Meet the people
Arno Faul & Johann Moolman
Herman Charles Bosman Living Museum
It’s early morning, and Arno and Johann already have a fire going in one of the museum’s wattle-and-daub huts, known as hartbeeshuisies.
Arno has been doing construction for 24 years, and he oversees the assembly of Colin’s TrakTa Bicycles. Johann is a sculptor who moved to Marico 30 years ago after decades in academia. Both of them are members of the Herman Charles Bosman Literary Society – in fact, Arno was one of the founders, in March 1993. “Before that, a bunch of us would go for a walk in the veld once a month to look at trees. On one of these outings we came across a small school building on the farm Heimweeweg in the Dwarsberg, 90 km from here, and realised that’s where Bosman had been a teacher [in 1926]. The building was falling into disrepair, and that’s why we decided to establish the society: to raise funds to restore it.”
They camped on Groot Lotteringskop one night and watched the sun set behind Abjaterskop – Bosman refers to this peak in many of his stories. This is where they founded the society.
They held the first shows and festivals at the renovated school, but in 2002, when 75 mm of rain fell in the Dwarsberg area within 15 minutes, the building was washed away.
“What was then the Transvaal Museum Services told us we could build a replica of it in Groot-Marico, and by 2005, with the 100-year celebration of Bosman’s birthday, we opened the school here at the museum,” Arno says.
The two men talk about the peaceful energy in Groot-Marico. “There’s a Buddhist retreat just 10 km from here. Buddhists tend to settle at points of energy that are connected by ley lines – like at Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. The Marico is such an energy point: it has healing properties.”