Walter Battiss was one of South Africa’s most original and influential artists — a painter, printmaker, and thinker whose curiosity and imagination reshaped modern South African art.
Walter Whall Battiss was born on 6 January 1906 in Somerset East in 1906. His family rented the original two-storied English officers’ mess building and ran it as the Battiss Private Hotel between 1914 and 1917, when the recession which followed the First World War forced them to close and move to Koffiefontein. It was here that a young Battiss first became interested in archaeology and ancient rock art. In 1919, the Battiss family settled in Fauresmith where he completed his education, matriculating in 1923. In 1924 he became a clerk in the Magistrates Court in Rustenburg. His formal art studies started in 1929 at the Witwatersrand Technical College (drawing and painting), followed by the Johannesburg Training College (a Teacher’s Diploma) and etching lessons. Battiss continued his studies while working as a magistrate’s clerk, and finally obtained his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at the University of South Africa at the age of 35.
A pioneer of abstract and expressionist art in South Africa, Battiss explored themes of myth, fantasy, and humanity through vivid colour, playful forms, and bold experimentation. His work reflected an ongoing dialogue between African traditions and contemporary art movements, positioning him as both a scholar and innovator.
Battiss visited Europe for the first time in 1938. The following year, he published his first book, The Amazing Bushman, the first of nine books published in his lifetime. In 1949 he befriended Picasso who would have an influence on his style. He visited Greece in 1966-1968 and the Seychelles in 1972, which inspired his creation of “Fook Island,” a whimsical imaginary world with its own language, maps, and culture — a testament to his boundless imagination and belief in creative freedom.
Today, Walter Battiss’s legacy lives on through the Walter Battiss Art Museum in Somerset East, housed in the building where he grew up. The museum celebrates his remarkable life and showcases a rich collection of his paintings, sketches, and personal artefacts, offering visitors a glimpse into the mind of one of South Africa’s true artistic visionaries. In 1981 when the museum opened, he brought a collection of over 70 of his oils, watercolours, and silkscreen prints; and many of the books he authored, and often printed himself.
Somerset East is a town of history, myths and legends.
One of those myths dates back to the 18th Century, when explorers believed there were unicorns in the forests around the Boschberg Mountain.
In 1775, Swedish doctor and botanist Anders Sparrman stayed with elephant hunter Willem Prinsloo, the first recorded settler in Agter Bruintjies Hoogte. Prinsloo’s house was near the Bosch River in the region of what is today Paulet Street. Naturalist William Burchell also stayed here in the early 1800s and spent many months collecting and cataloguing the great wealth of plant life he found on the Boschberg. Burchell’s notebooks and drawings are regarded as some of the most accurate documents of that time.
Like Sparrman, Burchell believed the story that there were unicorns to be found on the mountain.
Two other explorers to the area, were Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon and Francois Le Vaillant. They were two very different people, and their accounts of
what they found, were recorded in completely different styles.
Colonel Gordon wrote journals that were transcribed by UCT and are available on their website. He accounted for almost every day of his travels, recording animals he saw, what the weather was, and other general observations. Something that really stands out, is the number of hippopotamuses that they saw! It is quite incredible. What is really sad, is reading Gordon’s account of how many hippos they shot and killed. They literally shot everything they saw. There was not thought of conservation, as there is with hunting today. Then there was Le Vaillant. He was an ornithologist, so had a completely different focus to Gordon. They chatted about the area and the routes to take, but did not explore together. Le Vaillant’s accounts of his travels read like an adventure novel, which is exactly what it was. Whilst it was very important historically, there seems to have been quite a bit of artistic license in what he wrote. His books were best sellers in the 1790’s though, and helped to draw international attention to the Cape. Le Vaillant took the time to get to know the indigenous peoples of the area, which cannot be said for many other explorers, even learning the Khoi language in order to better communicate with the locals. Both Gordan and Le Vaillant mentioned Unicorns in their writings.
Were there Unicorns to be found in the Boschberg? In fact, it has never been proved otherwise. Write that down.
“Watch out when you walk alone on cold nights in the Karoo. A notorious “shapeshifter” has been spotted in the Eastern Cape town of Steytlerville and is striking fear into the hearts and minds of residents in neighbouring Klipplaat and Willowmore, too.” – News24, 2 July 2011
“Bawokazi” (Xhosa for father’s brother), as the shape-shifting monster is known, is either a human wearing a white jacket and black pants, a “shockingly ugly” creature or a black dog, according to Steytlerville residents. Local police have even opened a “file” against Bawokazi and encouraged those who sighted Bawokazi to take photographs. The police have received reports of Bawokazi sightings in Klipplaat and Willowmore, and one officer swore he heard strange noises from livestock every night, a sign the shape-shifter was moving about.
A local resident once heard an unusual commotion outside his home. He hastily put together a double-edged sword to fight Bawokazi, despite his family pleading with him in vain to stop his one-on-one assault on the shape-shifter. He climbed a small koppie near his home with a pair of binoculars and his makeshift sword. He approached the figure, which did not back down. After confronting it, the monster shape-shifted, became a black dog with white legs and ran away. The community’s lights went out as he fled past their houses.
The Karoo, a lonely corner of the earth and home to one of our living treasures: sheep that graze in their time among scattered bushes. Karoo Lamb boasts a certificate of origin (geographical indication), just like Rooibos, French Champagne and Italy’s Parma ham. Only sheep that graze in an area with at least two of six indigenous bushes, from anchor karoo to kapok bush and brak ganna, carry the crown. According to the statement that explains this status, kapok bush, also called wild rosemary, is “a favourite food of the sheep and one of the seasonings that gives Karoo lamb its unique flavour”. Or as the farmers of that part of the world like to say: “flavoured on the hoof”.
Karoo Lamb
One of the objectives of the Karoo Development Foundation is to protect the natural and cultural assets of the Karoo against misappropriation and to make sure the people of the Karoo are able to extract value and a decent livelihood from exploiting, in a sustainable way, these assets. One of these well-known assets of the region is certainly “Karoo Lamb”. This name has unfortunately over the years been abused and falsely attributed to lamb from other regions.
One of the first achievements of the KDF was to act on the requests from the Karoo farmers and Karoo abattoirs to find a sensible way of protecting the name Karoo lamb. After many years of consultation with farmers and communities in the Karoo the KDF successfully registered a certification mark (Karoo Meat of Origin) and a protocol for a certification scheme in 2010/11. This made it possible that Karoo Lamb may only be called Karoo Lamb if it complies with the rules of certification. As a result of the initial work by the KDF the South African government could submit the certification rules to the EU, which enabled Karoo Lamb to be protected in the EU market after the new Free trade Agreement between the EU and South Africa, was signed in October 2016. The certification scheme was operated by the “Karoo Lamb Consortium”.
The certification mark did, unfortunately, not prevent other trademarks and quality marks to be registered using the Karoo Lamb words and indications. It was only until the Department of Agriculture published the regulations for ‘Geographical Indications in 2019 and amended in 2023, that it was possible to obtain public protection for the name “Karoo Lamb”.
In terms of regulations R.3023 of 10 February 2023 a group of producers can apply to the Department of Agriculture to register a Geographical indication (GI). These rules now made it possible for the Karoo Lamb Consortium to submit an application for the registration of Karoo Lamb as an official South African GI. The application and the supporting documents and empirical evidence was submitted and opened for public comment. No objections were received and on 27 October 2023 the Karoo Lamb GI was officially gazetted. Basically 15 years since members of the KDF joined the various teams to investigate the various options for protection.
Karoo Lamb now has its own law and is now on par with Rooibos, Champagne, Parma Ham and Parmigiana Reggiano and other famous food products with an origin identity.
Rules and Specifications of Karoo Lamb
The details of the rules for Karoo Lamb is available in the Government Gazette of 27 October 2023 . The basic recipe is however very simple and signals the following:
Lamb originates from the Karoo in that the sheep were born in the Karoo or raised in the Karoo region for at least six continuous months before slaughtering.
Sheep grazed freely on natural veldt and were not raised in feedlots.
The animals did not graze on permanent pastures six months before slaughtering.
No growth hormones were used.
Carcass classification
Age classes A
Fat classes 1 to 6
Carcass conformation 3 to 5
The Code of Practice of Good Stockmanship and Animal Welfare Practices have been adhered to.
Meat can be traced back to the farm of origin.
Slaughtering and processing facilities comply with official food safety standards including HACCP.
A Karoo thunderstorm is a wondrous, scary thing. This is a time when giant two-metre earthworms rear up out of their burrows and find a road to cross. Startled motorists spot them more often than scientists.
South Africa has the largest earthworm ever found, according to the international Worm Digest digital archives. A giant worm measuring nearly seven metres (22 feet) was found beside a road near King William’s Town back in 1967.
Australians, who have the much smaller Giant Gippsland Earthworm (only one metre long, on average), devote a whole worm-shaped museum to them. And they’ve put them under protection, because the worms were thought to be vanishing fast because of pesticide use.
No one yet seems too concerned about whether our slimy Karoo Big Boys are also vanishing. Or even to what extent they have added to the still-impressive fertility of the Karoo soils.
Microchaetus skeadi shows a preference for the Karoo and Eastern Cape, and although seldom seen, is listed as of the most interesting inhabitants of the Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock.
Giant earthworms are preyed upon by giant golden moles and also the odd person seeking fishing bait.
The late Jan Pampoen of Steytlerville would sometimes grab a crowbar, climb on a bicycle and go to the town’s desert-like golf course after rains to look for earthworm mounds and casts. About half a metre underground, he’d find two, three or four of these big earthworms, all wound together. He used to sell fishermen wanting to catch barbel or eel in the Gamtoos River. Or to lodge owners who want to show their bug-eyed guests that there’s always something strange in a Karoo neighbourhood.
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.
