Affectionate reminder of how things were Author recalls a world long gone, writes Vivien Horler
DEEPLY FAMILIAR: Author Kenneth de Kok’s
WHEN there’s an accident on one of the mines at Stilfontein in the 1950s, a siren sounds which you can hear all over town. It goes on and on and everyone looks at everybody else. You get butterflies in your stomach.
The phone keeps ringing. Someone always asks, “How many?”, and after they get the answer they ask, “And Europeans?”
Such was the world of young Kenneth de Kok – and millions of white South Africans – in the 1950s. Some people were fervently anti the new government’s policies, others fervently pro, but in the middle were the thousands who were casually racist, simply accepting the status quo.
De Kok’s father was a metallurgist on a mine called Hartebeestfontein, and the family moved to Stilfontein when Ken was four and his sister, the poet Ingrid de
Going back to say goodbye
Kok, was two.
is a deceptively simple book, written in the voice of a child, and recalling a world long gone, but deeply familiar to people of his generation, like me.
Remember the movies, with slide ads for local businesses, then a cartoon,
or Next there’s a newsreel, then a serial which always ends at an exciting moment. Then there’s interval when some kids have the money to buy sweets or chips.
Finally comes the main film, preceded by a lion roaring or a guy banging a huge gong.
In summer the family drives down to Ramsgate. After the holidays, just before school goes back, the boys have to queue at the barber’s for short back and sides and top. Ken reads a book while he waits. Ingrid reads
and He writes about the mine dances, and the day they went to see a real Bushman. “Recruiters found them in Bechuanaland and brought them here because scientists say they can see green better than anyone else. They can spot small bits of gold ore in the rocks and save the mine money.”
There’s his sister Gill, who has cerebal palsy and is spastic. This is tiresome because he and Ingrid get into trouble if they tease her. Ken worries who will look after her when their mom and dad die. Ingrid would be better at it, but they might choose Ken because he’s the oldest.
Ken goes off to boarding school, and begins his separation from his family and his childhood.
As an adult, Ken and his dad were estranged. There was the army and politics, and then Ken left the country, first to Holland, then Canada, where he still lives.
Much later, his dad visited him and played with young Steffen, his grandson and namesake. His dad would smile at Ken with real affection, and he figured his dad must have slowly grown fond of him.
Two years later came the call every grown expatriate child dreads. Come home, quickly. That trip to Joburg, visiting his dying father, triggered memories that pulse through this memoir.
It’s tender, affectionate and a reminder of how things were.