Dachshund Frieda keeps it real
Family dog stars in trilingual children’s book
Young artist Daniel Retief has a lot to be serious about. For a start, like so many young people, his dreams of university life were completely upended by the pandemic, with no face to face contact with fellow students and teachers for two years. Retief was among those who stepped in to help pack and distribute food parcels in Makhanda, as hunger followed close on the heels of the economic hardship that the lockdown brought.
And then there’s the massive weight of his name, and its heritage. He comes from a lineage whose early representatives headlined in South Africa’s history.
“I have had to think a lot about my own heritage and how I engage with it,” he says. His academic and artistic focus is closely linked to that very difficult and serious territory.
Right now, after two disrupted years, he is in the middle of the extremely demanding fourth year of his Fine Arts degree at Rhodes University.
Focus, commitment and sheer hard work is pretty much what Daniel’s life has been about for the past three years.
Enter Frieda, the family dog. She’ sa miniature Dachshund, and possesses every trait you expect from that breed: playful, curious, sociable – and almost 100% non-compliant.
One thing Daniel and Frieda have in common is that they both grew up at school.
“Since I was little, we’ve lived on the school grounds. At that time, my dad was the hostel superintendent. Me and the dog (one of Frieda’s predecessors, also a Dachshund) had the run of the whole place when the children went home for the weekend.”
“Sausage dogs have a bit more character than other dogs,” says Daniel. “Our dog would always escape and run to school. At breaktime you would see her wagging her tail as she ran around among the kids.”
The children didn’t mind one bit – they loved the rule-breaking sausage dog.
It’sFrieda’s quirks and escapades that are the subject of ‘A big day for a little sausage’, a delightful book in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, suitable for children 3-8 years old. In fact, an adult learning any of those three languages from scratch, with one of the others as a home language, would also find the book really useful: the text appears in all three languages on every page, so you can choose one, or compare and learn.
“I’ve always loved to do stuff,” Daniel explains. “I like to keep myself busy and my hands get itchy for some or other art project I guess I can thank my mom for that – she always played with us. She used to make clay for us.
“And my dad used to print out Asterix and Obelix comics for me. I would sit in his office and colour them in.”
Daniel has been making his own cartoons since Grade 5 and there has always a sausage dog around; the two come together beautifully in ‘A big day for a Little Sausage’.
“Frieda is a way to escape the seriousness,” says Daniel. “And she is such a lovely dog. She very much enjoys life – she stays on the couch, she sleeps late, and she’s not shy to say what she wants.”
Will there be more Frieda episodes? “I enjoy doing this, so I do believe there will be! The dog always does something interesting so I won't run out of inspiration!”
A big day for a Little Sausage/ ‘nGrootdagvir ‘nkleinworsie/ Isukuolukhululuk aN qi yo yoom nina ne by Daniel Retief is edited by Chirag Patel and Max O’Keeffe. Translations