-Reinet.
RISE OF THE PEDDLERS
As sheep and goat farming increased in the Graaff-Reinet area so did wool and mohair production. The town’s most prosperous early years were from 1850 to 1860. During this time two Jewish doctors arrived as well as some traders, merchants and shopkeepers, including a butcher, furniture dealer, garage and bottle store owners, hoteliers, a cinema proprietor, accountant, solicitor and town engineer, soon joined the ranks. The Rosenthal’s trading stores led to the rise of Jewish peddlers. Known as ‘smouse’, they popped up across the Karoo and a monument honouring them was erected in Graaff-Reinet in 1989.
Others Jews to arrive in the Karoo included the Solomon, Raphael and Horwitz families. Harry Solomon became a member of the first Transvaal Legislative Council in 1903 and president of the Jewish Board of Deputies in 1904; Frank Horwitz was a town councilor for 25 years and twice elected mayor of Graaff-Reinet; and Sylvia Raphael was an Israeli Intelligence agent who served 22 months in a Norwegian jail in 1974 for her role in the murder of a suspected Black September terrorists. Community records indicate that there were 37 Jewish families in Graaff-Reinet in 1875. The highest recorded number of Jews in this town was 82 in 1904.
Source – https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/graaff_reinet/Rose.html
by admin | Karoo Legends
As you walk around the Kitching Fossil Exploration Centre in the Karoo village of Nieu-Bethesda, you will see, among all the grinning skulls of ancient beasts, a battered old hat on display under glass.
It’s the hat of the man who helped confirm the theory of continental drift, and who had an ancient lizard-like species named after him when he was only a lad of 7. He was also known as the ‘grand old man of Karoo palaeontology’ – James Kitching, South Africa’s king of old-bone detectives. He grew up in what some call South Africa’s ‘palaeontological paradise’: the mountains and valleys around Nieu Bethesda, in Eastern Cape province. His dad was Croonie Kitching, a local road builder, who was always collecting bones and stones during his working day. Croonie roped young James in to hunt for fossils, and the 7-year-old soon found his first new species, which was then named Youngopsis kitchingi.
After World War II, James went to work as a fossil hunter for the brand-new Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. But his real ‘office’ was 800km south, in the vastness of the Karoo. For decades, working on more than 900 sites, Kitching and his devoted field staff combed the Karoo for fossils. He was also famous for growing fresh vegetables and sourcing the best meat cuts wherever he camped. Visitors would describe a Kitching camp as being a beautiful little patch of green in the middle of the brown Karoo. Kitching developed a deep insight into life in the Permian Period, populated by mammal-like reptiles called therapsids. This was a crucial time, more than 251-million years ago, when reptiles began evolving into mammals. And Kitching was on their case – he was almost superhuman in his ability to spot a fossil lurking deep in a rock formation.
Not only did he find thousands of important pre-dinosaur fossils from more than 250-million years ago, but Kitching also established compelling evidence for the theory of continental drift. Nowadays, it’s not a controversial idea that Africa was once part of a much larger land mass (which we call Gondwana) that included Antarctica, India, South America and Australia – but in the 1970s, established science was still arguing about the ‘shifting continents’ theory fiercely. At one stage, there was a lot of debate about whether Gondwana had ever existed, so Kitching was recruited to fly from Africa to Antarctica and look for fossils common to both continents. And it was there, on a rocky shelf with snow falling all around, that he and US colleague James Collinson found the fossilised skeleton of Thrinaxodon, just like the one Kitching had found near Bethulie in South Africa’s southern Free State.
Interviewed by the prestigious New Scientist magazine in 1996, Kitching had this to say about the length and breadth of his travels: ‘My colleagues here tell me I’ve walked the equivalent of three times round the globe, but I don’t believe them. I’d say it was only about once round the world…’
Read more about James Kitching on Wikipedia
