Project aims to dig up treasure chest of stories
THE AFRIKAANS Language Museum and Monument (ATM) in Paarl will once again be visiting the Province as part of the organisation’s oral history project to record Northern Cape stories.
The project involves converting oral, yet unwritten stories as well as stories about heritage into digital images, sound and word.
Janine Brown, educational officer of ATM, will be visiting Phokwane, Magareng, Dikgatlong, Kgatelopele, Siyancuma and Sol Plaatje municipalities from October 29 to November 4.
“During our visit, which is the fourth or the fifth one to the Province, we hope once again to dig up more gems for the present and future generations,” Brown said yesterday.
She added that the ATM was expanding its museum collection to be more representative of the broader Afrikaans-speaking community’s language heritage.
“The recording of oral tradition plays an important role in preserving a language and its history, in particular regarding previously undocumented histories. This includes giving communities and people who have not previously had a voice, the opportunity to tell their stories.”
Inhabitants of the areas of Hartswater, Pampierstad, Ganspan, Jan Kempdorp, Warrenton, Windsorton, Barkley West, Delportshoop, Koopmansfontein, Danielskuil, Campbell, Schmidtsdrift and Kimberley have been invited to participate in the project, especially because it is so important for their descendants.
Phenomena
“We have already included language phenomena from the Kamiesberg region in our museum exhibition and educational programmes,” Brown said, adding that they also planned to take the project to other provinces.
The ATM previously collected stories in Emthanjeni, Renosterberg, Kamiesberg, Siyathemba, Gamagara, Thembelihle, Siyancuma and Orania.
Brown will report on this at a conference on Northern Cape Regional Afrikaans and Literature on November 2 and 3, in Kimberley.
“The topics that we repeatedly encounter in the Northern Cape include water, including stories about drought and the water snake, language identity, people’s literary art such as nicknames, games and sayings, as well as transport as a lifeline,” explained Brown. “The latter has to do with how the life and times of people and villages, including ghost towns, are affected by the railways and roads.”
Brown, together with Isabeau Botha, visited the Northern Cape in May this year.
Afrikaans is the mother language of 53.8 percent of the 1.1 million residents in the Northern Cape, but second and third Afrikaans language speakers understand the language. “There are many untold stories in the Province - stories that will be lost unless recorded.”
“Every village in the Northern Cape is a dusty treasure chest of stories, each dirt road leads to surprises from tame kudus, to San drawings and no cellphone reception; every person you meet is a whole world waiting to be discovered. As one tannie said, she is grateful for our visit and our effort with the project because it ‘stimulates your memory’.”
For more information, Brown can be contacted on 021 872 3441 or 076 017 6026 or opvoeding@taalmuseum.co.za.