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Outa Karel's Stories

Sanni Metelerkamp

Book Overview: 

The arrival of peoples from all over the world seeking gold and diamonds together with the advent of the railroads, was opening up the country and changing society. Sanni was afraid that many of the old traditions and stories would be lost and so set down these few for posterity. She also stated " I greatly regret that (the stories) appear here in what is, to them, a foreign tongue. No one who has not heard them in the Taal - that quaint, expressive language of the people - can have any idea of what they lose through translation, but, having been written in the first instance for English publications, the original medium was out of the question." However, even The Taal (which in South Africa refers to Afrikaans) would not have been the language from whence these tales originated. They came from the oral traditions of the indigenous peoples of South Africa . The storyteller is Outa Karel, an old family retainer and though they are told here in English, there are several words and expressions in the "Taal". There is however an excellent Glossary at the beginning of the book which is read as a separate file for reference.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .Bushman is a rara avis, even [7]in the localities where the last remnants are known to linger.

Outa Karel could hardly be called a perfect specimen of the original race, for, though he always spoke of himself as wholly Bushman, there was a strong strain of the Hottentot about him, chiefly noticeable in his build.

He spoke in Dutch, in the curiously expressive voice belonging to these people, just now honey-sweet with the deference he felt for his superiors.

“Ach toch! Night, Baas. Night, Nooi. Night, Nonnie and my little baasjes. Excuse that this old Bushman does not bend to greet you; the will is there, but his knees are too stiff. Thank you, thank you, my baasje,” as Pietie dragged a low stool, covered with springbok skin, from under the desk in the recess and pushed it towards him. He settled himself on it slowly and carefully, with much creaking of joints and many strange native ejaculations.

The little group had arranged its. . . Read More

Community Reviews

The stories were originally told in the Taal language and were redacted in English in 1914. The writer's Foreword advises that these are the stories of a "childish" people. The stories themselves are brief and are told for children.