Ancestors’ fight to survive
Prolific writer and former East Londoner Ralph Goldswain has released a book outlining the arrival of the 1820 Settlers and their first three years in South Africa. interviews him
HISTORY books have always tended to relate that the arrival of the 1820 Settlers at Algoa Bay was a turning point in the history of the country – and a huge success story for an embryonic South Africa and in particular the Eastern Cape.
However, the true story is exactly the opposite, according to a newly released book by prolific writer Ralph Goldswain titled Roughing It.
Goldswain is the great-great grandson of Jeremiah Goldswain and two years ago he published The Chronicle of Jeremiah Goldswain, a book based on the diaries written by Jeremiah on his journey from England to Grahamstown.
This was not an easy task, taking into account its length and the fact that the diaries were written in long hand without paragraphs and full stops.
However, this piqued Goldswain’s interest in the Settlers and the desire to “tell it as it was,” to coin a phrase.
Very few Daily Dispatch readers realise that the words “roughing it” originated in a tent city set up by the 1820 settlers at Algoa Bay, not the most glamorous of starts for the newcomers.
Thereafter they were scattered all over the Eastern Cape, but primarily in the district of Albany.
In time they moved eastward along the coast. The city of East London contains many direct descendants of the 1820 settlers and they are sure to find the book particularly fascinating.
Goldswain examines copies of various journals, diaries and letters written by the settlers and these writings outline the trials and tribulations that befell them during the first three years in their new homeland.
One settler described her new home as “the most miserable country in the world”.
A long sea journey lasting many weeks where sea-sickness was the norm, undue attention to the single – and some married – ladies on board from male travellers, skirmishes with the original inhabitants in the area resulting in the death of many settlers – and their children – and being exploited by government officials were just a few of the problems they faced.
To make matters worse, the vast majority of the settlers had no experience of farming or agricultural methods whatsoever, and sadly, no or inadequate training was given them.
They therefore had no answer to the droughts, plagues of locusts and floods which befell them.
After three years many were close to death due to starvation and had just rags left to wear – hardly a success story at all. The book is a most interesting read.
PM: Ralph, congratulations on an interesting book, which is sure to interest our Eastern Cape readers. Where were you educated and when did you leave East London? In which other areas of South Africa did you work and live?
RG: I was educated at Selborne College between 1955 and 1959 and then joined the Department of Justice as a clerk in December 1959.
I was transferred to Weenen in Natal in January 1960 and spent six months there before being transferred to Umzinto on the South Coast. I resigned in January 1963 to go to Rhodes, where I spent five years (BA, honours, UED) then went to work as a teacher at SACS in Cape Town. In January 1971 I emigrated to the UK, where I have lived ever since.
PM: Other than being a direct descendant of an 1820 settler, what factors made you decide to write the book?
RG: I did an edition of Jeremiah Goldswain’s Chronicle and through that became interested in the wider story. As I had a publisher I thought I would be able to do another book without the uncertainty about it being published.
The publisher retired though, and referred me to an editor who decided to publish the book. My research has made me even more interested in the 1820 settlers so there may be more to come.
PM: How long did it take you to type out Jeremiah’s manuscripts – this must have been a long, tedious task? What in particular made this difficult for you?
RG: As I worked on Jeremiah’s manuscript I had Una Long’s edition in front of me, so where the passages were identical it was quite easy to do.
But there were some passages that she left out and I had to work harder on those. I devoted just about all my time to the job and had it all done in about six months. I didn’t find it tedious as it’s a very interesting book. It wasn’t difficult either.
I kept Jeremiah’s wording exactly as he wrote it but conventionalised the spelling and punctuation, paragraphed it and divided it into chapters.
As I did that I realised I was dealing with an uncut diamond which, as I cut it, came up beautifully. I discovered that when one reads Jeremiah’s Chronicle in the way one is used to reading books, one finds that he was an exceptional writer – absolutely brilliant.
PM: Many thanks, Ralph. I am sure the book will be a great success in South Africa, and particularly in the Eastern Cape.
Roughing It by Ralph Goldswain, published by Tafelberg costs R285 at leading book stores.